NOGGINFEST 2023 😎
Brain Awareness! Music! Noggins! Art!
“…the great events of the world take place in the brain…”
— Oscar Wilde
This was the SIXTH annual NogginFest – the largest student-run, accessible, all ages, public celebration of music, art, brain research, noggins and interdisciplinary neuroscience in the Pacific Northwest!
Noggin’s volunteer brain awareness extravaganzas are always open to all – and FREE!
LEARN MORE: NOGGINFEST
LEARN MORE: What is Northwest Noggin?
LEARN MORE: Brain awareness for ALL
This year we returned to Portland’s incomparable Honey Latte Cafe, a fantastically spacious venue for our unique mix of art making, local bands, research speakers and BRAINS!
Thank you Alex, Jacob and Angelyna for the warm welcome and excellent sound design!
We are also indebted to Oregon’s OnPoint Community Foundation, which stepped in to champion brain awareness after the well-resourced Dana Foundation declined to support our efforts this year (apparently you must offer a stressful, high stakes “brain bee” where young people get graded by “expert” neuroscientists to maintain their interest 🥴).
Thanks also to the outreach-backing neuroscientists at the Portland Alcohol Research Center (PARC) at Oregon Health & Science University, who piled our tables high with welcoming pipe cleaners, and printed Jeff Leake’s compelling Abby Normal specimen design on shirts!
“Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.”
— Ai Weiwei
LEARN MORE: Pipe Cleaner Brain Cells!
And thanks to Astoria’s legendary Fort George for providing beverages!
NogginFest kicked off with art making and a chance to examine brains, and discuss any neuroscience questions with our knowledgeable and dynamic outreach volunteers!
Participants included Bella Showerman, Andy Ng and Kadi Rae Smith, all interdisciplinary neuroscience minors from Portland State University, Natalie Robison, also an undergraduate at PSU, Ben Bolen, the President of the PSU Neuroscience Club who served as festival emcee, and Noah Milman, a graduate student in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience at OHSU.
MUSIC: Lo Glo!
Ben first introduced Lo Glo, a drum and vocal duo from Portland, formed in 2018 featuring Kadi Rae Smith (extraordinary trilling vocals & microkit) and Marge Belcastro (drums and tonal textures). Lo Glo combined improvisation and experimentation to create a rhythm-forward pop experience.
LEARN MORE: Lo Glo
LEARN MORE: Kindra Crick
RESEARCH: Noah Milman, OHSU
“Loss of sleep when its needed most – Consequences of persistent developmental sleep disruption: Lessons from prairie voles”
Noah Milman was up next. Noah is a second year graduate student in the Department of Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience at OHSU. He is interested in the fundamental role that sleep plays across the lifespan and is focusing his current research on prairie voles in the lab of Dr. Miranda Lim.
From Noah: Early-life sleep appears to play a foundational role in the development of the “mature” brain.
LEARN MORE: Kit S. Carlton
One important system in our brains is the sensorimotor system, which is uniquely activated during Rapid-Eye-Movement (or REM) sleep. The somatosensory cortex is a region involved in both explicit and subtle displays of affiliation (any behavior that brings us closer to those around us).
Social interactions depend on both forms of affiliation in our everyday life.
LEARN MORE: The Role of the Sensorimotor System in Cognitive Functions
LEARN MORE: Developing Sensorimotor Systems in Our Sleep
LEARN MORE: Neurochemical Mediation of Affiliation and Aggression Associated with Pair Bonding
LEARN MORE: The Biology of REM Sleep
LEARN MORE: A Dive Into Habits
Loss of REM sleep is common in children with Autism-Spectrum Disorder (ASD). To better understand the role of sleep during development on social behavior, the Sleep and Applied Research Program (SHARP) at OHSU has turned to the model system of the prairie vole.
LEARN MORE: Neuroscientist’s Guide to the Vole
LEARN MORE: Autism Spectrum Disorder according to the CDC
LEARN MORE: Autism and Sleep
My project is to understand the role of sleep in adolescent social behavior and how an enriched environment full of toys and increased bedding may impact the amount of sleep voles get during development. Sleep and enrichment are critical, both for healthy vole and human brains.
For more on current prairie vole research check out a recent Northwest Noggin post written by undergraduate research assistant Jasmine Loeung, an interdisciplinary neuroscience minor at PSU.
LEARN MORE: A Vignette of Voles
For more information on modeling early life sleep disruption and its consequences in rodent species, please read a recent review by Noah!
Music: Cape Meares!
Cape Meares is an American instrumental band formed in Portland, Oregon in 2018. The band incorporates jazz fusion, krautrock, dub, minimal music, and psychedelia into their music. Members include Nik Viola (bass), Matt Radich (guitar), and Asa Gervich (drums).
LEARN MORE: Cape Meares
Asa is a teacher at Sunnyside Elementary School, and we visited his 4th grade students last winter to discuss the brain changes involved in learning a new skill. He WOWED the entire school with a demonstration of his drumming, which he started practicing in 4th grade!
LEARN MORE: Learning through mistakes!
LEARN MORE: Sienna Art Studios
RESEARCH: Austin Schubert, OHSU
“Brains in a Dish: What Cortical Organoids can Teach us about Brain Development, Disease, and Evolution”
Austin Schubert is a first year PhD student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU. He is interested in the genetic and molecular basis of how the cerebral cortex develops in health, disease, and evolution, and led a fascinating discussion about research on cortical organoids, or “brains in a dish!”
What are cortical organoids? What do these “mini-brains” reveal about our own brains?
Austin answers these questions and MORE in a separate post!
Are “mini-brains” BRAINS?
DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW: Are “mini-brains” BRAINS?
LEARN MORE: Jeff Leake
RESEARCH: Roxanne Bahn-Bales & Blake Lee, Oregon State University
“Barn biology: What sheep and mice neurons are teaching us about our own reproductive axis”
Roxanne Bahn-Bales and Blake Lee are both undergraduate students at Oregon State University studying Bioengineering and Biology, respectively. Roxanne and Blake are researching how neurons that express a protein called kisspeptin react to different stimuli in the hypothalamus.
Roxanne and Blake work under professor Patrick Chappell in the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine.
LEARN MORE: Patrick E. Chappell’s research
Roxanne and Blake delved into the regulation of sexual development and reproduction, the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, the involvement of kisspeptin, the complexities of estrogen, and the challenges of choosing the best animal model for studying these complex interactions! Are sheep best? Rodents? Roxanne, Blake – and the audience! – had some ideas.
LEARN MORE: Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis
LEARN MORE: Estradiol and the Developing Brain
LEARN MORE: Maturation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis in the male lamb: a review
LEARN MORE: Role of Kisspeptin on HPG Pathology and Its Effect on Reproduction
LEARN MORE: The role of kisspeptin neurons in reproduction and metabolism
EXPLORE THEIR SLIDES
MUSIC: Wolf
Wolf is a Portland jazz artist who has been singing since the age of 13. Wolf has performed at many venues including Saturday markets, parties, jazz clubs and more. Although their roots lie in jazz and blues, Wolf sings a variety of different music including pop, techno and folk. In their daily life they are a full time student at Portland State University, studying criminology and criminal justice. Wolf’s main goal is to become a therapist for youths in correctional facilities, specializing in attachment injuries and disorder. We were honored to welcome Wolf to NogginFest in 2022 as well!
LEARN MORE: Kadi Rae Smith
Thanks again to everyone – the musicians, students, researchers, artists, volunteers, sponsors and attendees who ARE NOGGINFEST, and make brain awareness accessible and exciting for all!