Operation Cortex, INSERM's free escape game at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

The brain in all its states... This is whatINSERM, at theInstitute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, is offering with an original escape game, a genuine creation of the national institute for health and medical research, entitled Opération Cortex, open to the curious from November 15, 2019. This immersive 45-minute game is open to everyone aged 10 and over (children must be accompanied by adults). It is followed by a privileged exchange withINSERM researchers who welcome participants.

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The pitch is very simple: the year is 2064. You visit anINSERM laboratory and discover a replica of a brain, designed for research purposes. But after a power cut, the brain resets itself... and locks you in the building! You'll have to relearn the brain's knowledge before it can set you free. Are you up to the task?

An escape game that the editors had the privilege of testing... And the immersion is there, reinforced by the fact that you're in a real research laboratory, and not in a pasteboard setting. It's a room that offers puzzles of intermediate levels, adaptable to the level of the players, as it's determined to open up its experience to families. So it's with a white coat on our backs that we enter this laboratory, as white and clean as an operating theatre. Searching benches, brainteasers, manipulation... we're spared nothing. We become neuroscientists for the duration of the experiment, and learn about the jobs involved in medical research.

It's a way for the institute to make itself known to the general public, and to offer a playful approach to the challenges of research conducted by its researchers. A total of seven game days or evenings have already been organized in four Paris laboratories for the month of November. Participation is free, but registration is compulsory. These are open for Saturday November 16 and Sunday November 17, but other dates are planned at other medical research sites in Paris. Please note that the number of places is limited to 7 per session. Shall we make a reservation, folks?