LOCAL STUDENTS ATTEND BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK SESSIONS AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE

WASHINGTON - Nearly 1,000 elementary and middle school students from the area visited the National Museum of Health and Medicine as part of Brain Awareness Week 2001. The students heard lectures and asked questions, played games and solved puzzles, and had the chance to hold a human brain in hands-on sessions led by the country's top brain researchers and educators.

Experts came from the area's leading brain research organizations, including Georgetown University, Howard University, and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

The students heard leaders in the field of brain research discuss the body's most complex organ. During the sessions, the speakers stressed the wonders of the brain, the effect of drugs and disease on the brain, current research efforts, why we study the brain, and how the students can keep their brains healthy. "The people who do science love it because it's fun and a challenge," said Dr. Enoch Gordis, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "It helps us understand the world, he told students during the Wednesday morning session titled "Understanding Alcohol: What Science Tells Us."

Other speakers throughout the week included Dr. Benjamin R. Walker, Visiting assistant professor, psychology department, Georgetown University; Dr. Chandan Vaidya, assistant professor, psychology department, Georgetown University; Dr. Martha I. Davila-Garcia, assistant professor at Howard University College of Medicine; Dr. Steven E. Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health; Dr. Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse; Dr. Audrey Penn, deputy director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and Jacob Bloomberg, Ph.D. NASA Johnson Space Center, Human Life Scientist.

"The brain is like the Alaska of the body. It still remains to be explored," said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, a well-known psychiatric researcher who discussed diseases of the brain. "The brain is by far the most exciting thing in the body."

Following the overview, students explored demonstration stations set up by the participating organizations. Presentations included discussions of how the brain perceives images, how that changes in outer space, and games about the brain. Students also used special goggles to alter their vision, and observe how their brains could adjust to the change in perception. The students were also issued protective gloves to hold and compare the real brains of humans, horses, and sheep.

The program, launched by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in 1995, is now co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and has grown to include more than 1,000 organizations in 41 countries. The National Museum of Health and Medicine, founded as the Army Medical Museum in 1862 to study and improve medical conditions during the American Civil War, is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Open daily except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the museum is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Ave. and Elder Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Public telephone number is 202-782-2200 and the web site is www.natmedmuse.afip.org. Admission and parking are free.