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.

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, 2022

A. Inventor Thomas Edison (1847 -1931) would take short naps to stimulate his creativity. Now there is scientific evidence that his method works (Source: Lacaux, C., et al., Sleep onset is a creative sweet spot, Science Advances, Dec. 8, 2021, Vol 7, Issue 50, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj5866).

B. January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month.

C. New experiments suggest that just a 10 minute run can benefit brain function. (Source: Damrongthai, C., et al., Benefit of human moderate running boosting mood and executive function coinciding with bilateral prefrontal activation. Sci Rep 11, 22657 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01654-z).

D. The Australia Reptile Park (New South Wales, Australia) recently received a donation of the largest (8 centimeters; 3.1 inches) funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus) they have ever seen. Funnel-web venom is a neurotoxin that blocks sodium channels on neurons and can be fatal.

E. Zero2 Trench helmets made by VICIS are constructed for football players who play specific positions on the field. These position-specific helmets were developed to reduce the risk of a concussion.

February, 2022

A. Actress/comedian Betty White passed away on December 21, 2021, after suffering a stroke.

B. Honeybees prefer to turn right when they enter an open cavity (Source: O'Shea-Wheller, T. A., Honeybees show a context-dependent rightward bias, Biol. Lett.,152018087720180877, http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0877, 2019).

C. The brain area called the "locus ceruleus" gets its name from Latin meaning "blue spot."

D. Brain Awareness Week is next month, March 14-20, 2022.

E. David Hunter Hubel (1926-2013), who won a share of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work about information processing in the visual system, was born on February 27, 1926.

March, 2022

A. The pupils in the eyes of frogs and toads come in seven main shapes: vertical slits, horizontal slits, diamonds, circles, triangles, fans and inverted fans (Source: Cervino Nadia G., et al., A closer look at pupil diversity and evolution in frogs and toads, Proc. R. Soc. B.2882021140220211402).

B. Brain Awareness Week this month, March 14-20, 2022.

C. National Football League athletes have a rate of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's Disease) four times higher than the general male population (Source: Daneshvar, D.H., et al., Incidence of and mortality from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in National Football League athletes, JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(12):e2138801. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.38801).

D. Otto Loewi was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1927, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, and 1935 before winning the award (with Sir Henry Dale) in 1936 for his discoveries about chemical transmission of nerve impulses. (Source: The Nobel Prize, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1936/loewi/facts/).

E. Brain is the name of an area in eastern France, about 100 miles southeast of Paris.

April, 2022

A. Draughtsboard sharks (Cephaloscyllium isabellum) often sleep with their eyes open (Source: Kelly, M.L., et al., Energy conservation characterizes sleep in sharks, Biol. Lett., 182021025920210259, 2022, http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.025).

B. Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1932, worked in a munitions factory seven days a week for three months during World War I; he was 57 years old at the time. (Source: Dolan, M., Boneheads & Brainiacs. Heroes and Scoundrels of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Fresno (CA): Quill Driver Books, 2020).

C. In the 1920s, 1904 Nobel Prize winner Ivan Petrovich Pavlov had three laboratories that employed hundreds of researchers (Source: Dolan, M., Boneheads & Brainiacs. Heroes and Scoundrels of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Fresno (CA): Quill Driver Books, 2020).

D. Giant clams (Tridacna maxima) have several hundred pinhole-type eyes (each about 0.5 mm in diameter) on their exposed mantle (Source: Land, M.F., The spatial resolution of the pinhole eyes of giant clams (Tridacna maxima). Proc Biol Sci., 270:185-188, 2003).

E. There are 7,266 neurosurgeons in the United States (Source: Rahman, S., et al., Disparities in the geographic distribution of neurosurgeons in the United States: A geospatial analysis, World Neurosurgery, 151: e146-e155, 2021).

May, 2022

A. Last month a fox that tested positive for the rabies virus bit several people including a congressman from California. The rabies virus attacks cells of the nervous system; an untreated rabies infection is almost always fatal.

