University of Oxford(1)

Art and Neuroscience – Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford By Professor Chrystalina Antoniades The Oxford Neuroscience community is very active in public engagement with a comprehensive programme of events coordinated by Dr Nicholas Irving. The aim of these activities is not just to inform and educate people about the brain but also to empower them to ask challenging questions and to join in the debate on the future direction of neuroscience research – hopefully, while having fun at the same time! A key part of the Oxford Neuroscience public engagement calendar is the Dana Foundation Brain Awareness Week held in March. For the last 5 years, I have set up and led the Art and Neuroscience programme, which has been in collaboration with Dr Jim Harris at the Ashmolean Museum University Engagement Programme. This theme lies within the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford. We work closely with Jacqueline Pumphrey, the department’s communication and public engagement officer. This year we had some very interesting interactive activities as well as a talk carried out by the eminent neuroscientist Dr Zoi Kapoula . Interactive activity: Think your own work of art In our busy lives our brains are constantly having to filter important details form the mass of things going on around us. Different people have different styles (or strategies) to approach this. In this ‘drop-in’ interactive activity you will get a chance to see how your brain works to pick individual items out of a complex pattern. Learn how different peoples brain use different approaches to solve this puzzle, how this is process can be disrupted in some brain disorders such as Parkinsons

Participating in the BAW has helped us showcast some of the great research work we are currently pursuing. More importantly we were able to share some of our work with both patient populations but also students who might be interested in joining us for a degree in the future. More people have been signing up to take part of our research studies after hearing about some of the work we are carrying out here at the University of Oxford.