Your brain
Right now it is gray. Each mission you finish wakes up another part and fills it with color.
0% explored
Your brain has 11 parts to wake up: 5 on each side, and the brain stem in the middle. Drag the brain to flip it around. Point at a part to see its name.
Type your explorer name exactly the way you signed it, and the save code that goes with it.
Missions
There are 11 missions. In each one you explore, play, investigate, and solve something about the brain.
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Mission 1
Brain Detectives
The history of brain science
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Mission 2
Build-a-Brain
The main parts of the brain
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Mission 3
Inside the Brain
Parts hidden deep inside
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Mission 4
Two Brains?
The left and right halves
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Mission 5
Meet the Neurons
Your brain cells
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Mission 6
Neural Networks
How messages travel
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Mission 7
The Plastic Brain
How your brain learns and changes
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Mission 8
Memory Lab
How memory works
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Mission 9
Brain + Body
Your nervous system
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Mission 10
Sleep Lab
Sleep and dreams
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Mission 11
Brain Hospital
Meet the brain doctors
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Mission 1
Brain Detectives
For most of history, nobody knew what the brain was for. Follow the detectives who slowly cracked the case.
Who thought the heart was the brain?
You are a brain detective. Five people from long ago each found a clue about the gray blob inside your head. Open their case files in order. Read each one, then answer the detective question. You get one try on each question, so think before you pick.
Close the case
You have read all five files. Now match each clue to the detective who found it. You will only be told how many are right, not which ones, so use what you read. You can open the files again any time.
The bumpy head scam
It is the year 1840. Doctors know the brain is in charge, but nobody knows how it works. A new idea is spreading from town to town. It is called phrenology. You say it like this: fren-OL-uh-jee.
People called head readers say they can tell what kind of person you are just by feeling the bumps on your head. You have paid your coin. Sit down and get your head read. Click each bump on the head.
The head reader says
Hold still, please.
Click a bump and I will tell you what it means.
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Here is the truth. The bumps on your skull have nothing to do with what kind of person you are. Your skull is hard bone. Your brain does not push it into little hills.
Phrenology was a guess. It came with fancy maps and special tools, so it looked like science. But nobody had carefully tested it.
Test it like a scientist
A real scientist does not just believe a claim. A real scientist checks. The head reader says a big music bump means you are great at music. Here are 8 people from town. Click each one to measure their music bump and find out how well they play.
You have tested all 8 people. Your results are in the table below.
| Plays well | Plays badly | |
|---|---|---|
| Big bump | 0 | 0 |
| Small bump | 0 | 0 |
Real science or scam science?
Phrenology fooled people for about 50 years. Sort each habit below. Is it something real science does, or a trick that scam science uses? You will only be told how many are right, not which ones.
The Phineas Gage mystery
Accident report. September 13, 1848. Vermont.
Phineas Gage is 25 years old. He is the foreman of a railroad crew, which means he is the boss of the team. Their job is to blast rock out of the way so new track can be laid.
To do it, Phineas packs blasting powder into a hole in the rock. He presses it down with a long iron rod called a tamping iron. The rod is more than three feet long and pointed at one end.
This afternoon, something goes wrong. The powder explodes too soon. The blast shoots the iron rod up through the front of his head and out the top.
Here is the amazing part. Phineas lives. A few minutes later he is sitting up and talking. A few weeks later he says he feels ready to go back to work.
But the people who know him best say something is very different.
"Gage is no longer Gage."
Your job, detective: find out what changed, and which part of his brain was hurt.
The tamping iron was 3 feet 7 inches long and weighed about 13 pounds. That is longer than a baseball bat.
Interview the witnesses
Six people knew Phineas after the accident. Interview each one. Then decide: is the witness telling you about something that changed, or something that stayed the same? You get one try on each, so listen closely.
The words below were written for this game. They are based on what people really reported about Phineas.
Your detective notebook
What changed
Nothing written yet.
What stayed the same
Nothing written yet.
Find the damage
Doctors in 1848 could not look inside a living head. You can still solve this the way a detective does, by ruling things out. Each part of the brain has its own jobs. If a job still works, the part that does it was not hurt. Read each clue, then click the part of the brain you can cross off. One try per clue.
File your detective report
Finish each sentence by choosing the ending that fits your evidence. You will only be told how many are right, not which ones.
The brain scanner lab
In the days of Phineas Gage, the only way to see a brain was to wait until after a person had died. Today, machines can take pictures of a living brain without hurting it at all.
