VU, Adventure Science Center set to create interactive exhibits on the brain
By Bill Snyder
June 17, 2010
Vanderbilt University has received a $624,000 federal stimulus grant to help develop state-of-the-art interactive exhibits on the brain and brain disorders at Nashville’s Adventure Science Center.
This award extends a long-standing partnership between the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and the Adventure Science Center aimed at promoting public understanding of brain science and reducing the stigma of mental illness, said institute director Mark Wallace, Ph.D., who is heading up the exhibit project.
While the new exhibits are intended to be “child-friendly,” said Wallace, “we really want to engage the adult visitors as well, and teach them something about mental illness, mental health and the exciting research being done at Vanderbilt.”
Current studies include the brain mechanisms that underlie autism, how the brain processes information, and how the chemical systems of the brain influence behavior.
The one-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health is a community outreach supplement to the five-year, $10 million grant awarded in 2007 to establish a Silvio O. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research at Vanderbilt.
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