By examining the neural wiring and structure of animal brains, researchers can gain insight into the workings of the human brain, sometimes described as the world’s most complex structure. (The 100,000 neurons of a fly’s brain are easier to track and catalog than the human brain’s one hundred billion.) In the Museum’s current exhibition Brain: The Inside Story, visitors can learn more about the difference — and similarities — between human and animal brains.

Visitors will have also have the chance to view and compare the brains of different animals on Saturday, January 15, at the family-friendly program BRAINFest! The Museum’s Sackler Lab will offer kids and families the chance to learn about how genes work in the brain and look at neurons under a microscope.

In the meantime, check out these recent stories on animal brain research that also provides insight into the human brain.

The human brain is sometimes described as the world’s most complex structure. Today, advances in biochemistry and new technologies that allow us to watch the brain in action are revealing more than ever before.

In this podcast, the scientists behind the special exhibition, Brain: The Inside Story, present a master class on all things brain. Join the discussion on topics ranging from neural evolution to the latest in brain-imaging technology.

Speakers, in order of appearance, include neuroscientist psychoanalyst Maggie Zellner of The Rockefeller University; Rob DeSalle, curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History; and Joy Hirsch, director of the Program for Imaging & Cognitive Sciences at Columbia University.

Recorded at the Museum on December 16, 2010.

Podcast: Download | RSS | iTunes (2 hours, 4 mins, 149 MB)

Last month, Museum Curator George E. Harlow wrote for The New York Times’ “Scientist at Work” blog while unearthing clues from past geologic traffic accidents — remnants of tectonic plate collisions, including jade — during field work in Guatemala funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation award through the American Museum of Natural History.