This lab has four of them. Power on each machine to see the kind of picture it takes and learn what it is best at. You will need all four to earn your scanner license.
Watch a brain at work
A volunteer is lying in the fMRI machine. She will do four different things. Before each scan, predict which part of her brain will get the busiest. Click that part on the screen or use the buttons. One try per scan.
Stuck? Think back to the Phineas Gage case. Each part of the brain has its own jobs.
Earn your scanner license
Five people need a scan. For each one, choose the machine that fits best. You get one try per person. Pick the best machine for at least 4 of the 5 to earn your license. If you miss it, you will get a new group of people.
This is a learning game. Real doctors use much more information than this to choose a scan.
Einstein's brain
Albert Einstein was one of the most famous scientists who ever lived. His ideas about light, time, and space changed science forever. People still use his name to mean "genius."
Einstein died in 1955, when he was 76 years old. The doctor who examined him afterward, Dr. Thomas Harvey, did something nobody expected. He kept Einstein's brain. He did not ask first. Later, Einstein's son agreed to let it be used for science.
Dr. Harvey took photographs of the brain. Then he had it carefully cut into 240 small blocks. He kept them in jars for more than 40 years, and he mailed pieces to scientists around the world.
Everybody wanted the answer to one question.
Was Einstein's brain different?
First test: weigh it
The first thing Dr. Harvey did was put the brain on a scale. Before you look, make a prediction. There is no wrong answer here. Scientists make predictions all the time, then check them.
Three studies, three clues
Weight was a dead end, so scientists looked closer. Here are three real studies. Each one found something. Each one also has a weak spot. Read the study, then answer the detective question. One try each.
Fact, guess, or nobody knows?
This is the most important skill a brain detective has. A fact is something that was measured or written down. A guess is an idea that might be true but has not been proven. And some things nobody knows yet. Sort all eight. You will only be told how many are right.
Mission 2
Build-a-Brain
The best way to learn the parts of a brain is to build one yourself.
Assemble the brain
A crate just arrived at the Brain Lab. Inside are six brain parts, and they all need to be put together. A grown-up's brain weighs about 3 pounds.
First, unpack the crate. Click each part to inspect it. Read carefully, because the work orders will not tell you the name of the part. They will only tell you its job.
Build it
Here is the blueprint. Each work order describes one part. Find that part in the tray and click it, or drag it onto the blueprint. You get one try per work order. If you pick the wrong part, the lab robot installs the right one for you, but it will not count. After the first three parts, the brain is cut in half so you can build the inside. Get at least 5 of 6 to finish the build.
The lobe challenge
The cerebrum is not all one thing. Scientists divide it into six areas, and each area has its own jobs. Four of them are called lobes. The other two are thin strips. Each strip is really the edge of the lobe next to it, but the strips are so important that they get their own names.
A real brain has no lines drawn on it. These lines are like the borders on a map. Click each area to light it up and find out what happens there. Every area has something for you to try.
Pick an area
Click any part of the big wrinkly cerebrum.
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The challenge: 12 quick questions
Now the labels are gone. Some questions ask you to find an area on the brain. Others light up an area and ask what happens there. You get one try on each question. Get at least 10 of 12 right to pass. If you miss it, you will get a new set of questions.
Which part are you using?
No part of your brain works alone. Even something simple, like brushing your teeth, takes a whole team of areas passing messages to each other.
Pick one of the five things below. You will get four steps, one at a time. For each step, click the area of the brain that does that job. You get one try per step. When all four are done, you can watch the whole pathway light up. Get at least 16 of the 20 steps right to pass.
Color the brain map
Time to put all of Mission 2 together. Here are two blank brain maps, one of the outside and one of the inside. There are 11 parts to color.
Your color key is on the left. It was mixed up just for you, so it will not match anyone else's. Each paint goes with one clue. Click a paint, then click the part of the brain that fits the clue. You can repaint a part as many times as you like. When all 11 parts are painted, check your map. You will only be told how many are right.
Outside view
Inside view (cut in half)
Mission 3
Inside the Brain
So far you have explored the outside. The parts that handle memory, feelings, hunger, and sleep are hidden deep in the middle.
Cut into the brain
To reach the inner brain, you have to go through everything that protects it. Start at the top of the head and work your way down, one layer at a time.
This is a cartoon, so nobody gets hurt. Press "Cut deeper" to remove a layer and see what is underneath.
