WHAT: Society for Neuroscience conference

We did it! Here’s our first post on our keynote delivered at the Brain Awareness event…

Synapsing in San Diego @ SfN!

And more from the PSU Neuroscience Club on how they made it to the conference and to San Diego Public Schools…

Noggins & Noodles @ SfN!

WHERE: San Diego Convention Center, 111 W Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92101

WHEN: November 3 – 7, 2018

NW Noggin is THRILLED to be formally invited to offer the keynote address on Brain Awareness at the Society for Neuroscience conference this fall! 

LEARN MORE: What is NW Noggin?

SATURDAY (2:00 – 4:00pm), November 3
SfN/Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Campaign Event
(Noggin volunteers: please arrive @ 2:00pm to set up posters)

We’ll open the session on Saturday, November 3 with the keynote. We’ll then make pipe cleaner neurons with conference attendees! Afterwards, along with undergraduates from the PSU Neuroscience Club, and many innovative brain awareness professionals from around the world, we’ll present our outreach posters. The Brain Awareness event will run from 2:30 – 4:00pm…

PRESENTATION SLIDES: Brain Awareness SLIDES 2018 (ppt; compressed file)

PRESENTATION SLIDES: Brain Awareness SLIDES 2018 (pdf; compressed file)

LEARN MORE: Noggin Keynote @ SfN Brain Awareness Campaign Event

Photo courtesy of Society for Neuroscience; conference in Washington DC

We’ll also bring our knowledgeable graduate and undergraduate volunteers from PSU (TEN PSU Neuroscience Club members were granted complimentary SfN registration!), OHSU and other Northwest campuses, along with students (and extra brains!) from the UC San Diego Department of Neuroscience into academic priority classrooms in the San Diego Unified School District (including Linda Vista, Montgomery and Carson) during SfN…

Public School Outreach Schedule

MONDAY (8 – 12:30), November 5: Carson Elementary School
MONDAY (12:30 – 3:15), November 5: Linda Vista Elementary School
TUESDAY (8:00 – 3:15), November 6: Montgomery Middle School

See what we did the last time we visited SfN in San Diego…

Cortical Connections in San Diego Schools!

We’ll also attend the SfN Presidential Reception as invited guests…

LEARN MORE: Neuroscience 2018 Presidential Reception

More on our poster detailing our ongoing collaboration with p:ear…

LEARN MORE: Noggin + p:ear

NW Noggin: homelessness and the brain – seeing us all through research and art

GRIESAR, W.S.* **, LEAKE, J.* ** ***

“It’s like people see me as an object, not as a human being.”

Science needs investment, and engaging people builds support for research and education. Integrating arts in STEM (“STEAM”) fosters innovative engagement. Here we report on efforts to bring together new researchers and outreach volunteers, clinicians, policy makers and, as equal participants, young members of our community who lack safe, secure places to call home.

Nonprofit NW Noggin (nwnoggin.org) organizes graduates and undergraduates to collaborate and engage, building networks and inspiring people about discovery in neuroscience and art. Volunteers benefit from working across disciplines and institutions, serving as “near peer” role models, gaining skill explaining work and thinking creatively about careers. We’ve met with over 20,000 K-12 students since 2012!

Noggin loves to visit p:ear, a nonprofit for homeless youth. P:ear offers community, services and a welcoming educational and gallery space in Portland, Oregon, filled with caring staff and volunteers for young people without safe places to sleep.

We’ve had powerful conversations with adolescents struggling to overcome drugs, anxiety, depression, abandonment, bias  –  and a strong sense that many people pass them by as if they weren’t valuable human members of our community.

Harris & Fiske (2006) found that people respond harshly to those in “extreme outgroups,” including those without homes. These street kids are correct  –  some respond to them with “dehumanized perception.” Yet by asking subjects to engage with images of outgroup members, there is more activation of frontal lobe networks essential for responding to others as relatable human beings. Young people at p:ear created landscapes on plaster brain casts that powerfully conveyed their feelings, significant locations, and both actual and aspirational aspects of their lives in our shared community.

In fall 2017, we put on a “Homelessness and the Brain” day at p:ear, and policy makers, clinicians, members of the public, young researchers from OHSU and PSU and houseless youth talked, listened and learned from each other about research on stress, anxiety, depression, sleep, emotional regulation, drugs, development, bias and resilience, and explored data, art and testimony from p:ear youth to illuminate links between a lack of affordable housing and all our brains.

Building excitement and awareness of discoveries in neuroscience through arts-integrated outreach across institutional, state, federal and generational lines trains new scientists to collaborate on important community concerns, and increases awareness and support for investment in brain research and the arts.

* Department of Psychology, Portland State University;  ** NW Noggin (nwnoggin.org);  *** Department of University Studies, Portland State University

LEARN MORE: Additional Noggin/PSU Neuroscience posters at SfN 2018