Citing a general lack of neuroscience-related programming on campus, student group Synapse decided to host the first-ever Neuroweek to promote awareness of and interest in the subject.

Neuroweek had been in the planning stages since January, though the group had wanted to hold such a week for quite some time before that.

“We had this idea two to three years ago…because the neuroscience community in general at Wash. U. and the [Washington University School of Medicine] campus is huge, but they have no presence,” junior and Synapse Vice President Robert Allen said. “We wanted something to publicize the neuroscience community.”

The week started off with a surgery screening on Monday evening, in which two neurosurgeons from the School of Medicine discussed a recording of their operation on a spinal cord tumor as well as the pre- and post-operation care of the patient.

The screening drew a crowd of approximately 100 students.

“I was talking to Dan, the guy who organized the Dining Services, and he’s like ‘Yeah, we didn’t expect more than 30 people to come,’” Allen said.

Wednesday’s NeurOlympics involved several teams of students competing in a neuroscience-themed trivia contest for prizes.

The 25 participants were divided into seven teams for the trivia event. They competed in two rounds, with team “The Na+/K+ Pumped Up Kids!” as the winner.

“Everybody on exec was very happy to see how everything turned out, and just in general, we’ve been having people who were very enthusiastic about helping out,” junior and President Thomas Wang said.

Senior Megan Kelly, a member of the winning team double majoring in biology and chemistry, thought Neuroweek was a beneficial addition to campus.

“It’s important to have fun, science-oriented events going on around campus to bring students together who care about science and research,” Kelly said.

The final event, Brain Freeze, will take place on Thursday, April 11, as an event encouraging mental relaxation and stress relief through backrubs by Stressbusters and free ice cream sundaes.

Lamley Lawson, a senior Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology major and Synapse member, said she has attended previous Synapse volunteer opportunities and is planning to attend Thursday’s event.

“I think they’ve done a good job this year of increasing their presence on campus, ’cause I feel like in past years, if you weren’t directly getting emails from the majors that pertain to neuroscience, you wouldn’t know anything about it,” she said.

Plans for upcoming Neuroweeks include incorporating the Wash. U. medical school and hosting events every night of the week.

“We are somewhat of a rising group still, so we want to give publicity and show students what we have to offer through a lot of programs, which we think students can benefit from,” Allen said. “My vision of Neuroweek is to become a cornerstone event for the Wash. U. undergraduate community.”