Meet the inner brain
Here is a close-up of the center of the brain. It is a see-through view, so you can see parts that are really tucked behind one another. There are ten parts to meet. Click each one on the picture, or use the list of names.
Pick a part
Click any colored part of the inner brain.
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Who am I?
Eight parts of the inner brain are going to describe themselves. Click the name of the part that is talking. You get one try each. Get at least 6 of 8 right to pass. If you miss it, you will get a new set.
The control center
Your hypothalamus is only about the size of an almond, but it runs the biggest balancing act in your body.
Think about the thermostat in a house. It checks the temperature all day long. Too hot? It turns on the air conditioner. Too cold? It turns on the heat. Your hypothalamus does the same kind of job for your body temperature, your water, your fuel, and your sleep.
Scientists have a name for keeping the body in balance. It is called homeostasis. You say it like this: hoh-mee-oh-STAY-sis.
Run all six experiments below. Each one pushes the body out of balance. Watch what the hypothalamus does about it.
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Your turn: you are the hypothalamus
Now you are in charge. Eight things are about to happen to this body. For each one, read the situation, check the gauges, and choose what the hypothalamus should do. You get one try each. Keep the body in balance at least 6 times out of 8 to pass.
The memory librarian
Your hippocampus is named after a sea horse, so meet your librarian. A new memory is not stored in one spot, like a photo in a drawer. It is made of pieces, and the pieces are kept in different parts of your brain.
The librarian's job is to keep track of them. Press the buttons in order to watch how one memory gets filed, and how it comes back.
Your shift at the library
Three new memories are coming in, and each one has five pieces. Oh no, the easy labels fell off the shelves! Only the brain area names are left. File each piece on the shelf for the brain area that handles it. You get one try per piece.
Pay attention to what goes in each memory. When the filing is done, the librarian will test whether one small clue can bring a whole memory back. There are 21 points in all, and you need 17 to pass.
The emotion alarm
Deep in your brain, at the tip of the hippocampus, sits a part the size of an almond. It is called the amygdala, and it works like an alarm system. All day long it checks what you see and hear and asks one question: does this matter?
When the answer is yes, it rings the alarm. Your heart speeds up, you breathe faster, and your muscles get ready to move. Show the amygdala each of the six things below and watch what happens.
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The fast road and the slow road
Remember the long thing in the grass? Your alarm rang before you knew what it was. That is because your brain sent the news down two roads at the same time. Press the button and watch the race.
Quiet the alarm
After a false alarm, your heart can keep pounding even when you know you are safe. Your frontal lobe can help calm things down, and slow breathing is one of its best tools.
Try it for real. Press start, then breathe along with the circle three times. Breathe in as it grows. Breathe out slowly as it shrinks.
Ready when you are.
Alarm level: high
The alarm is quiet. Slow breaths, with a long breath out, tell your body the danger is over. You can use this any time your alarm rings and you know you are safe. And if your alarm rings a lot and it bothers you, tell a grown-up you trust. That is a smart thing to do.
Real danger or false alarm?
Now help the amygdala and the frontal lobe work as a team. Eight things are about to happen. Decide what each one is. Real danger means the alarm is right. False alarm means the alarm rang, but you are actually safe. No alarm needed means nothing scary happened at all. You get one try each. Get at least 6 of 8 to pass.
The fluid tunnels
Your brain is not solid all the way through. Hidden in the middle are four connected spaces called ventricles. You say it like this: VEN-trih-kulz. They are not empty. They are full of a clear, watery fluid.
About 500 years ago, the artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci wanted to know what shape they were. He poured melted wax into the ventricles of an ox brain, let it harden, and then looked at the wax shapes.
You do not need wax. Click each blue space to learn about it. Then switch to the other view, because the tunnels look very different from the front.
Follow the fluid
The fluid does not sit still. It is made inside the two big ventricles, and then it flows on a one-way trip, like a slow river. You are holding about two thirds of a cup of it right now, and your body replaces all of it about three times a day.
A drop has just been made. Send it on its way. At each stop, choose where it flows next. You get one try per stop. Get at least 4 of 5 right.
What is all that fluid for?
The fluid fills the ventricles and also surrounds the whole brain. Here is a model brain in a jar, so you can test what the fluid does. Bump the jar while it is empty. Then fill it with fluid and bump it again.
True or not true?
The fluid does two more jobs. It carries food to brain cells, and it carries their waste away. Scientists think a lot of that cleaning happens while you sleep, and they are still studying exactly how.
Now sort these seven statements. You will only be told how many are right.
Mission 4
Two Brains?
