Shubha Tole presents: Wiring up the Brain with the Ribbon Game.mpg

We present an activity entitled Wiring up the Brain with the Ribbon Game.
This is a Public Outreach activity developed by Shubha Tole and her lab members at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. It is publicized as When Dale Steyn bowls to Sachin Tendulkar, what goes on in Sachin's head? We bring out the multi-level circuitry involved in just seeing a ball and deciding whether to catch or duck. The audience is wired up with ribbons, in the pattern of the visual pathways -- motor pathways circuit. Participants serve as different stations in these pathways: eye (retina), seeing brain (visual area 1), what, where, decision (premotor), movement (motor), spinal cord, arms and legs. Then we have the circuit clap in sequence when a signal passes from one stage to another after a ball is sighted. Finally, we have the arms and legs execute a coordinated walk using the example of a horses' gait, with the sequential steps 1,4,2,3, pointing out that the horse has many different gaits which require complex coordination. Overall, this brings out how much careful choreoography must have gone into making the circuit in the first place, and how much coordination goes into executing simple actions we take for granted. We end with uncoordinated neural activity (applause) for the participants!