Abstract

This paper takes Wellcome Collection’s casual Flash game Axon as the starting point for an investigation of the representation of the human brain in scientific and popular visual culture. It looks at the re-emergence of the neuron as a dominant image of the brain, against a historical background of brain-mapping technologies, from phrenology to fMRI. It then considers the representation of the brain in videogames in particular, in both entertainment and educational contexts. The role of rules in both games and brain development is explored, as is the idea that videogame interaction may be related to humans’ unique spatial understanding of the world. The paper concludes that while Axon suggests some of the possibilities of videogames in communicating neuroscience, games offer a larger potential for helping us to understand the brain than has currently been exploited.

Highlights

  • In March 2012 at Wellcome Collection we published the latest in a series of casual online games designed to engage audiences with the subject matter of our exhibitions

  • The accompanying exhibition was ‘Brains: The Mind as Matter’, an exhibition dealing with the material culture of the human brain, examining the ways in which it has been treated, preserved, studied and manipulated

  • The concept emerged from a collaborative brainstorming session convened by the authors at Wellcome Collection that included the exhibition’s curator Marius Kwint, neuroscientist Richard Wingate and games agency Preloaded

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

In March 2012 at Wellcome Collection we published the latest in a series of casual online games designed to engage audiences with the subject matter of our exhibitions. Through rapid and skilful clicking, Axon’s player selects protein targets to stimulate the growth of a neuron’s axon (the central fibre of the cell along which electrical pulses will travel once connections are made with other neurons via synapses) (Fig. 1). The longer they play, and the more protein targets they hit, the longer their axon (measured onscreen in μm) grows.

IMAGES OF THE BRAIN
THE BRAIN IN VIDEO GAMES
AXONS AND NEURONS
PLAYING THE BODY
Findings
CONCLUSIONS

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