Newswise — Future neuroscientists from around the world will meet in Cape Town, South Africa, to compete in the fourteenth International Brain Bee Championship on Sunday, July 22, in the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The International Brain Bee is a neuroscience competition for young students, 14 to 18 years of age. It will be held in conjunction with the International Congress of Psychology.
The competition has three tiers. It begins with 150 local competitions worldwide, each involving many schools. The winners of the local competitions then compete in their respective national championships. The national winners then go on to represent their countries in the International Championship.
Contestants compete on their knowledge of the human brain, including such topics as intelligence, emotions, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensation, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, addictions and brain research. The competition involves oral tests, a neuroanatomy laboratory exam with human brains, a neurohistology test with tissue specimens and microscopes, and a patient diagnosis component with student actors. Sample questions include: What kind of molecules are semaphorin, ephrin, neuropilin and plexin? Sonic hedgehog is important for the development of what part of the nervous system? What is the medical term for when you start dreaming before you fall asleep? Stargazer mice are experimental models for which type of epilepsy? The winner will receive $3000, a trophy, and the right to represent the Brain Bee in travel around the world.
According to the International Brain Bee president and founder Norbert Myslinski, PhD, of the University of Maryland, "The goal of the International Brain Bee is to motivate young men and women to study the brain, and to inspire them to consider careers in the basic and clinical neurosciences." Myslinski can be contacted at: [email protected].
Visit www.internationalbrainbee.org for more information.
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