We did it!
Our scrappy, informed, practiced outreach volunteers from the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Association at Portland State University and graduate programs at Oregon and Health and Science University put together yet another fantastic eight hour celebration of brain awareness!!
This is the largest student-run, accessible, FREE, all ages, public celebration of music, art, brain research and interdisciplinary neuroscience in the Pacific Northwest!
And 2026 is our 9th year!
LEARN MORE: NOGGINFEST
The free OHSU/OMSI Brain Fair sadly died in 2024, and the nonprofit Allen Institute for Brain Science now offers a Seattle, Washington-based BrainFest requiring expensive admission to the Pacific Science Center (adult tickets go for $30.45, and kids (from 3 years of age!) are charged $22.70!)!
We LOVE science outreach, but $106+ for a family of four is clearly not accessible for all.
LEARN MORE: Cost of Admissions and Museum Visitation
LEARN MORE: Bigger is not better and free admission costs institutions less, museum report finds
LEARN MORE: Entrance Fees as a Subjective Barrier to Visiting Museums
Learning, community and fun!
We’re once again indebted to the fabulous Leaven Community Center in Northeast Portland, which welcomed back our enthusiastic volunteers, along with art materials, sound systems, pipe cleaner brain cells, research posters, and plenty of additional NOGGINS!
Kadi Rae Smith, President of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Association, went through SO MANY marker pens to create a compelling, eye-catching poster and t-shirt design!
We see this annual celebration as a tremendous THANK YOU to our community.
Over the last FOURTEEN years, Northwest Noggin has visited an incredible array of public schools, youth correctional facilities, Congressional caucus meetings, museums, houseless youth nonprofits, neuroscience and art conferences and more – entirely as volunteers curious to connect and explore what we’re learning about brains!
LEARN MORE: Noggin Bloggin
LEARN MORE: Where are we going next?
We also love the idea that more people might be inspired by our efforts, and leave their own labs and classrooms to go places, listen to others, create art, share stories and make the wonder of discovery in neuroscience more inclusive, tangible and depolarizing for all.
You certainly do not need to wait for institutional permission or a grant from some comfortable, well-funded organization trying to brand enthusiasm for cerebral awareness.
Are YOU excited about the brain? Are you a graduate student pursuing research? Are you an undergraduate thrilled by the billions of glia and neurons collaborating in your head? Are you a painter skilled in perception? Are you an educator, researcher, artist, student, community member and/or storyteller?
THEN GO PLACES, SHARE STORIES, MAKE ART AND LEARN TOGETHER.
LEARN MORE: FREE Noggin STEAM (STEM + Arts) Projects
1-5pm: BOOTHS AND POSTER SESSION
So many exciting things to do at NogginFest!
In addition to brain wrangling, Fest-goers witnessed aluminum cans crushed by changes in air pressure, crafted their own brain cells from pipe cleaners, discovered the electrical nature of information flow in nerves and muscles by controlling (and shocking!) their friends (with the Human to Human Interface from Backyard Brains), made their own gel print glia, tracked the progress of an action potential, drew and painted beautiful brain cells, saw their eardrums up close with scientists from the Oregon Hearing Research Center, and explored the wonder of invertebrate nervous systems with Dreams of a Scientist!
“This year the Oregon Hearing Research Center (OHSU) and the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (Portland VA) had a combined table at Noggin Fest that was organized and led by Senior Research Assistant, Conner Corbett and Doctor of Audiology Extern, Katie Esser. The table had lots of information on active clinical studies that cover tinnitus, auditory processing, and traumatic brain injury. The main attraction to our table was the video otoscope. Katie was able to look into people’s ears and project what she was seeing onto an iPad that was set up in front of them. For a lot of people, this was their first time seeing an ear drum, let alone their own ear drum. We also had an iPad demo set up that had auditory processing tasks and games that are currently being used in some of our research studies. To top it all off, our very own Dr. Melissa Papesh gave a phenomenal talk that covered hearing and the brain. One common complaint that we hear from our concussion patients is that they struggle to process speech, especially when there’s a lot of background noise. Despite having normal hearing thresholds this issue seems to persist after a concussion. Dr. Papesh addressed this by showing how we can record brain activity using different well-established electroencephalography (EEG) paradigms to track brain activity in response to specific auditory stimuli. Some of the research has shown that brain activity is in fact different in those with a concussion history.” -Conner Corbett, Senior Research Assistant, Behavioral Neuroscience, OHSU
They also enjoyed research posters, and learned about traumatic brain injury and neurogenesis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, what eye-tracking tells us about AI versus human generated art, auditory impacts of mild TBI, houseless youth services, censored SfN outreach in Gaza and more, thanks to presenters including Olivia Sheng from West Linn High School, Conner Corbett, Kirby Kahl, Anna Bui, Annabel Jensen, Kanani Miyamoto, Bill Griesar, Jeff Leake,…
LEARN MORE: Brain Hacking is Electric!
Huge thanks to Anneliese Bishop-Perdue from Dreams of a Scientist, Katie Esser, Melissa Mikkelson and Conner Corbett from the Oregon Hearing Research Center, Melora Golden, Zack Dag and Alex Paxton from Engineers without Borders, Radhika Reddy, Sage Kozak, Alma Risa Otto and Sarah Tinio from Cellular Neuroscience, Daisy Graham, Laurel Schulbach, Polina Radchenko, Kimberly Lopez, and incredible INA volunteers Becky Callos, Michael Koach, Natalie McWilliams, Xavier Brown, Eric Zepeda-Daniel, Cece Austin, Gabe Guarin, Ivy Mayeux, Ambika Vyas, Tony Flores, Bee Conn and Autumn Bradford!
5-7pm: RESEARCH SPEAKERS
LEARN MORE: Randall Olson
LEARN MORE: Hannah Cunningham
LEARN MORE: Dr. Melissa Papesh
LEARN MORE: Dr. Larry Sherman
7-9pm: LIVE MUSIC
THANK YOU WOLF, PORCELAIN GIRLS, DON GERO AND KADI RAE AND THE NOCHMAL IMPROV ENSEMBLE!
A gigantic (magnocellular :)) shoutout to Kadi Rae Smith and Conner Corbett and all the fantastic volunteers from the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Association for organizing an incredible show!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: OUR TENTH NOGGINFEST IS SET FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2027!