Puerto Rican scientist leads brain exhibit at Peabody Museum in Connecticut

For the first time, an exhibit at the Peabody Museum of Yale Universityin New Haven, Connecticutwill show “side by side” the original drawings of two fundamental scientists in the knowledge of the brain. And a little of Puerto Rico will be present in the exhibition, led by its curator, the Puerto Rican scientist Daniel Colon Ramosprofessor at the prestigious institution.

This is the temporary exhibition “Mind/Matter: The neuroscience of perception, attention and memory”in which Dr. Colón Ramos – a native of Barranquitas – leads an international collaboration with the National Museum of Natural Sciences of Spain and the Cajal Legacyas well as the University of Pavia and the Golgi Museum in Italy.

The exhibition will offer visitors a journey through the history of neuroscience and the most recent findings about the brain. The main figures are the scientists Camilo Golgi (Italy) and Santiago Ramon y Cajal (Spain), considered the founders of modern neuroscience.

Through drawings from the late 19th century, both expressed their antagonistic visions of how the brain was composed. On the one hand, Golgi thought that the brain was a network, but Ramón y Cajal – using Golgi’s vision – discovered that it is composed of cells.

“(We want) visitors to have the experience of (knowing) what these fundamental drawings were that mark such an important milestone in how we think the brain is made up, but there is also another very nice message. And, although (Golgi and Ramón y Cajal) were intellectual enemies at the time, in the arc of history they really were collaboratorsbecause Cajal ended up using Golgi’s vision to make his discoveries and it is Cajal’s discoveries that give Golgi its name as well. In that sense, they were like collaborators. There is no Golgi without Cajal, nor vice versa,” explained Colón Ramos via telephone with The New Day from New Haven.

Puerto Rican scientist Daniel Colón Ramos is a professor at the prestigious Yale University. (Alexis Cedeno)

To achieve this, Colón Ramos and his team worked with the conservatives in Spain and Italy to identify drawings by both scientists that have not been exposed to the public before.

“It was a process of international interpersonal relations,” described the Puerto Rican, co-founder of Science Puerto Rico and a key voice during the emergency due to the pandemic COVID-19.

“With the group from Spain, the curators of the collection are not neuroscientists, so they understand the historical importance of the collection, but, when they see the drawings, they do not understand the scientific importance. For me, it was a very nice process because it was truly a collaboration. When they showed me the drawing – there were four women – I explained to them, ‘this is what the scientist was showing here’ or ‘this is why this drawing was important’. For me, it was a great opportunity to be able to see the collection through their eyes, who are the experts in keeping this great collection. “That is a very important legacy for humanity.”he stated.

Puerto Rico present

“Mind/Matter,” which will open to the public on December 7, will consist of five sections that, first, will explore the findings of Golgi and Ramón y Cajal, and then will enter into the topics of perception, attention, memory and artificial intelligence. The exhibition will use different methods to capture visitors, such as magical illusions and interactive memory stations.

Something important for Colón Ramos was to bring Puerto Rico to the exhibition, considering that Connecticut is the state with the highest proportion of Puerto Ricans in USAwith 8% of the population of Puerto Rican origin. In the city of New Haven, where the exhibition will be in the newly remodeled Peabody Museum, 16% of the population is Puerto Rican.

Among the “Easter eggs” that he included related to Puerto Rico, he mentioned that part of the notable quotes from Ramón y Cajal will be presented in their original language, in Spanish. Furthermore, an optical illusion – similar to a hologram – will take the shape of a small twig with a coquí.

There are different types of ways that you can store that information in your brain and what it represents according to who you are.

Daniel Colon Ramos

Perhaps of more significance to Colón Ramos will be the presentation of an image created by him with artificial intelligence, titled “Images of Melancholy,” in which he represents a memory of his childhood in Puerto Rico, with his late sister, in the 1990s. 1980. The image shows elements that only have meaning for Puerto Ricans, such as the famous “787.”

“We explain (that) anyone who comes from Puerto Rico will understand what that means, and that represents a memory. But that memory, for example, if you are not from Puerto Rico and you see that number, it is unlikely that you will remember that number later. You’ll remember if I ask you right after you look at it, and then we explain what that means, because it’s not the object, it’s deeper than that. And there are different types of ways that you can store that information in your brain and what it represents according to who you are,” he outlined.

The temporary exhibition will be open to the public for at least a year, estimated Colón Ramos.