Neuroscience For Kids

Treasure Trove of Brain Trivia

A collection of trivia about the brain and nervous system from the archives of the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter. For more trivia about the brain, see brain facts and figures.

2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998

January, 2026

A. Goats have horizontal pupils in their eyes.

B. Some birds including great frigatebirds (Fregata minor) and common swifts (Apus apus) can sleep while they fly (Source: Rattenborg, N.C., Sleeping on the wing, Interface Focus. 2017 Feb 6;7(1):20160082. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2016.0082).

C. A German shepherd named "Buddy" is credited with being the first seeing-eye dog in the United States. Buddy arrived in New York from Switzerland in 1928.

D. Last month, Christie's auctioned a rare first edition of James Parkinson's "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" (1817). Estimated cost: GBP 50,000 to GBP 70,000 (about $66,000 to $92,000).

E. The use of "Zzz" (the sound of snoring) to represent sleep was popularize in a 1903 Katzenjammer Kids comic strip.

February, 2026

A. Pigeons (Columba livia) can detect the Earth's magnetic field and likely use this ability to navigate their environment (Source: Nordmann, G.C. et al., A global screen for magnetically induced neuronal activity in the pigeon brain, Science 0, eaea6425DOI: 10.1126/science.aea6425).

B. An artificial tongue able to rate the spiciness of food has been invented (Source: Deng, W. et al., A soft and flexible artificial tongue for pungency perception, ACS Sensors, 10:8331-8341, 2025).

C. Horses can tell the difference between fear and joy based on the smell of human sweat (Source: Jardat, P. et al., Human emotional odours influence horses' behaviour and physiology, 2026, PLoS One 21(1): e0337948. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0337948).

D. The brains of astronauts move and change shape in outer space (Wang, T. et al., Brain displacement and nonlinear deformation following human spaceflight, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (3) e2505682122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505682122, 2026).

E. The brain of the common shrew (Sorex araneus) shrinks up to 30% in size from the summer to the winter (Source: Lazaro, J. et al., Geographic patterns in seasonal changes of body mass, skull, and brain size of common shrews, Ecol. Evol., 11:2431-2448, 2021).

March, 2026

A. Cows (well, at least one pet cow named Veronika) can use a tool to self-scratch (Source: Osuna-Mascaro, A.J. et al., Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow, Current Biology, 36:R44-R45, 2026).

B. Each human eye is moved by six muscles: four rectus muscles (superior, inferior, medial, lateral) and the two oblique muscles (superior, inferior).

C. The term "brainwashing" emerged during the Korean War. The word comes from the Chinese phrase "xi nao" that means "to wash the brain" (Source: Steinmetz, S., There's a word for it: the explosion of the American language since 1990, 1st ed., 2010, New York: Harmony Books, 246 p.)

D. The largest biomedical library in the world, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, was founded in 1836 (Source: DeBakey, M.E., The National Library of Medicine. Evolution of a premier information center, JAMA, 266:1252-8, 1991).

E. Head CAT scans are performed about 16 million times in emergency departments in the United States (Source: Dylla, L., et al., Trends in Head CT Use in US Emergency Department Patients From 2007 to 2022: A Nationwide Analysis, Neurology, 105: e214346, 2025).

April, 2026

A. Last month David Ginty and Patrik Ernfors received "The Brain Prize" and will share EUR 1.3 million ($1.5 million) for their research about the neural mechanisms of pain and touch. (Source: https://brainprize.org/).

B. Author Lisa Genova, who wrote the book "Still Alice," has a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

C. Cross-country skier Sydney Peterson is neuroscience graduate student at the University of Utah who competed as part of the 2026 US Winter Paralympics team.

D. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has recently discovered the "Exposed Cranium" nebula that looks like a brain in a transparent skull (Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-examines-cranium-nebula/).

E. The University of Pavia (Italy) has a student dormitory named for neuroscientist Camillo Golgi (born 1843; died 1926). Golgi graduated from medical school at the University of Pavia in 1865. (Source: https://golgi.edisu.pv.it/storia).

May, 2026

A. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, Better Sleep Month, ALS Awareness Month, Brain Cancer Awareness Month and National Stroke Awareness Month.

B. "BrainFood" is the name of a catering company in Memphis, TN.

C. Like a finger, a tongue has unique prints that could be used as a way to identify someone. Even identical twins have different tongue prints (Source: Radhika, T., et al., Tongue prints: A novel biometric and potential forensic tool, J. Forensic Dent. Sci., 8:117-119, 2016).

D. Crocodiles appear to sleep with one hemisphere of their brain at a time. This is similar to how some birds and dolphins sleep (Source: Kelly, M.L., et al., Unihemispheric sleep in crocodilians? J. Exp. Biol., 218:3175-3178, 2015).

E. The first annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience was held in 1971 in Washington, D.C.

June, 2026

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).

July, 2026

A. The word "brain" appears only once in the 1818 book "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley.

B. Last month, Christine Holt, Kelsey Martin, Erin Schuman and Oswald Steward received the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience "for the discovery of local protein translation in neurons and establishing its importance for brain development and plasticity." These neuroscientists will share the $1,000,000 award (Source: https://tinyurl.com/8bez8pr7).

C. Claude Lemieux (1965-2026), a National Hockey League player for 21 years, will have his brain donated for chronic traumatic encephalopathy brain research.

D. Dogs are able to use their sense of smell to detect powdery mildew on grape leaves; this ability may help grape growers protect their vineyards (Source: Aviles-Rosa, E.O., et al., Dogs can detect powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) in grapevine (Vitis vinifera) leaves, J. Veterinary Behavior, 77:19-29, 2025).

E. Octopuses can learn to use a mirror to find hidden food (Source: Kieseler, M. et al., Octopus bimaculoides can learn to utilize a mirror to localize a reward outside the line of sight. Current Biology, 2026; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.012).

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