Your cerebrum comes in two halves. Find out how they are wired, what each one is good at, and what happens when they cannot talk to each other.
Crossed wires
Look down on a brain from above and it looks like a giant walnut, with two halves and a deep groove between them. Each half is called a hemisphere. You say it like this: HEM-iss-feer. The word means half of a ball.
The two hemispheres look almost the same. The strange part is how they are wired to your body. In this picture you are looking at a kid from behind, so the kid's left is on your left.
Pick "Move it" or "Feel it," then click a hand or a foot. Watch closely where the signal goes. Try all four in both modes.
Which half did it?
Six questions. For each one, decide which half of the brain is doing the work. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
The great brain myth
Have you ever heard someone say, "I am a left-brained person" or "I am so right-brained"? There are hundreds of quizzes that promise to tell you which one you are. Here is one of them.
In each row, click the sentence that sounds more like you. There are no wrong answers. Go all the way down, then see your result.
Test the quiz like a scientist
That was fun. But is it true? A good brain detective does not just believe a claim. Remember the bumpy head scam? Let's check this one the same way.
If the quiz is right, a "left brain" job like math should light up only the left half, and a "right brain" job like drawing should light up only the right half. Here are four jobs. Make a prediction for each one, then run the scan.
Scientists went looking for left-brained and right-brained people
In 2013, scientists at a university in Utah scanned the brains of more than 1,000 people, from 7 years old to 29 years old. They measured how much each person used each half.
They did not find any left-brained people. They did not find any right-brained people. Everybody used both halves about the same amount.
So what did the quiz measure? It measured your style, meaning how you like to do things. Your style is real, and it is worth knowing. It just does not live in one half of your brain.
So what is really true?
The two halves are not identical. A few jobs do lean to one side. "Lean" means that side does more of the work, while the other side still helps. Click each half to see what leans its way.
Fact or myth?
Sort all eight statements. You will only be told how many are right.
The split brain experiment
This is one of the most famous experiments in all of brain science, and you are going to take it yourself first.
Keep your eyes on the white dot in the middle of the screen. Do not look away from it. When you press the button, a picture will flash for a split second, on the left or on the right. Then choose what you saw. You will get four flashes.
The patients
In the 1960s, a few people had an illness that gave them terrible seizures. A seizure is like an electrical storm in the brain. To stop the storms from spreading, surgeons cut the corpus callosum, the bridge between the two halves. It worked. Afterward the patients walked, talked, and lived normally. You would never have noticed anything different about them.
Two scientists, Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga, were curious. What happens when the two halves of a brain cannot share what they know? They gave the patients the same test you just took.
Look at the diagram. A picture on the left side of the screen goes to the right half of the brain. A picture on the right side goes to the left half. Now run the experiment and watch what the patient does.
Predict like a scientist
Now you run the lab. Here are six new tests on a patient whose bridge has been cut. For each one, predict what will happen before you see it. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
Remember three things. The left half does the talking. Each half sees the opposite side of the screen. Each half moves the opposite hand.
The rotation challenge
Your brain can do something amazing. It can pick up a shape and turn it around without your hands ever touching it. Scientists call this mental rotation. It uses both halves of your brain, especially the parietal lobes, the parts that keep track of where things are.
Warm up with your hands first. Use the buttons to turn the shape on the right until it matches the shape on the left exactly. Some of them hide a trick.
Now turn it in your head
No buttons this time. You will see two shapes. The one on the right has been turned. Decide whether it is the same shape, or a mirror image that could never match no matter how far you turn it. You get one try on each of the 10 pairs. Get at least 7 right to pass.
The page will also quietly time you. Do not rush. At the end you will see something interesting about your own brain.
Mission 5
Meet the Neurons
Zoom in on your brain, far past what your eyes can see, and you will find the cells that do the thinking.
Build a neuron
Your whole body is built from tiny living building blocks called cells. Your brain has about 86 billion of a special kind called neurons. You say it like this: NOOR-onz.
A neuron has one job, which is to pass messages along. It does this with tiny pulses of electricity. Neurons do not look like any other cell in your body. Click each of the five parts to find out what it does.
Try it: hold up one hand and spread your fingers. You just made a model of a neuron. Your fingers are the dendrites, your palm is the cell body, and your arm is the axon.
Build it
Here is a neuron blueprint and a tray of parts. Each work order describes a part by its job. Click the part that fits. You get one try per work order. If you pick the wrong part, the lab robot installs the right one, but it will not count. Get at least 4 of 5. When the neuron is finished, you get to fire it.