B. Actor Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with aphasia. People with aphasia have difficulty speaking or understanding language. The disorder can be caused by stroke, damage or injury to the brain.

C. The estimated total economic burden of multiple sclerosis in the United States in 2019 was $85.4 billion (direct medical cost of $63.3 billion; indirect and non-medical costs of $22.1 billion). (Source: Bebo, B., et al., Economic Burden of Multiple Sclerosis in the United States: Estimate of Direct and Indirect Costs, Neurology, Apr 2022, 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200150; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200150)

D. As environmental temperatures have warmed over the past 40 years, the body size of many migratory birds has shrunk. However, birds with big brains relative to their body size had smaller reductions in body size compared to birds with smaller brains (Source: Baldwin, J.W., et al., Phenotypic responses to climate change are significantly dampened in big-brained birds, Ecology Letters, 25: 939-947, 2022).

E. Amygdaloid Island is located within Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. The word "amygdala" comes from the Greek word for "almond." I thought Amygdaloid Island would be almond-shaped like the amygdala in the brain, but on the map, the island looks long and narrow. With a bit of further research, I learned that the island gets its name from almond-shaped agates found on the island.

June, 2022

A. Scent dogs can detect coronavirus from skin swabs with an accuracy of 92% (Source: Kantele, A., et al. Scent dogs in detection of COVID-19: triple-blinded randomised trial and operational real-life screening in airport setting, BMJ Global Health, 2022;7:e008024).

B. Drinking tea may protect against cognitive impairment in the elderly (Source: Li, W. et al., Prospective associations of tea consumption with risk of cognitive decline in the elderly: A 1-year follow-up study in China, Front. Nutr. 9:752833. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.752833, 2022).

C. Neurosurgeons show significantly higher scores than the aerospace engineers in Cognitron's Great British Intelligence Test, a semantic problem solving test (Source: Usher, I., et al., "It's not rocket science' and "It's not brain surgery" -- "It's a walk in the park": prospective comparative study, BMJ 2021; 375 :e067883 doi:10.1136/bmj-2021-067883, 2021).

D. Cycads, plants found in tropical and subtropical areas, contain a neurotoxin called β-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA).

E. June is National Aphasia Awareness Month and Vision Research Month.

July, 2022

A. Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel will retire from Columbia University on August 31, 2022 (Source: https://president.columbia.edu/news/eric-kandel).

B. Last month the drug named "AMX0035 (Albriozo)" was approved in Canada to treat patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).

C. The average number of neurons in a fruit fly brain (D. melanogaster) is 199,380; the average number of neurons in a mosquito brain (Ae. Aegypti) is 217,910 (Source: Raji, J.I. and Potter, C.J., The number of neurons in Drosophila and mosquito brains, PLoS One. 2021 May 14;16(5):e0250381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250381).

D. Gabby Beans, who double majored in neuroscience and theatre at Columbia University, was nominated for a 2022 Tony Award for her performance in the play "The Skin of Our Teeth."

E. Norwegian Proverb: "Ask for advice, and then use your brain."

August, 2022

A. Actor Brad Pitt has revealed that he suffers from face blindness.

B. Actress Emilia Clarke suffered from two brain aneurysms in 2011 (source: Clarke, E., A Battle for My Life, The New Yorker, March 21, 2019) and singer Joni Mitchell suffered from a brain aneurysm in 2015.

C. Helene Li (Canada) was the winner of the 2022 International Brain Bee competition for high school students. Anmol Bhatia (USA) came in second and third place went to Ugne Birstonaite (Lithuania).

D. Injuries caused by e-scooters resulted in an estimated 70,644 visits to emergency departments in the US from 2014 to 2019. Injuries to the head accounted for 27.1% of all injuries and 50% of the head injuries likely included a traumatic brain injury (Source: Farley, K.X., et al. Estimated incidence of electric scooter injuries in the US from 2014 to 2019, JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(8):e2014500. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.14500).

E. Researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum and University of Toronto have discovered fossils that contain the brain and nervous system of a 500 million year old marine animal named Stanleycaris (Source: Moysiuik, J. and Caron, J-B., A three-eyed radiodont with fossilized neuroanatomy informs the origin of the arthropod head and segmentation, Current Biology, 32, 1-15, 2022).

