On October 8, INSPIRIA Science Center (located in Sarpsborg, Norway), arranged a “Brain day” in collaboration with the Østfold hospital (Sykehuset Østfold). Here’s an inspiring summary of the day told by Roger Eide, Planetarium Manager at INSPIRIA.

We invited 160 upper secondary high school students to attend this event. The hospital provided six leading neurologists that, among others, brought the latest equipment in EEG and ultrasonic scanning. The students took part in six different activities during the day that demonstrated different aspects of our brain. Some of the activities were ultrasonic scanning, EEG, dissection of a pigs brain, Thrombolysis, and the planetarium presentation Neurotours.

The goal of the event was to inspire young students to take a bigger interest in our fantastic brain; to raise their awareness and understanding of it, how to nurture and protect it, and how to prevent brain disease. This is knowledge that may improve care and treatment access in the future for those affected by brain disease.

The main attraction during Brain Day was the Neurotours presentation in the planetarium, featuring actual three-dimensional neuroscientific data of the brain. We’ve offered an exclusive, presenter-led live tour to the students and all the medical personnel at the hospital. The presentation was led by neurologist Marton Skog Stenberger König from the Østfold hospital.

At the end of the Neurotours session the students were asked questions about Neurotours as a teaching tool. More than 99% of the students wanted the software feature to be used in their education. Many thought it was “an inspiring and different way of learning about the brain”. Neurologist Marton Skog Stenberger was very impressed with Uniview’s and Neurotours’s possibilities to visualize the brain, and mentioned that if possible he would like to move some part of the hospital’s education to the planetarium.

To wrap up the day, Espen Dietrichs, a leading Norweigan neurologist, held an inspiring talk for us. The brain day was so successful that we are planning to make this a yearly event!

We direct a great thank you to the neurologists of the Østfold hospital and to Sciss and Neurodome for providing this excellent software and software feature.

About Neurotours

Neurotours is a live dome presentation featuring actual three-dimensional neuroscientific data from leading scientists. The tour gives a mind-blowing experience of wandering through neurons, climbing the surface facets of the cerebral cortex, and much more. The tour is a product of Neurodome, a project led led by Dr. Jonathan A. Fisher. Working with Sciss, Neurotours is exclusively available in Sciss´s planetarium software Uniview.