The neuron repair shop
Five broken neurons have come in for repair. Each one looks fine, but one part inside is not working. Press "Send a signal," watch closely to see where things go wrong, and then decide which part is broken. You can send the signal as many times as you like, but you get one try at each diagnosis. Fix at least 4 of 5.
The neural highway
Some signals in your body crawl along slower than you can walk. Others travel faster than a race car. The difference is myelin, the fatty wrapping around the axon.
Here is one axon. Use the switch to take the myelin off or put it back on, then send a signal and watch the clock. Try it both ways.
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Be the signal
Why is the wrapped axon so much faster? On a bare axon, the signal has to be passed along every tiny step of the way. On a wrapped axon, the signal skips the covered parts. It leaps from one gap to the next, and each gap gives it a fresh boost.
Feel the difference yourself. Move the signal to the end of the axon by pressing the button. Do it once with myelin and once without, and count your presses.
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Test your own highway
Time for a test of your own wiring. When the box turns green, click it as fast as you can. A signal has to go from your eyes to your brain, and then from your brain down your arm to your finger. You get five tries.
Highway check
Six questions about what you just saw. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
Cross the synapse
Here is a surprise. Neurons do not touch each other. Between the tip of one neuron and the dendrite of the next there is a tiny gap. The gap, together with the two ends that face it, is called a synapse. You say it like this: SIN-aps.
The gap is thousands of times thinner than a hair, but an electrical signal still cannot jump across it. So how does the message get to the other side? Press the buttons in order to find out.
You run the synapse
Your turn. Release a chemical messenger, look at its shape, and click the docking site it fits. A messenger only fits a docking site with the same shape, like a key in a lock. Watch out, because the messengers tumble as they float, so you may have to turn one around in your head.
Dock 6 messengers to charge up the next neuron and make it fire. You get one try with each messenger. If 3 of them miss, the signal fizzles out and you start over.
Go and stop
Not every messenger says the same thing. Some say "Go! Fire a signal!" Others say "Stop. Stay quiet." A neuron adds up all the messages it gets. It only fires when the Go messages beat the Stop messages by enough.
Your brain needs both kinds. Without Stop messages, it would be like a room where everybody shouts at once. Try both goals below.
Synapse check
Six questions. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
The helper cell rescue team
Neurons get all the attention, but they could not last a day on their own. For every neuron in your brain there is about one helper cell working beside it. That is roughly 85 billion helpers.
Scientists call them glial cells. You say it like this: GLEE-ul. The name comes from a Greek word for glue, because people once thought these cells only held the neurons in place. They turned out to do far more than that.
Meet the four members of the rescue team. Click each one.
Emergency calls
You are the dispatcher. Eight emergency calls are coming in from around the brain. For each one, read the call, look at the picture, and send the helper whose job it is. You get one try per call. Handle at least 6 of 8 correctly to pass.
Mission 6
Neural Networks
One neuron cannot do much alone. Connect billions of them together and you get a brain that can think.
Build the network
Think about how news spreads. One friend tells another, who tells another, until the whole class knows. Neurons pass messages the same way. Each one hands the signal to the next, and the chain they make is called a network.
Imagine someone tosses you a ball. Your eye sees it, and a signal has to get all the way to your hand so you can catch it. Your job is to wire up the neurons in between.
The neuron with the yellow ring is the one you are holding. Click a nearby neuron to grow a connection to it. Keep going until you reach the target, then send a signal. There are four puzzles, and each one adds a new twist.
Network failure
Networks are not perfect. Sometimes a neuron stops working, because of a bump on the head, an illness, or just getting old. When that happens, every signal that used to pass through it is stuck.
Here is the good news. Your brain can rewire itself. The neurons that are still working can grow new connections and find a new route. Scientists call this neuroplasticity. You say it like this: NOOR-oh-plas-TISS-ih-tee. "Plastic" here means able to change shape.
You are the repair crew. In each case, part of a working network has failed. Grow new connections to get the signal through again. The gold connections were already there. The ones you add are green.
Train the brain
Picture a field of tall grass. The first time you walk across it, there is no path, and it is slow going. Walk the same way again and the grass is a little flatter. After a hundred trips there is a clear trail, and you can run along it without thinking.
A network in your brain works the same way. Every time a signal travels a pathway, that pathway gets a little stronger and a little faster. That is what practice really is.
