brain-awareness-week

Ten resources, brain teasers and illusions to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2023

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We invite you to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week (March 13–19th, 2023) by learn­ing more about that key yet often-over­looked organ and by putting it to good use via some fun brain teasers and illusions 🙂

  1. Can you con­nect these pairs of words?
  2. Try these quick teasers to chal­lenge your work­ing memory
  3. Three clas­sic opti­cal illu­sions, explained
  4. Test your cog­ni­tive skills with these proverbs
  5. Math teas­er: Will you fin­ish your the­sis on time?
  6. What do you see? And, can you unsee it?
  7. Study exam­ines com­mon cog­ni­tive bias­es such as this one and ways to mit­i­gate them

About Brain Awareness Week:

Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites the efforts of part­ner orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties are lim­it­ed only by the orga­niz­ers’ imag­i­na­tions and include open days at neu­ro­science labs; exhi­bi­tions about the brain; lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics; social media cam­paigns; dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters; class­room work­shops; and more. This year BAW takes place March 13–19th, 2023.

  1. Vis­it the Cal­en­dar of Events Here
  2. Try many games, rid­dles, and puz­zles Here
  3. Explore use­ful fact­sheets Here

A great new book and five fun brain teasers to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2022

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Neu­rons of the spinal cord and con­nec­tions as seen in a pho­tomi­cro­graph using a stain­ing method pio­neered by San­ti­a­go Ramón y Cajal. PHOTO: ALAMY

Brain Aware­ness Week 2022 just started!

Let’s cel­e­brate our human brains by learn­ing more about neu­ro­science pio­neer San­ti­a­go Ramón y Cajal via a great new book about his life and by chal­leng­ing our minds with a few fun brain teasers and illu­sions below ?

First, some fas­ci­nat­ing insights into the “father of mod­ern neu­ro­science” from a superb book review:

It was dur­ing a trip to Madrid for his exams that Cajal vis­it­ed a lab where he learned how to look at cells under a micro­scope. He fell in love. He had dreamed of explor­ing new worlds, Mr. Ehrlich tells us, “and he thought of micro­scop­ic anatomists as ‘Colum­bus­es.’ ” His ship was launched. Cajal spent hours alone, star­ing at cells and sketching.

Spain played a unique role in Cajal’s discoveries—that is, in the pro­gres­sion of neu­ro­science. The coun­try was not a hotbed of sci­en­tif­ic research. Lack­ing men­tors, Cajal near­ly aban­doned his efforts. But work­ing inde­pen­dent­ly may have forged his auton­o­my and freed him from the influ­ence of tra­di­tion­al the­o­ries. He also longed to dis­prove the stereo­types about Spain. “One could admit that Spain pro­duces some genius artist, such as a long-haired poet or ges­tic­u­lat­ing dancer of either sex,” Cajal lat­er wrote, “but the idea that a true man of sci­ence would emerge from there was con­sid­ered absurd.”

And here’s a selec­tion of five stim­u­lat­ing brain teasers that read­ers enjoyed the most so far in 2022:

  1. Where’s the baby?
  2. Please com­plete these proverbs to exer­cise your brain in famil­iar and nov­el ways
  3. Want to test your stress level?
  4. Which way is the bus head­ing?
  5. Can you con­nect these pairs of words?

About Brain Awareness Week:

Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites the efforts of part­ner orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties are lim­it­ed only by the orga­niz­ers’ imag­i­na­tions and include open days at neu­ro­science labs; exhi­bi­tions about the brain; lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics; social media cam­paigns; dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters; class­room work­shops; and more. This year BAW takes place March 14–20th, 2022.

Five brain teasers to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2021

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Brain Aware­ness Week 2021 just start­ed. Let’s cel­e­brate by chal­leng­ing our minds with a few fun brain teasers and illusions 🙂

Here’s a selec­tion of five stim­u­lat­ing brain teasers that read­ers enjoyed the most so far in 2021:

  1. Where’s the baby? And a cou­ple oth­er sur­pris­ing illusions
  2. Please com­plete these proverbs to exer­cise your brain in famil­iar and nov­el ways
  3. Can you con­nect these pairs of words?
  4. Ready to test your stress level?
  5. Which way is the bus head­ing?

About Brain Awareness Week:

Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites the efforts of part­ner orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties are lim­it­ed only by the orga­niz­ers’ imag­i­na­tions and include open days at neu­ro­science labs; exhi­bi­tions about the brain; lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics; social media cam­paigns; dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters; class­room work­shops; and more. This year BAW takes place March 15–21st, 2021.

Seven brain teasers and a neuroplasticity podcast to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2021

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Brain Aware­ness Week 2021 takes place next month. Why not start cel­e­brat­ing now by chal­leng­ing our minds and dis­cussing the lat­est about life­long neuroplasticity?

Here’s a selec­tion of sev­en stim­u­lat­ing brain teasers that read­ers enjoyed the most in 2020: [Read more…] about Sev­en brain teasers and a neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty pod­cast to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week 2021

Seven fun brain teasers to honor our unique Brains and Minds during Brain Awareness Week 2020

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Let’s cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week next week, March 16–22nd, by chal­leng­ing our minds safe­ly at home or at a san­i­tized office with one brain teas­er per day or, why not, try­ing them all at once 🙂

Here’s a selec­tion of sev­en fun brain teasers, puz­zles & games that Sharp­Brains read­ers (pri­mar­i­ly adults, but younger minds too) have enjoyed the most since 2010.

 

Ready. Set. Go!

On Monday, #1:

Test your stress lev­el and see if you’re in the right men­tal state for the busy week. And here are some tips to han­dle stress bet­ter if you need to after tak­ing the test …

On Tuesday, #2:

Tell us, which way is the bus head­ing?

On Wednesday, #3:

Explore your per­cep­tu­al biases

On Thursday, #4:

Think out­side the box with a few fun riddles

On Friday, #5:

Please con­sid­er Lin­da’s job prospects

On Saturday, #6:

Com­plete these proverbs and exer­cise your mem­o­ry and reasoning

On Sunday, #7:

Hmm. Where do words go?

 

Stay Healthy, Mind­ful and Vig­i­lant until this health cri­sis is over, please.

 

About Brain Awareness Week:

Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites the efforts of part­ner orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties are lim­it­ed only by the orga­niz­ers’ imag­i­na­tions and include open days at neu­ro­science labs; exhi­bi­tions about the brain; lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics; social media cam­paigns; dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters; class­room work­shops; and more.

This year BAW will take place March 16–22th, 2020.

To explore more fun brain teasers and puzzle games:

Update: A brain-friendly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cognitive decline and dementia

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While the hip­pocam­pus tends to shrink with age, which con­tributes to cog­ni­tive decline, a recent study shows that this is not always the case (see all those blue lines), sug­gest­ing it can be pos­si­ble to main­tain hip­pocam­pus vol­ume and cog­ni­tive func­tion into our lat­er years.

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Time to wrap-up anoth­er stim­u­lat­ing month with Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of promis­ing news for every­one with a (human) brain 🙂

New tech for brain health:

New brain and mind research:

New thinking to shape education and healthcare:

Finally, a few riddles to tease your brain:

 

Have a great Thanks­giv­ing and December,

The Sharp­Brains Team