In cooperation with the American Museum of Natural History a new and exciting exhibition called “Brain – The Inside Story”, opened its doors at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre on 15 May.
If you are curious about how the brain works, what is actually happening inside your head when you sense an experience or when you feel a strong emotion like love or anger, come treat yourself with some low-calorie but extremely tasteful sensations which will drive you to probe deeper into the less than 1.5 kilograms of the familiar universe that you always carry with you. Or will it carry you away?
The exhibition is open every day from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. and will be held in Ljubljana until 24 August when it travels back to the United States.
When brought from Granada and Milan to Ljubljana on seven large trucks, the organizers worked long hours for 14 days before everything was set for the opening.
On the opening day we were talking to the curator of the exhibition, Rob DeSalle, who gave us an interesting comment about the way the exhibition is built: ”We wanted to show that this is your brain, and how you interact with the exhibition is the way your brains work.”
The exhibition is rich with interactive and educational models like this one here called homunculus, which shows you, proportionally, how sensitive a certain part of your body is to touch and how big that area is in your brain. Centers for lips, fingers and palms are especially big.
In a demonstration video of a dancer in her training session you can see which parts of your brain are active in your everyday tasks.
Now can you can see clearly? When different parts of your brain communicate with each other, you get a clear picture of what you see.
What are your facial expressions when you are sad? How you communicate with the world informs people around you about how you feel and how to communicate with you.
The Brain puzzle.
Our emotions are communicated by neurotransmitters which travel between cells. Different chemical substances can enhance or block the functioning of neurotransmitters. Coffee is the mildest of drugs most of us could hardly live without.
In the midsection of the exhibition you are literally already deep inside your brain. Here you’ll learn about more complex human processes like language, memory and decision making.
Hippocampus: the part of the brain responsible for creating long term memory and mental maps, grows with its use. Imagine the size of it in a London taxi driver!
The exhibition then takes you on a journey where you learn how your brain develops from infancy to old age. In old age your brain slows down, but the more you use it the sharper it remains.
Develop your brain by drawing a star while looking in a mirror. Will your brain learn and grow the second time you try? Test yourself and find out.
The last section looks at the future. You can learn how the brain communicates with the computer, how blind people can see using bionic eyes, and what other “futuristic” research is already on the way.
Take an evolutionary ride and grow your brain some more. This exhibition is more than appropriate for all generations!