You are going to prove it with your own brain. Below is a short tune made of 8 shapes. Play it by pressing the pad with the matching shape, in order. Play the same tune 6 times. The page will time each round.
Now a brand-new tune
You are fast at that tune now. But what did your brain actually build? Here is a different tune on the same four pads. Play it once and see what happens to your time.
Practice check
Five questions about what you just did. You get one try each. Get at least 4 of 5 to pass.
Mission 7
The Plastic Brain
Your brain is not finished. It is being rebuilt every day, and what you do decides how.
The brain garden
A newborn baby already has almost all of its neurons, about 86 billion of them. What it does not have yet is connections. Those come later, and how they grow is one of the most surprising stories in brain science.
Think of a brain as a garden. In this activity you get to grow one, from a newborn all the way to age 16. Each of the six patches below is the set of connections for one skill. Watch what happens to them, and decide how this kid spends their practice time.
Garden check
Five questions about how a brain grows. You get one try each. Get at least 4 of 5 to pass. You can also scroll back up and grow a different garden any time.
The flipped mouse challenge
In 1896, a scientist named George Stratton strapped on a pair of glasses that turned the whole world upside down, and he wore them for a week. At first he could barely pour a glass of water. By the end of the week he could walk around and do everyday things again. His eyes had not changed. His brain had.
You are going to run a small version of that experiment on yourself. Inside the dark box, your mouse controls a yellow dot. Steer the dot onto each target. The first round is normal. Then the page will flip your mouse, so that moving right sends the dot left, and moving left sends it right.
There are 7 short rounds. To begin a round, move the dot onto the green circle.
What just happened?
Five questions about your own experiment. You get one try each. Get at least 4 of 5 to pass.
Brain changers
You have grown a brain garden and rewired your own mouse hand. Now look at the evidence from real life. Here are five case files about real people whose brains were changed by what they practiced. Scientists used scanners, like the ones you worked with in Mission 1, to see it.
Each file has two questions. First, predict which part of the brain changed. Then answer a question about the proof. You get one try on each. There are 10 questions in all, and you need 7 to pass.
Take care of your brain
Your brain weighs about 3 pounds, but it uses about a fifth of all the energy your body makes. It is building, pruning, and rewiring itself all day and all night. A brain doing that much work needs looking after.
Plan one day in the life of a kid your age. Make a choice at each of the six moments below. Then live the day and see what it did to this kid's brain. Your goal is to get all four brain meters up to 9 or higher. You can plan as many days as you like.
Brain fact or brain myth?
People say a lot of things about the brain, and some of them are flat wrong. Sort these eight. You will only be told how many are right.
Mission 8
Memory Lab
Test your own memory, find out where its limits are, and learn the tricks that memory champions use to get around them.
The 7 item challenge
Right now your brain is holding a few things in mind: the last sentence you read, what you are about to click, maybe what is for lunch. Scientists call this your short-term memory. It is like a tiny desk. It is very handy, but it does not have much room, and things slide off it in about half a minute.
How much room does yours have? Let's measure it. You will see 12 things for 12 seconds. Then they will vanish, and you will pick them out of a bigger crowd.
The chunking trick
Twelve separate things is too many for anyone's desk. For a long time scientists said short-term memory holds about 7 items, which is how this challenge got its name. Newer research says the real number is closer to 4.
Here is the trick. The limit is not 4 things. It is 4 chunks, and a chunk can be as big as you like. If you bundle 12 things into 4 groups, they fit. This time the 12 things will be shown already sorted into groups. Remember the groups, and what is in each one.
The phone number trick
Chunking is the reason phone numbers are written with dashes. Try it both ways. First you will see a 10 digit number as one long string for 8 seconds. Then you will see a different 10 digit number written like a phone number. After each one, tap the number back in on the keypad.
Memory check
Five questions. You get one try each. Get at least 4 of 5 to pass.
The memory palace
Chunking helps you hold more on your memory desk. But what if you need to remember a list of things in the exact right order? Start by seeing how well you do with no tricks at all.
You will see a list of 8 things for 20 seconds. Then you will put them back in order.
Build your palace
About 2,500 years ago, poets in ancient Greece had to remember speeches that lasted for hours, with nothing written down. They invented a trick that memory champions still use today. It is called a memory palace.
Here is how it works. Picture a house you know well, and a path that you walk through it. To remember a list, you leave each thing at one stop along the path. The sillier and stranger the picture, the better it sticks.
This house has 8 stops. At each stop you will get one thing to remember and three silly scenes. Pick the scene you like best. Then really picture it for a few seconds before you move on.
