Imperial researchers at Barbican Wonder: Art & Science on the Brain

From 7 to 10 April, Imperial College London neuroscientists, psychiatrists and surgeons will be engaging the public at the Barbican.

Wonder: Art and Science on the Brain, a season of events at the Barbican, is well underway. From 7 to 10 April, several Imperial College London researchers will be taking part in a range of events that explore the brain and its place at the intersection of art and science. Here’s an overview of who and what will be there.

From 7 to 9 April, the Wonder Street Fair will take over the Barbican’s foyers. Everyone will be able to drop in and enjoy a selection of free activities, performances and demonstrations. Several Imperial researchers will be showing and telling about their research. Many of them work on traumatic brain injury – when a blow or fall causes brain damage – and ways to treat it. A range of other brain research will be on display as well.

At the “Traumatic Brain Injury, Recovery and Emergency Treatment” stand, an inflatable operating theatre will be the venue for simulated emergency brain surgery, three times each day – and audience members will be able to help out. After a fall from a balcony, a “patient” will be resuscitated by the London Air Ambulance and taken through the hospital emergency department into theatre. Once there, audience members will assist an operation to save their life, though by this point they are in fact a dummy, not a human. The performance offers a rare insight into this crucial but usually unseen part of medicine.

London Air Ambulance Service

The inflatable operating theatre is actually a tool for surgical education, developed and designed at Imperial under the direction of Professor Roger Kneebone. It takes three minutes to put up but can be used to instruct surgeons and nurses in complicated operations at far less cost than the real thing. Professor Kneebone will be joined by Consultant Neurosurgeon Mark Wilson, who works at St Mary’s Hospital and in the London Air Ambulance. Mr Wilson researches ways to improve the treatment of brain trauma very soon after it occurs, and has worked all over the world, including on expeditions to the Arctic and Mount Everest.

Dr Robert Dickinson’s research group from the Department of Surgery & Cancer will be running a stand called “Neuroprotection”.  The group studies anaesthesia and ways to protect the brain from injury, and their research has shown that the inert gas xenon can protect the brain from damage after a trauma. They will be showing how xenon could be used in emergency care, and explaining how it can reduce the “secondary injury” that develops in the brain after the initial damage. The stand will have specimens of injured brains, models of how the injuries develop, and digital microscopes used to study them in the lab.

Imperial’s Computational, Cognitive & Clinical Imaging Lab (C3NL) will also be taking part. The C3NL stand will feature “EEG Pong”, a computer game in which players use their brain waves to play table tennis, psychological testing to compare your cognitive skills with the human average, magic shows and videos about the lab’s patients.

Dr David Sharp of C3NL researches how the brain is affected by trauma, how it recovers, and how advanced imaging techniques can help us treat the long-term problems with brain function that can result. On the stand, he will explain all this, focusing particularly on attention, a very important brain function that is often impaired after trauma.

Dr Ed Roberts and Dr Barry Seemungal will be running a stand that asks the question: “How does what you see affect your balance?”. Those who stand in front of their big rotating disc covered in glowing dots will involuntarily tilt sideways. The trick will show how our vision interacts with our ears and position to create senses of balance and movement. This surprisingly complex system is crucial to our daily lives and problems like chronic dizziness and “visual vertigo” can result when there is a problem with it. How well you manage to stay upright will be displayed onscreen for onlookers to judge, and participants will be able to test themselves by changing the speed of the disc and the material under their feet.

Dr Roberts is interested in why some people recover from inner ear problems when other people don't, and is trying to find out what the difference is using MRI scans. Dr Seemungal, a consultant neurologist, uses his experience treating patients to inform his research into dizziness and eye movement problems.

The Street Fair will be open from noon until 18.00 on Sunday 7 April, and until 19.30 on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 April. Other Wonder events will also include Imperial staff.

Sarah Jarvis will be participating in the sold-out event, “I’m a neuroscientist, get me out of here – Live!” on 9 April at 19.30. The evening will feature a panel of brain scientists answering the audience’s questions to gain votes, and the winner will choose a charity to receive donation as a prize. Jarvis tries to understand why the brain is built the way it is using computer models of networks of neurons.

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Director and Lead Clinician of the National Problem Gambling Clinic and Senior Lecturer at Imperial, will be hosting a Packed Lunch – a free lunchtime talk – on 10 April at 13.00. Dr Bowden-Jones researches decision making and risk-taking in those with addictions, and has trained as a medical doctor, psychiatrist and neuroscientist. After running a clinic for homeless drug addicts in Soho, she helped found the Gambling Clinic, the only one of its type in the UK. The Packed Lunch, like her research, will look at how genetics and upbringing affects our gambling habits, particularly how specific life experiences can be involved in the development of problem gambling. This Packed Lunch is part of a series run by the Wellcome Trust, who are collaborating with Barbican to organise the Wonder season.