Your brain is always changing. Find out how and why when you explore Your Brain, The Franklin Institute's largest exhibition. Brain science is advancing rapidly as modern technology is helping us begin to unravel age-old mysteries about ourselves. What is the brain? What does it do? How does it work? Believe it or not, scientists still don't fully know how to answer these questions.
The exhibit invites you to think about how you think. It's all about real life and what's happening inside your head everyday as your brain makes sense of the world around you.
You'll zoom in to begin your exploration at the cellular level where neurons fire chaotically. Fire a model neuron to see how brain cells use chemical and electrical signals to communicate at incredible speeds.
Where are those signals going? To the discrete pathways that enable your brain to control your body functions. When you see how parts of the brain control functions throughout body, you'll be glad that the signals travel so quickly.
Your brain integrates those neurons into pathways in mysterious ways to manage its complex cognitive function. In other words, you become you when your pathways function together.
Use your brain to explore your world, like a street scene filled with multisensory information or scenarios from everyday life. Will your brain process what it sees correctly? Or is the world we've created possibly an illusion?
Consider the evolving field of neuroethics and think about the impact that brain science is having on our society. What if you could manipulate your memory? Would you erase bad memories? How about "smart" pills? Would you give them to your children?
Your brain is always changing. There's no better place to help it change for the better than Your Brain at The Franklin Institute!
Things to Do and See in Your Brain
Scale the 18-foot-tall neural climb!
Scan a Brain
Use the slide scanner to move through MRI images of a human brain and see just where the brain is located in relation to other physical features that surround it.
Fire a Model Neuron
Neurons communicate through a series of electrical and chemical reactions. Now you can send a signal and fire a neuron to see how information passes from one neuron to another.
Follow Your Visual Pathway
Discover how the images of what you see are processed in the brain by building them back together step by step.
Explore How Your Brain Interprets Conflicting Information
Explore a city street filled with illusions and discover how your brain uses a variety of inputs to interpret the world around you. Trying to make sense of it all might just turn your world upside down!
Say That Again!
Did you ever have trouble understanding what that loudspeaker is broadcasting on a SEPTA rail car? Explore how your brain can learn to understand even a distorted audio message.
Challenge Your Expectations
Your brain plans movements according to previous experiences. Challenge your expectations when you lift the paint cans in the proper order.
Lie To Me
Can you detect a lie? Channel your inner Sherlock and figure out who is telling a lie.
See Your Nervous System
See a silhouette of your nervous system on a jumbo screen mimic your every move!
Preview our mobile app's virtual reality videos with a VR headset at the Your Brain and Space Command exhibits.