Walk through your palace
The rooms are empty now. Walk the path in your mind, starting at the front door. What did you leave at each stop? Put the 8 things back in order. You need at least 6 in the right place to pass.
The man who lived in the present
In Mission 1 you met Phineas Gage, whose accident taught scientists about the frontal lobe. This is the true story of another person whose brain taught the world something, this time about memory. Read it one card at a time.
Clive's diary
To Clive, every moment felt like the very first moment he had ever been awake. He kept a diary to try to hold on to things. Press the button to let one minute go by, and watch what he writes. Do it at least four times.
What was lost, and what was kept?
Three kinds of memory
Clive Wearing lost one kind of memory and kept others. That was the clue that told scientists memory is not one single thing. Your long-term memory has at least three different kinds, and each one works in its own way.
Click each of the three to find out what it holds.
Sort the memories
Fifteen memories are coming down the line. Send each one to the right kind of memory. You get one try each. Sort at least 12 of 15 correctly to pass. Watch out, because some of them are about the same subject but are different kinds of memory.
One person, three memories
The three kinds work together all the time. Maya went camping last summer, and Leo plays chess. Each of them is using all three kinds of memory. Sort these six. You will only be told how many are right.
Mission 9
Brain + Body
Your brain does not work alone. A cable runs down your back, and thousands of wires branch out from it to every part of you. Together they are your nervous system.
The reflex race
Your brain connects to the rest of your body through the spinal cord, a bundle of nerves about as thick as your finger that runs down the middle of your back. Nerves branch out from it to your arms, your legs, and everywhere else.
Most messages travel all the way up to the brain and back. But a few jobs are too urgent for that. Watch what happens when a hand touches a hot pan. This is shown in slow motion, about 50 times slower than real life.
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Put the reflex in order
That loop is called a reflex. Here are its six steps, all mixed up. Click them in the order they happen, first to last. You will only be told how many are in the right place.
What if your brain had to decide?
In a reflex, the spinal cord gives the order by itself, and the brain only finds out afterward. Suppose it worked the other way. The signal goes all the way up to the brain, the brain thinks it over and decides, and then the order travels all the way back down.
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Reflex or decision?
A reflex happens automatically, the same way every time, without your brain choosing it. A decision is something your brain chooses to do, even when it is very fast. Sort these eight. You get one try each. Get at least 6 of 8 to pass.
The automatic control room
Try to make your heart beat slower just by thinking about it. Try to make the pupils of your eyes bigger. You cannot, and that is a good thing. If you had to remember to keep your heart beating, you would never get anything else done.
Those jobs belong to the automatic part of your nervous system. Scientists call it the autonomic nervous system. You say it like this: aw-toh-NOM-ik. It is run from your brain stem and your hypothalamus, and it never asks your permission.
It has two teams that work like the gas pedal and the brake in a car. Click each team to see what it does to the four dials.
Who takes charge?
You are running the control room. Eight things are about to happen to this body. For each one, decide which team should take charge. You get one try each. Get at least 6 of 8 to pass.
Set the dials yourself
Last job. This time nobody is going to move the dials for you. Read what is happening, then set all four dials the way the body would. You will only be told how many dials are right.
Fight or flight
When the gas pedal goes all the way to the floor, scientists call it the fight or flight response. In a few seconds, your whole body gets ready to do one of two things: stand and fight, or run away fast. "Flight" here means fleeing, not flying.
It all happens through a chain reaction that starts in your brain and ends in every part of you. Press the buttons in order and watch it unfold.
Why would a body do that?
Not one of those changes is an accident. Each one helps you fight harder or run faster. Match each change to the reason for it. You will only be told how many are right.
Fight, flight, or freeze?
There is a third choice that the name leaves out. Sometimes the safest thing is to freeze, staying perfectly still so that danger does not notice you. Animals and people do all three. Decide which one each of these is. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
How much is too much?
You do not need a bear to set this system off. A test, a big game, or a turn on stage can do it too. Is that a bad thing? Find out. It is test day. Set how far down the gas pedal is, and see how well this student does. Try all five settings.
Mission 10
Sleep Lab
You will spend about a third of your life asleep. Your brain does not switch off for any of it.
The sleep cycle journey
For most of history, people thought the brain simply shut down at night. Then scientists stuck small sensors on the heads of sleeping volunteers. The sensors pick up the tiny electrical signals that neurons make, and a machine draws them as a wiggly line called a brain wave.
