Visitors to the Midland Arts Centre this weekend will get the chance to experience the rubber hand illusion, compete in Brainiversity Challenge, and look inside a fly’s brain.

As part of Brain Awareness Week, University of Birmingham researchers will be leading a variety of activities designed to show how amazing our brains are, how research has helped us understand how our brains work – and how much we still have to discover.

During the event, visitors will be able to experience at first hand how the brain can be easily fooled and how our senses combine to create our perception of reality.

There will also be the opportunity to solve puzzles and play games designed to find out more about different regions of the brain, and the different psychology and neuroscience research methods developed to advance our understanding.

Neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, clinicians and health professionals from the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trusts will be  unlocking some of the secrets of the brain, such as how memories and emotions are produced, and how medical science is tackling brain diseases from brain tumours and dementia to concussion.

Experts in the School of Biosciences are studying how a fruit-fly’s brain works, to help us better understand the human brain, including how it changes through life and how it enables us to make daily life decisions. Visitors can find out more about this work by investigating a large fly brain and exploring the world of genetics, neural circuits and brain health.

There will be plenty for younger visitors to do too, from making 3D models of the brain from clay to decorating ‘brain hats’ – all with the aim of sparking interest in the different parts of the brain and their functions.

The event is free to attend, thanks to funding from the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, and will take place between 9.30am and 5pm at the Midlands Arts Centre, in Cannon Hill Park.