NW Noggin @ the Newmark: Nicholas Bazan

Our practiced NW Noggin outreach participants set up a colorful neuron-strewn table at Portland’s Newmark Theater on Tuesday night, and spoke with audience members at the second OHSU Brain Institute “Brain Awareness” lecture, delivered by Nicolas Bazan… Dr. Bazan, Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Louisiana State University, delivered a passionate and compelling…

Continue reading

NW Noggin at Oregon SfN

Several undergraduate volunteers from WSU Vancouver and PSU joined us at the Oregon chapter meeting for the Society for Neuroscience on March 27th and 28th in Troutdale… We presented our colorful poster on the many outreach visits we’ve made during the past academic year, on both sides of the Columbia River… Students,…

Continue reading

Neurons on Day Two @ Skyview

We gathered again on a foggy Thursday at Skyview High… Last week we’d introduced our students to large scale nervous system components, including the brainstem, cerebellum and various cortical lobes, using some real human brains as examples. But this week we went small, providing an overview of the neuron.  Each…

Continue reading

See where we’ve been @ Oregon SfN!

We’ll be attending the Oregon chapter meeting for the Society for Neuroscience this Friday and Saturday (3/27 and 3/28), at the McMenamin’s Edgefield Hotel… We’d love to see you at the nwnoggin.org poster, and we look forward to questions about our many neuroscience and art outreach activities in the Portland/Vancouver area since summer 2014……

Continue reading

A MESA Mindflex @ WSU-V!

We spent an occasionally stormy Saturday on the green, hilly campus of Washington State University in Salmon Creek, north of downtown Vancouver… WSU was hosting southwest Washington’s 2015 MESA Day, and students from area public schools were there to learn about academic and career opportunities in STEM fields, including neuroscience. MESA…

Continue reading

I Feel Your Pain @ Velo!

Another enthusiastic crowd of velocipedal neuroscience and art fans arrived at the incomparable Velo Cult for our first post-daylight savings NW Noggin event… Sunlight illuminated the ceiling-mounted bikes as Monique Smith, a graduate student in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU, presented fascinating research on empathy and chronic pain to an audience happily sipping…

Continue reading

A Synapse Sunrise at Skyview High

Sixteen committed NW Noggin volunteers from Washington State University Vancouver and PSU made an early morning journey to the enormous (2300 student!) Skyview High School in Salmon Creek, Washington, just down the road from WSU-V… We were there to meet students in three, 10th grade biology classrooms, along with their teacher Angela…

Continue reading

A full day of brains at OMSI

And a full house of NW Noggin volunteers, including Grace Hoinowski, Brittany Wouden, Chelsey Anderson, Sarah Neveux, Angela Morrelli, Angela Johnson, and Max Neideigh from WSU Vancouver, and Sarah Loftus, Lauren Wilgus, Amanda Yancy, Julian Rodriguez, Aldair Rodriguez, Alex Voigt, Allie Clark, Austin Howard, and Sam DeLuche from PSU… We…

Continue reading

I feel your pain @ Velo Cult (3/19)

Chronic pain torments more Americans than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined, yet its neurobiological basis remains a mystery, and successful treatment is rare. Researchers at OHSU and elsewhere are now exploring the powerful influence of social and environmental factors on the experience of chronic pain, and how understanding empathy…

Continue reading