BraiNFC - a multisensory, digital journey through the brain

The human brain fascinates humans like no other organ of the body: How does it develop? What does it consist of? How do brain regions connected to each other? Which diseases arise when brain development goes wrong? Answering these big questions typically requires a lot of dedication to acquire complex expert knowledge, a process which is not feasible for the general public. Thus, the science communication project BraiNFC capitalizes on a multisensory approach that allows effortless knowledge acquisition and specifically targets 8-10 year-old children. At this age, children are highly creative and have an exceptional comprehension of complex topics when presented in a child-friendly way. BraiNFC will take the audience on an exciting journey through the human brain to explain the main anatomical regions, how neurons are generated during development and which cell types can be found in the adult brain. It will then highlight the cerebellum, a brain region responsible for coordinating movements and balance. The BraiNFC products that will be developed by scientists, artists and a childrens advisory board are a brain figurine, a narrative audio story, and a hard-copy book with illustrations. The brain figurine will harbor a near-field communication (NFC) tag that enables data transfer (in this case an audio file) to a smart device like a phone or a tablet. Since smart devices are available in almost every household, no additional technical equipment is required, thus making the product financially accessible to the audience. In order to provide an engaging, narrative audio story, the story plot will capitalize on relatable analogies and will delineate cells as figurative protagonists. Thereby, the audience will learn about the experiences of these protagonists and their characteristics in terms of looks (morphology), tasks (physiological functions) and localization (spatiotemporal position within the brain). A hard-copy book containing illustrations will support the imaginative young mind by showing simple and child- friendly drawings of brain regions, distinct cell types and their particular features. Altogether, BraiNFC represents an easily accessible multimedia edutainment strategy with child- friendly implementation. Due to the particular focus of the FWF-Elise-Richter research project by Nicole Amberg termed Dissection of PRC2 function during brain development, BraiNFC will be able to incorporate results from the research project into the narrative story.