On the first Wednesday of every month, the Museum hosts inquisitive minds for cocktails and conversation about the latest science topics at SciCafe. The popular after-hours series returns on October 5 with an evening devoted to scientific evidence about the nature of race and “racial” differences led by Museum Curators Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle, who recently co-authored a book on the subject.

The wired world is a new frontier for psychologists and neuroscientists, who are starting to discover interesting impacts persistent technology use has on the brain. Navigating the latest science on the subject will be the focus of the Museum’s first fall adult course, The Wired Child: How 21st Century Technology Affects the Brain, which kicks off on Thursday, September 15, in the Sackler Educational Laboratory. Guest lecturers include Dr. Pamela Rutledge, media psychologist and expert blogger for Psychology Today, who will be leading the course on Thursday, October 6.

Is it true that children face an uphill battle at the beginning of every school year to regain ground lost in the lazy days of summer? Yes and no, says Rob DeSalle, curator of the exhibition Brain: The Inside Story.  “The fact of losing what you’ve learned during the school year is fairly well known and well researched,” says Dr. DeSalle, citing a Johns Hopkins University study that showed children in general “lose” one to two months of learning, especially in math, over the summer.  “It’s not a myth. But it’s not as extreme as people think and it’s’ not insurmountable.”

One way to keep brains active before school resumes is to challenge children with a late-summer reading list, says DeSalle, a Museum curator who conducts research in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics. The John Hopkins study showed, for example, that children in more affluent socio-economic groups fared better in reading because they tended to have more access to books. Games that involve counting and strategy can also stimulate neural pathways. Visitors to Brain: The Inside Story, which closes August 14, can test their ability to strategize and plan ahead, as well as other critical functions, in brain-teasing interactive exhibits, several of which are described by DeSalle in the video below.

The human brain is constantly adapting as neural networks rewire themselves in response to new experiences, such as learning different skills or even recovering from trauma such as a stroke. For example, stroke patients who lose their ability to speak can often regain the skill with intensive training, which reestablishes new networks in the healthy parts of their brains.

Learn more about the brain’s plasticity and experience it first-hand through interactive games that enhance hand-eye coordination by visiting Brain: The Inside Story, open now through Sunday, August 14.

In the video below, Curator Rob DeSalle discusses how brains change throughout a lifetime.

Brain: The Inside Story, the Museum’s popular exhibition which gives visitors a new perspective and insight into the human brain using imaginative art, vivid brain scan imaging, and thrilling interactive exhibits, was recognized for outstanding achievement in museum exhibition design. Event Design Magazine recently announced the winners of their Event Design Awards and the Museum’s Exhibitions team won Silver honors for Best Museum Environment for their evocative work on Brain: The Inside Story. Every year the Event Design Awards—the industry’s highest honor—receives hundreds of entries across 13 categories to determine the best of the best in the world of events, exhibits, and environments.