Printable Puzzles

A series of fun and challenging puzzles that teach kids (and grownups) about the brain. Organized by grade and age level.

Resources for Educators

Links to downloadable materials including lesson plans with teacher’s guide, presentations, and handouts for students, as well as to other great brain-science resources

How Does Exercise Affect the Brain?

Not only is exercise good for your muscles and bones, but it is also an important part of keeping your brain healthy.

Genetics

Nature and Nurture
A Dynamic Interplay

Brain basics fact sheet on genetics

Neuroanatomy: The Basics

The brain and nervous system are a network of many specialized parts.

Understanding the Mechanisms Underlying Vocal Learning: Q&A with Michael Yartsev, Ph.D.

Most mammals know from birth how to make sounds that communicate, but not humans. And not bats: Dana grantee Michael Yartsev has collected reams of data on how Egyptian fruit bats learn to make sounds to communicate as a way to understand how we do it.

How Do You Measure Moral Wounds of War?

The psychic legacy of war’s deep ethical disruptions—what has come to be called moral injury—has been a growing concern of those who seek to understand trauma.

Searching for Signs of Consciousness: Q&A with Jan Claassen, M.D.

Dana grantee Jan Claassen uses EEG to detect patterns of brain activity in people in coma who don’t physically respond to voice commands that suggest some may have “covert consciousness.”

The Creative Brain

By Roger E. Beaty, Ph.D.

An examination of the part of the brain that directs creative thought prompts the million-dollar question: Can creativity be enhanced?

Brains, Bodies, and Social Hierarchies

By Keely A. Muscatell, Ph.D.

New research ties income and other factors to stress and emotional responses. Does how we perceive our social standing impact our life expectancy and heart health? Are there interventions available to develop emotion regulation strategies?

Social Media & Teens: No Simple Answers

Scientists are just beginning to investigate how social media and other digital media may physically impact the developing brain.

Build a Better Brain Model

Organoids, chimeric cells, and other new experimental biotech offer us ways to study things we’ve never had access to before and ethical questions anew.

The Social Media Conundrum

What can be done to overcome the devious tactics used by tech companies to ensnare teens in compulsively using and returning to social media?