Brain Masterclasses – psychology students gain an insight into the fascinating world of neuroscience

On Friday 30th June, Dr Guy Sutton came back to Presdales to deliver another inspirational and informative set of neuroscience masterclasses to our Year 12 Psychology students. We were also pleased to share this enrichment opportunity with psychology students at Richard Hale School, who joined us for the afternoon session. The masterclasses were fast-paced, stimulating and eye-opening, taking students around and beyond A-level material and into degree-level concepts and research. As well as learning more about neuroanatomy, pupils were given an insight into what is current and exciting in brain research, including the use of brain microchips to modify or monitor brain activity, growing ‘mini brains’ in the lab from stem cells to replace unhealthy brain tissue, the negative impact of social media engagement on brain functioning and mental health and what happens to the brain at death. The students were blown away by Dr Sutton’s prediction that within their lifetime telepathy could be possible and they were introduced to the potential uses of this as well as the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by the scientific community.

Students were treated to a hands-on sheep brain dissection where they were able to see and handle some of the brain regions previously only seen in pictures.

Dr Sutton also gave a really interesting and engaging talk to our younger students who attend our weekly psychology fun club. They were surprised to learn that a lot of the advice given to them by parents and staff about diet, sleep and social media use has a strong grounding in neuroscience! They learned about the importance of having 8 hours of sleep to enable the brain to ‘de-clutter’ and organise the day’s learning, discovered the best ‘brain foods’ to eat and were shocked at recent research showing that even moderate social media consumption can change the pathways in the teen brain.

Quotes from our students:

I found the session incredibly inspiring and the entire experience was captivating throughout – it really gave me a good insight into neuroscience and how the brain works, I really enjoyed it! Katie Rhodes

I really enjoyed the session, and I found it particularly interesting to learn about what future technology could look like, for example a device that could connect to our brain and transcribe our thoughts into messages. Laura Wilkinson

I really enjoyed how passionate Dr Sutton was about the brain and all the new technology that is being advanced to support future research, such as the use of brain organoids grown in labs that are now being developed with eyes! The brain dissection was also enjoyable, particularly because we were able to hold the different structures we have learned about, like the hippocampus. Saoirse Slater