All These YDays
Choose how to learn

Explore together at your own pace. No teams, timer, or points needed.

For youth groups and peer support: ask questions, use fictional examples, and let anyone pass. No one needs to share personal experiences. A facilitator can choose what fits the group.

Open the brain lab
Challenge Board Live

My Brain Explained

An interactive brain, neurons, and substance-effects learning game for guided group discussion.

Brain health Challenge Board Facilitator Recovery Safety Substance-use education Wellness
Visibility
Public
Status
published
Theme
Learn Something New
Group
community
Difficulty
Facilitator-guided
Duration
45 min

A facilitator-led learning game that uses plain language, questions, and a visual signal model to explore brain regions, neurons, receptors, reward pathways, impairment, and how alcohol, cannabis/THC, cocaine, methamphetamine, and opioids can affect communication in the brain.

Sign in to use this activity
Interactive learning lab

See the signal. Ask the question.

A facilitator-led model of brain regions and neuron communication. Choose a substance, watch the systems change, and use the question to guide the room.

Simplified education
Human brain modelNormal communication
Detailed side view of a human brain A realistic tissue illustration with simplified system overlays. Limbic and memory highlights indicate deeper systems, not structures visible on the outer surface.
STOPpause & plan
Frontal lobejudgment and impulse control
Frontal cortexLimbic / rewardMemory systemsCerebellumBrainstem

Side-view illustration. Color overlays are teaching guides; limbic and memory systems lie beneath the surface.

Explore the brain

Click a colored region or choose its name to learn what it does.

Brain basics ยท NINDS

The STOP sign: Before using, pause, consider the warnings, and make a plan to stay safe.The warning is still there. The faded STOP sign illustrates how impaired judgment can make it harder to pause or act on warnings. Effects vary; reaching out for help is still a choice.

A brain works through constantly changing signals.

Neurons send chemical messages across tiny gaps called synapses. Receptors receive a message, and transporters help clear or recycle some messengers. This balance supports attention, learning, movement, emotion, and decision-making.

Ask the roomWhat do you think has to happen for one neuron to pass a message to the next?

Inside the synapseBalanced dopamine signaling
Signal balanced
Animated neuron synapse modelA sending neuron terminal releases messenger molecules toward receptors and transporters on a receiving neuron. BLOCKED sending neuronreceiving neuronmessengersreceptors + transporter

In this simplified model, dopamine is released into the synapse, binds to receptors, and is cleared by transporters for reuse.

MessengerReceptorTransporter
Challenge board

Board preview

4 topics 5 values each
Topic 1 Brain Map Regions, roles, and everyday functions.
Topic 2 Neuron Signals Synapses, receptors, messengers, and transporters.
Topic 3 Substance Pathways Simplified examples of different mechanisms.
Topic 4 Safety and Support Impairment, emergencies, and recovery-minded choices.