The Sheffield Winter Garden recently played host to NeuroFest, an engaging and interactive showcase of neuroscience research presented by the University of Sheffield’s Neuroscience Institute.
Across the two-day festival (held on 14-15 June 2025), leading experts from medicine, science, engineering, and social sciences brought their groundbreaking work to life, offering visitors the opportunity to explore the intricacies of brain function, the sensory nervous system, and cutting-edge treatments for human neurological diseases.
With exciting interactive exhibits, live demonstrations, and hands-on activities for all ages, the event transformed complex scientific concepts into accessible and enjoyable experiences, helping to foster a deeper understanding of the vital research being conducted at the university.
Highlights included allowing visitors to see their own brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine, build neurons, chat with an AI robot, and explore how our senses work.
The Marcotti Lab offered visitors an interactive experience that showed how we hear sound (e.g., speech and music) and how it feels to lose the sense of hearing. Kids were also able to build the sensory cells that detect sound in our ears.
Research Assistant Melissa Tan and Dr Andrew Lin from the School of Biosciences hosted an exhibition that explored how we use fruit flies as an animal model to understand olfactory learning (relating to the sense of smell). Visitors were able to get involved in some hands-on activities with mutant flies and odours.
There were also opportunities to learn more about brain stimulation breakthroughs, play a video game on loneliness and dementia, and discover research linking exercise to motor neuron disease (MND) risks.
A stand hosted by Dr Nemanja Vaci from the School of Psychology, invited visitors to play The Loneliness Game and reflect on their emotional response afterwards. They recorded their reflections in a custom-built app, which used natural language processing to categorise their responses into one of four categories: Loneliness, Sadness, Social Isolation, or Unknown. After submitting their responses, participants were shown evidence highlighting the effects of social isolation and loneliness on the progression of dementia.
We were absolutely thrilled by the great turnout at NeuroFest. It was wonderful to see so many members of the public - of all ages - engaging with our research.Professor Walter Marcotti
Co-director of the Neuroscience Institute
Find out more about upcoming events hosted by the Neuroscience Institute here.