Synapto-tag, You're It

Get ready to get active!

Gather some friends or colleagues for this activity - the more merrier! You are going to play a game we will call “synapto-tag-you’re-it!”

Neural networks look like long chains, all crossing each other. Today you are going to pretend to be neurons. You mission is to create a chain of people, like neurons, to communicate an important message. You can think of this game as a combination of two old schoolyard games— telephone and tag.

The way this works is that one person is initially “it.” They will come up with a sentence to share.

Everyone else will walk around the room - you are waiting to make a connection! If you’re “it,” you then tag someone else, join hands with that person, and whisper the important message in their ear, so no one else can hear it. Those two people—“it” and the person who’s been tagged—have formed the beginning of a chain by holding hands. By holding hands you are, forming a link between two neurons, so you can pass on the important message.

Next, the first two people together find a third person to tag. The second person grabs the third person’s hand and whispers the message. Keep going until everyone has joined the chain. The last person in the chain will share the message with the rest of the group.

Do this activity 3 times with a similar message each time.

Let’s see how good you are at synaptogenesis!

In the comments section below, answer the following reflections.

What was it like to keep holding onto each other while reaching out to connect with a new neuron as the chain got increasingly long?

How was the activity different the first time you ran it compared to the last time? How is this similar to synaptogenesis?