Roanoke, Va. (February 22, 2013) - Does listening to Mozart make you smarter? Do we really use just 10 percent of our brains?

Answers to such lore will be provided March 11 at 4 p.m. at the Science Museum of Western

Virginia as Dr. Audra Van Wart, a research scientist from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research
Institute, presents "Mythbusters: The Truth About Your Brain."

Part of Brain Awareness Week, Dr. Van Wart's discussion is aimed at middle and high school students, though the event is free and open to all. Her 45-minute presentation will include use of actual plastinated human brains on loan from the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg.

Dr. Van Wart is a neuroscientist and director of education and training at the VTC Research Institute. She earned her doctorate in neurobiology and behavior at the State University of New York at Stony Brook before undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at the Picower Institute for
Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For the three years prior to joining VTC, she worked at Cell Press, most recently as the associate scientific editor of the biomedical journal "Neuron."

"Mythbusters: The Truth About Your Brain" will be the Science Museum's final program before
closing in Tanglewood Mall on March 15 to begin moving back to Center in the Square. The Museum is scheduled to reopen May 18 in its transformed space in Center that will feature new interactive exhibits and classrooms, a state-of-the-art Open Lab, and a butterfly garden.