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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
In this issue:
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Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in May including:
A. May Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news3005.html
B. New Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
C. Visit or follow my Instagram site with neuroscience facts and trivia:
https://www.instagram.com/ericchudler/
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The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for June is the "NHS inform: Brain, nerves and spinal cord" at:
https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/brain-nerves-and-spinal-cord
This month's selection is the nervous system subsection of a much larger web site created by Scotland's national health information service. The NHS inform site is easy to navigate and provides information about the symptoms and treatments of many neurological illnesses and diseases. There are no images and some of the information applies to people who live in Scotland only, but the basic text is simple to understand and covers more than 30 topics.
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Author Paul Meisel has written several award-winning books for young readers. In his new book "Hooray For My Brain!," Meisel has entered the science education world by exploring the nervous system. In general, the book does a good job introducing the brain and its structures and functions. Readers learn about the cerebrum, the lobes of the brain, the cerebellum, hypothalamus, brain stem and spinal cord. A discussion about how chemical and electrical signals are used to send messages through neurons is also included. Many colorful illustrations drawn by Meisel fill the pages. Unfortunately, the book contains several factual errors that reduce my enthusiasm for the book. For example, a drawing shows the brain connected to the spinal cord. However, the picture does not show the spinal cord, but rather the bones of the vertebral column. Also, the brain and spinal are said to contain about 120 billion neurons. This number of neurons is much larger than any estimate I have ever seen. The description of the brain is also puzzling to me: the brain is said to look a little like a gray sponge. I don't think a brain looks like a gray sponge at all because 1) the brain is not gray; it is a pink/white color and 2) the brain does not have holes like a sponge; it has folds on the outside. Finally, Meisel assigns "moving your body" to the wrong lobe of the brain. The book says that the parietal lobe is responsible for moving your body. This is incorrect: the motor cortex is located in the frontal lobe, not the parietal lobe. These errors make the book difficult to recommend.
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There are still a few weeks until the deadline for The Society for Neuroscience annual Brain Awareness Video Contest. You could win a cash prize for your entry. The contest is accepting entries until June 25. For rules and entry information, see:
https://www.brainfacts.org/for-educators/programs-and-events/brain-awareness-video-contest
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A. "These ants navigate with a compass tuned to the moon" (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, June, 2026).
B. "Master your mind" is the cover story in the May 23-29, 2026 issue of NEW SCIENTIST magazine.
C. "Lack of touch is harming our health" (BBC SCIENCE FOCUS, June, 2026).
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A. Muskoxen and bighorn sheep engage in headbutting to establish dominance. Although thicker skulls offer some protection, these animals still show signs of traumatic brain injury (Source: Ackermans, N.L., et al., Evidence of traumatic brain injury in headbutting bovids, Acta Neuropathol., 144:5-26, 2022).
B. Jobs for medical scientists are expected to grow 9 percent from 2024 to 2034 (Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://tinyurl.com/2b6sdv6z).
C. De Cerebri Morbis, published by Jason Pratensis in 1549, is often credited as being the first neurology textbook (Source: Pestronk, A., The first neurology book. De Cerebri Morbis.(1549) by Jason Pratensis, Arch. Neurol., 45:341-343, 1988).
D. The Brain Collection at the University of Southern Denmark contains 9,479 brains (Source: https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/bridge/the-brain-collection).
E. Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day may lower the risk of dementia (Source: Zhang, Y., et al., Coffee and tea intake, dementia risk, and cognitive function, JAMA, 335(11):961, 2026, DOI: 10.1001/jama.2025.27259).
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Summer break starts this month for many people. If your email address will change and you would still like to receive this newsletter, please let me know your new email address (chudler@uw.edu).
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to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter, send e-mail to Dr. Eric H.
Chudler at: chudler@u.washington.edu
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Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.
Eric
Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D.