American Museum of Natural History Hosts This Is Your Brain On Ping Pong 1/19

American Museum of Natural History's Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, first floor hosts This Is Your Brain on Ping Pong on 1/19

Come see hundreds of amateurs and aficionados alike test their reflexes and skills as they play ping pong under the Museum's beloved blue whale. This interactive program held in conjunction with the Museum's ongoing special exhibition, Brain: The Inside Story, focuses on the science and skill of table tennis-also known as ping pong.

Ping pong combines the complexity of chess with the exhilaration of little balls hurtling around at speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. Not only is it a lively workout, according to recent research it's also great exercise for your brain requiring strategic decisions to be made with split-second timing.

Wendy A. Suzuki, professor of neural science and psychology at NYU's Center for Neural Science, will talk about the intellectual benefits of the game, while participants can improve their ping pong skills with instruction by pros from SPiN, New York's only table tennis social club. Play on one of the tables set up under the blue whale in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life (timed sets are on a first-come, first-served basis) or watch more practiced players in action.

Brain: The Inside Story is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, (www.amnh.org) in collaboration with Codice. Idee per la cultura, Torino, Italy in association with Comune di Milano - Assessorato Cultura, Italy; Guangdong Science Center, Guangzhou, China; and Parque de las Ciencias, Granada, Spain.

Generous support for Brain: The Inside Story has been provided by the Eileen P. Bernard Exhibition Fund, Virginia Hearst Randt and Dana Randt, The Mortimer D. Sackler Foundation, Inc., and Mary and David Solomon. Additional support for the Brain: The Inside Story and its related educational programming has been provided by Roche.