What they saw amazed them. A sleeping brain is busy all night, and it moves through several different stages. This sleeper is wired up to the machine. Click each stage and watch the brain waves change.
One whole night
You do not go through the stages just once. You travel down into deep sleep and back up, over and over, all night. Each round trip is called a sleep cycle, and it takes about an hour and a half. Play the night below and watch the pattern. The chart goes lower when sleep gets deeper. The gold blocks are dream sleep.
9:00 at night
Which stage is this?
You are the scientist on the night shift. Six clues are about to come in from the sleep lab. Some are brain waves, and some are things you can see the sleeper doing. Name the stage. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
The dream lab
When do dreams happen? For thousands of years nobody knew, because you cannot see a dream from the outside. The only way to find out is to wake a sleeper up and ask, "What was going on in your mind just now?"
You are the scientist tonight. Here is the same night chart you saw before. Click anywhere on the chart to wake the sleeper at that moment, and read what they tell you. Wake them at least 4 times during the gold dream sleep blocks, and at least 4 times during the other stages. Keep an eye on the tally.
Dream sleep or other sleep?
Scientists sort sleep into two big groups. Dream sleep is REM. Everything else, stages 1, 2, and 3 together, is called non-REM. Here are eight things that happen in the night. Decide which group each one mostly belongs to. You get one try each. Get at least 6 of 8 to pass.
Dream facts
Sort these seven statements about dreams. You will only be told how many are right.
The animal sleep challenge
Every animal with a brain needs sleep. That is easy for you, tucked up in bed. Now think about a dolphin, and you will see that it has three big problems.
First, a dolphin breathes air, so it has to keep coming up to the surface. Second, its breathing is not automatic like yours. A dolphin has to choose to take every single breath. Third, there are sharks in the sea.
So how can a dolphin possibly sleep? Make your prediction.
Inside a sleeping dolphin
Here is a dolphin seen from above, with sensors on both halves of its brain. Use the buttons to put each half to sleep in turn, and watch the brain waves and the eyes. Then see what would happen if the whole brain slept at once.
The animal sleep files
Dolphins are not the only animals with unusual ways of sleeping. Open all six files. Then see whether you can tell who is who.
Who sleeps like this?
Six animals describe how they sleep. Pick the animal. You get one try each. Get at least 5 of 6 to pass.
Dolphin, human, or both?
Last one. Compare a sleeping dolphin with a sleeping you. Sort these six. You will only be told how many are right.
Mission 11
Brain Hospital
Everything you have learned in the Brain Lab is somebody's job. Meet the people who spend their lives looking after brains and figuring out how they work.
Who can help?
When something goes wrong with a brain, there is not just one kind of "brain doctor." There is a whole team, and each member is trained for a different kind of problem. Some of their names sound alike, so pay attention to what makes each one different.
Click each person to find out what they do and how long they trained.
The waiting room
You are running the front desk at a brain clinic. Eight people are waiting. Read each person's problem and send them to the team member who is the best fit. You get one try each. Get at least 6 of 8 to pass.
Design your brain lab
You have met the neuroscientists, the people who discover how the brain works. Now you are one of them. You have just been given your own laboratory and a budget to fill it.
A good lab starts with a good question. Choose the question your lab will try to answer.
Equip your lab
You have 10 gold coins to spend, and you cannot afford everything. Each piece of equipment is good at one thing. Read what each one does, and buy the tools that will actually answer your question. Then ask the lab inspector to review your plan. You can change your mind as often as you like.
Plan a fair test
The equipment is ready. But in Mission 1 you learned that good tools are not enough. A scientist also has to test fairly. Answer these three questions about how your lab will work. You get one try each.
Name your lab
Every lab needs a name for the sign on the door. Pick one word from each list.
Brain Lab
Welcome to the review room. Every mission you finish gets recorded on a tape. Click a tape to pop it into the old TV and watch a quick recap of what you learned.
The TV is off. Pick a tape from the stack.
Brain Passport
This is your official Brain Lab passport. Click the cover to open it, then turn the pages.
Ectomy Game
A bonus brain game. Build a complete brain one part at a time, and watch out for the "-ectomy" cards.
Game idea based on "-Ectomy" by Ellen Johnston McHenry.
Quick Thinking
A rapid round of brain facts. Press Start, then sit back, watch, and listen. The facts come in a different order every time.
Brain Rap
The Brain Lab music video, and the prize for finishing every mission. Turn your sound on, press Start, and rap along with the robot.