Neurons in Action
How the brain learns

Why learn? Can you be too old to learn? What roles does the brain play? What is intelligence? How are memories made? Can memory play tricks on us? Do our emotions and environment influence learning?

A universal, complex, and life-long phenomenon
The Discovery Zone is made up of two sections. Its fun, lively, and colorful layout is overflowing with simple, easy-to-understand information put across using interactive installations, videos, computer games, comic strips, dexterity tests, audiovisual tests, and smelly experiences, which explore the subject in a maze-like environment!

Brains, intelligence, and false memories
It resembles a cauliflower or walnut, is creamy white, and weighs 1,400 grams. It’s a bit of a glutton, since it uses up 20% of your body’s energy and 2,000 liters of blood per day! It’s your brain. A tireless workers, it circulates three million pieces of information a second. And who’s doing the brunt of the work? Neurons!

Where have you filed away your memories? In your short or long term memory? Can they sometimes play tricks on us? And watch out, sometimes we can conjure up false memories. To organize all this information, memory works in tandem with intelligence. What is intelligence? Is it innate or acquired? Can it be measured? Are we more intelligent than our grandparents?

100 billion neurons
At the end of this short but action-packed trip through the world of our mental faculties, visitors come face to face with those who made it all possible—neurons! There are 100 billion of them, each creating some 10,000 synapses (contact between two neurons). Stimulate them by touching the picture and find answers to the following questions: What are neurons? How big are they? Is it true that we use only 10% of our brains?

Find the answers to these questions in a captivating hands-on room!

In French only