Week 2 & 3

Weeks 2 and 3 were originally supposed to be done separately however with the professor being gone unexpectedly for week 2 the material covered over the two weeks is actually the same material. We are continuing our review of neuroanatomy but this review is focused on central nervous system (CNS) structures. Most of this is a review structures of the brain but we briefly covered the organization of the spinal cord as well. By far the best part of reviewing the structures of the brain was our sheep brain dissection. Finding some of the structures was kind of difficult especially because they required us to make very precise and proper cuts. I had never used a brain knife before but we learned the proper technique for holding it and the angle to cut at.

Dissecting a brain is quite difficult because it is a very soft organ. The tissue will often rip as one is trying to cut it. A brain is also not very flat on most sides so it rests on flat surfaces in a way that does not keep the planes of the brain parallel or perpendicular to the ground. Holding the brain at the right angle while cutting it can be tricky because they are very soft and slippery. I also quickly found out the cuts get increasingly harder to make as the pieces of the brain being cut get smaller and smaller.