Hospital Nacional de Paraplejicos (HNP)

This year Toledo is the Spanish Capital of Gastronomy. With this motive we organized various activities to introduce the audience of all ages to the colorful world of sensory perception and processing and explain how our brain helps us create gastronomic and emotional experiences but also, how it controls our appetite and weight. The opening event featured two talks ´´Tasting with the brain´´ (given by Dr. Javier Cudeiro) and ´´The emotional aspects of cooking´´ (given by a local chef Ivan Cerdeño) helped the audience to embark on a journey through a magic world of textures, aromas and tastes but also to learn about the underlying physiology and brain activity. In addition to Power point and video clips, the event also included food tasting and was followed by a vivacious discussion between the public and speakers. We organized various public seminars like: Brain and the control of appetite: why do we always have a room for desert?; Olive oil: a big treasure for the brain; The role of cholesterol in the brain: is it good or bad?; Biomaterials and their application in biomedicine: example of a super-bioelectronic nose; The inflamed brain: multiple sclerosis; Eating is much more than the taste; and the closing event that featured an interactive olfactory workshop to measure audience’s olfactory abilities and helped them learn about the brain´s role in it. Additionally, we organized an exhibition of the CNS photography, guided visits to our research laboratories, brain-inspired games for the youngest and an interactive public workshop dedicated to olfaction. We feel we achieved our goals as the BAW2016 had a great media coverage and produced the greatest ever public interest, attracting more than 1000 people.

As a result we have seen an increase in public and media interest in the CNS research and received many requests for both visiting local schools and talking to students about the CNS importance in everyday life, in health and disease, as well as for local school visiting our labs and interacting directly with researchers. The number of participating institutions also increased.