This youth outreach competition encouraged Montreal-area high school, CÉGEP, and undergraduate students to think about the future of the field of cognitive neuroscience, which was pioneered by Dr. Milner nearly five decades ago. Students were asked to submit short videos replying to the following prompt: “Choose a sub-discipline of cognitive neuroscience (for example: attention, consciousness, decision-making, learning, memory, language, emotions, sleep). What is a scientific question from this field that you are curious about, why are you curious about it, and where do you see the field 50 years from now?”
The winners were announced during a pre-symposium event that brought together friends and family of the contest participants. Eleven winning videos were selected for display at the Centennial and five winning entries were given the special distinction of ‘Jury’s Choice.’ The prize for winners was an invitation to attend the Centennial, a certificate, a Neuro gift bag, and a group photograph with Dr. Milner.
Video topics ranged from consciousness to language to memory. Following the announcement of the winners, six invited speakers from the Symposium (Heidi Johansen-Berg, Melvyn A. Goodale, Marlene Behrmann, Dana Small, Kia Nobre, and Olaf Sporns) discussed these topics during a panel discussion and shared their own life experiences that inspired them to study the brain.
The winners for Jury’s Choice were Camille Beaudoin (McGill University), Vanessa Correia (Concordia University), Emily Gittings (McGill University), Elena Isenberg (McGill University), and Alejandra Martinez (McGill University). The remaining winners were Zhen Lun Chen (McGill University), Anaïs Durand (McGill University), Tarik Marah (Collège Ahuntsic), Hannah Owens (McGill University), Ella Sahlas (Collège International Marie de France), and Ella Sivilla & Iris Wang (Emmanuel Christian School).
The Neuro extends a warm congratulations to all those who participated in the competition, and hopes that this experience will encourage them to pursue a career in science.
The winning videos can be viewed in the following YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU1QAd55Cz_vIxUN4-u0AnJhGLZeME51o
