The 4th Indian National Brain Bee (a Neuroscience Contest), concluded on the 24th of April, 2011, at PGIMER, Chandigarh. The event was organized by the joint efforts of Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh and Indian National Brain Bee (INBB ), Hyderabad. This was the final contest among the various regional finalists from all across India who are here at PGIMER for the contest. This mega event aimed to capture the imagination of our youth and inspire them to pursue a career in neuroscience research- a field where there is still lots to discover and unravel.Eighteen regional finalists who are students of class XII, two from each of the nine centers, participated in the championship final, held at the APC auditorium, PGIMER, – it was organized by the Department of Neurology, PGIMER.
The 2 day program kickstarted on the 23rd April with a training session for all the participants. Lectures were taken by Dr Vivek Lal who discussed common neurological disorders, Dr. Sandeep Grover, who lectured on common psychiatric diseases, Dr. K.K. Mukherjee who initiated the young minds in Neurosurgery by an interesting array of videos of neurosurgical procedures and Dr. Praveen lectured the students on the neurophysiology of movement. The students were shown specimens of the brain in the neuroanatomy department and Dr. Daisy Sahni and Dr Anjali from the Department of Anatomy, PGIMER discussed the basic anatomy of the brain and its parts. The students were also taken for a round to the neurology, neurosurgery ward where they were shown patients with common neurological and neurosurgical diseases.
The 24th morning witnessed the final quiz. The finalists were subjected to a grueling contest comprising of 4 rounds: 10 rounds of questions , patient- doctor simulation round, neuroanatomy identification. The top 3 scorers after the first 3 rounds were subjected to a written test after which the highest scorer emerged as the winner. The quiz was conducted by Dr Sujit Kumar,consultant neurologist from Global Hospitals,Bangalore. The contest was judged by a host of eminent Neurologists and Neurosurgeons from different parts of the country : Prof JS Chopra(Chd), Prof S Prabhakar(Chd), Prof V Lal (Chd), Dr SP Gorthi (Delhi), Dr Bhanu Prakash (Bangalore),Dr M Modi(Chd) and Dr Monica Bansal (Ludhiana)
Ms. Abha Jain from National Public School, Bangalore emerged as the Indian National Brain Bee champion -2011. Bhargavi (Hyderabad) and Mallika (hyderabad) were the 1st and 2nd runner ups.
The ‘best brain of india’ was given a trophy, a laptop computer, a certificate and goes to Italy to participate in the 12th International Brain Bee finals, scheduled to take place in August, 2011. The finals coincide with the world neurosciences conference at Italy and the cost of the trip would be borne by the INBB.