Dutch Brainbee 2026

I've been involved in the Brainbee (https://hersenolympiade.nl/en/) for a couple of years now, and my enthusiasm for our team keeps growing! This year we decided to host this exciting competition between high school students at my home base, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. Together with a team of around 10 volunteers from both the Brainbee and Brein in Beeld (https://breininbeeld.org/), we welcomed 15 registered participants here in Amsterdam.

The participants got to observe the dissection of calf brains and watch their own brain waves through a portable EEG system, which they then used to answer three rounds of questions about the brain. As in previous editions, they performed incredibly well! In the final round, Luke ultimately took home the win. But honestly, when three participants correctly answer what we expected to be a guesstimation question ("What is the resting membrane potential of a neuron?"), you could argue they all won, and walked away knowing a little more about the brain.

Luke will represent the Netherlands at the International Brain Bee (https://www.thebrainbee.org/), hosted virtually alongside the Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington DC. Before that, he and a few of our other top-ranking participants will join us at the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting in Tiel (the real deal). More to follow!