Conference Material

Brain Voyager: An interactive adventure game in brain biology for teenagers.

Brain Voyager: An interactive adventure game in brain biology for teenagers.

R. L. DeHaan, Ph.D., J.P. West, Ph.D., J. M. Aldag, and R. Crocker, Emory University Medical School, Atlanta, Georgia; and Adveractive, Inc. Chapel Hill. North Carolina, USA.

Brain Voyager is a computer-based program that teaches about brain structure and function in the context of an interactive 3D-graphics, adventure game for teenagers. It is intended to challenge the player to solve problems concerned with how the brain and sensory systems are organized and function. In this presentation we will describe how the player dives into the brain as the pilot of the "Bant-M1" ship, miniaturized to cell size. Traveling through the brain with the aid of an innovative navigational system, the player achieves the following learning objectives at an age-appropriate level: (1) understands the structure and function of selected brain areas; (2) learns the anatomy of brain structures (e.g. whole brain, neurons, neurotransmitters) at three different size scales, and understands their functions; (3) understands neural conduction and synaptic transmission; (4) relates brain and sensory operation to behavior and recognizes how lesions or drug effects would alter neural function. (Supported by an NCRR/SEPA grant from the National Institutes of Health).