September, 2022

A. "Neuron" is the name of a company in Singapore that builds electric scooters and bicycles.

B. Sigmund Freud wrote: "The dream acts as a safety-valve for the over-burdened brain." (Source: The Interpretation of Dreams, 3rd edition, translated by A. A. Brill, 1911).

C. At least 1 in 4,000 people has a disorder of the corpus callosum, the connection between the right and left cerebral hemispheres (Source: National Institutes of Health)

D. "Gabapentin" is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs; this medicine is used to treat seizures, pain and restless legs syndrome.

E. Angel's trumpet (genus: Brugmansia) is a flowering plant in the nightshade family. All parts of the plant, especially the seeds and leaves are extremely dangerous because of their neurotoxic effects.

October, 2022

A. According to more than 3,000 U.S. adults polled in the Casper/Gallup "The State of Sleep in America. 2022 Report", one in three people says their sleep is "fair" or "poor."

B. Armadillos and sloths do not have any cone receptors in their eyes; therefore, they are completely colorblind, have poor eyesight in dim light and are completely blind in bright light (Source: Emerling, C.A. and Springer, M.S., Genomic evidence for rod monochromacy in sloths and armadillos suggests early subterranean history for Xenarthra, Proc. Biol. Sci., Feb 7;282(1800):20142192, 2015).

C. Music played at low volume, compared to high volume, leads to more sales of healthy foods in cafes and supermarkets (Source: Biswas, D. et al., Sounds like a healthy retail atmospheric strategy: Effects of ambient music and background noise on food sales, J. Acad. Mark. Sci., 47:37-55, 2019).

D. Last month, a resolution was introduced in the U.S. Congress to designate September 15, 2022, as "National Brain Health Day."

E. The "Neuro Fuzzy" is the name of a rice cooker and warmer. I have no idea what "advanced Neuro Fuzzy(R) logic technology" is or how well the product works.

November, 2022

A. Mantis shrimp can see visible, ultraviolet and polarized light (Source: McDonald, M.S., et al., Ultraviolet vision in larval Neogonodactylus oerstedii, J. Exp. Biol. 225 (3): jeb243256, 2022).

B. Neuro(R) tools are professional hairstyling products produced by Paul Mitchell. Apparently these tools will provide intelligent hair styling -- whatever that is!

C. Sharks can navigate by comparing the time at which smells arrive at each of their nares (Source: Gardiner, J.M. and Atema, J., The function of bilateral odor arrival time differences in olfactory orientation of sharks, Current Biology, 20:1187-1191, 2010).

D. The New Zealand Parliament has banned the following phrase from its debates because it considers the words to be unbecoming and unparliamentary: "His brains could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides." (Source: https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/history-and-buildings/special-topics/unparliamentary-language/)

E. The Nobel Prize medal that was awarded to neuroscientist Alan Lloyd Hodgkin in 1963 was sold at auction in 2015 for $795,614 (Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physiology-pioneer-s-nobel-prize-sells-for-nearly-800-000/).

December, 2022

A. Dendrite Street is the name of a small road in Las Vegas (NV).

B. 1,014 people received doctoral degrees in neurobiology and neuroscience in 2021 (Source: National Science Foundation: https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23300/data-tables).

C. The stapedius muscle, located in the middle ear, is the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body (Source: Prasad, K.C., Microsurgical anatomy of stapedius muscle: Anatomy revisited, redefined with potential impact in surgeries, Indian J. Otolaryngol. Head Neck Surg., 71:14-18, 2019).

D. Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack announced last month that she has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).

E. According to a Research!America/Dana Foundation survey of U.S. adults, 82% of respondents said they know someone or have themselves experienced at least one brain disorder or mental health condition (Source: Research!America, Survey Finds Americans Curious and Optimistic About Brain Health Research, November 15, 2022; https://tinyurl.com/3veapcf).

More trivia from other years:

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2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998

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