MSU neuroscience department is buzzing about annual Brain Bee

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story misspelled host A.J. Robison's name.

Michigan State University’s 11th annual Brain Bee is Saturday and it's something to think about.

The competition, which returns for the first time since the pandemic began, tests students’ knowledge of the human brain and consists of three rounds. It is free and registration remains open to any Michigan high school student between the ages of 14-18. 

“It's mostly neuroscience, so it's understanding how neurons work, how the nervous system, meaning central and peripheral nervous system work, diseases of the nervous system, all of those things kind of fall under the auspices of the brain,” said AJ Robison, competition host and director of the neuroscience program at MSU.

The first round consists of an hour-long, 50-question multiple-choice test. The top eight scores move onto the second round where students are asked questions orally as a group and must write their individual answers on whiteboards. The top two students move on to the final round where they are asked questions individually.

“If someone gets it wrong, the other student has a chance to get it right and essentially, that's how we determine the winner — with who gets three right,” Henley said. 

The winners can go on to compete at the national competition which will be held at the University of California, Irvine this year. There is also an international competition for the national winners in Washington D.C.

Casey Henley, assistant professor of physiology and neuroscience at MSU and director of the event, said about 40 students from all over the state join the event.

MSU provides $700 to the local winner, and $200 and $100 for the second and third place students, respectively. Participation in the activity looks good on college applications, Henley said.

The questions are written by the Society for Neuroscience and are available online, Henley said. There are resources available to help students prepare for the competition through the society, Robison said. 

“The key thing is that they develop kind of a study guide, that they create themselves … that they then memorize essentially so that they can answer questions in the spur of the moment,” Robison said.

Zaid Siddiqui, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, won the brain bee in 2020, when he was a junior at Detroit Country Day and went on to place third at the national competition. Siddiqui said discussing what he learned while studying for the competition and watching videos about the brain on YouTube helped him. 

“(The brain) really is a very cool organ … it's kind of mind-blowing how it works,” said Siddiqui, 19. “I think just generally incorporating what you're learning into your everyday life, I think that just makes it a lot … cooler and a lot more rewarding.”

Siddiqui is studying math and computer science, and plans on going to medical school. The Brain Bee helped him realize that he loves medical science and anatomy, he said.

“... I'm still very dead set on doing medicine, or at least some sort of healthcare field in the future, is because I found my experience learning about the brain was extremely rewarding,” Siddiqui said. “I think learning about the rest of the body will be just as rewarding.”

Another former winner, Deniz Kirca, said the competition helped set him on his career path. Kirca won the contest as a high school freshman. Kirca is a junior at the University of Michigan, majoring in neuroscience and computer science. He plans to earn a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience. 

After he won, Kirca began working in Robinson’s neuroscience laboratory at MSU and was introduced to a professor at the University of Michigan with whom he now works.

“There's this kind of a very clear line you can draw from me learning about the Brain Bee to the current research I'm doing like seven years later,” Kirca said. “It introduced me to neuroscience, and that would have applied regardless of whether I won or not.”

Last year, Kirca was inspired to start a Brain Bee at the University of Michigan. The event was put on by a committee of undergraduate and graduate students and attracted about 130 people, Kirca said. This year's event is March 11. Winners of both Michigan Brain Bees will go on to the national competition. High school students can only compete in either the MSU bee or the UM event.

“My advice to students would just be to keep at it,” Kirca said. “Don't worry too much about how you do. It's really about the exposure of neuroscience, that's the whole point.”

Robison also advised students interested in competing not to worry if they don’t feel qualified. 

“There's still a lot to be done coming to the Brain Bee, even if you don't happen to be the winner,” he said. 

hmackay@detroitnews.com