Brain Hats and Reflexes

After five days in India, my internal clock is slowly making the time change.  I can stay awake until about 10:30 pm and sleep until 5:30 am.  That’s seven hour of sleep which isn’t too bad.

Today in class we finished our discussion of brain anatomy.  We were able to borrow a brain model from a neighboring monastery (Sera Mey monastery) that was a great benefit to my presentation.   Everyone in class can now easily distinguish the right from the left hemisphere and the front and back of the human brain.   The monks also know the difference between a coronal, sagittal and horizontal brain section. We also went through the locations and functions of the four lobes of the brain (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital) and talked about other divisions of the brain such as the thalamus, cerebellum, brainstem and hypothalamus.  Everyone made a brain hat to model the different lobes and we took a photo to commemorate the occasion.

Brain Hats

The monks have been asking many questions about the differences between human brains and the brains of other animals.   One way I answered this question was by showing photos of six different brains and asking the monks to match the brain with six different animals.  The monks did a good job at matching the brain with the animals, but only one monk said he got all six correct. 

Reflex Testing

In the afternoon we moved on to the cranial nerves and spinal cord.  For the 12 cranial nerves, the monks became neurologists and tested each other’s nerve function.  For example, to test the function of the olfactory nerve, they smelled an orange skin; for the oculomotor nerve, they looked at the response of the pupil to light and dark; for the hypoglossal nerve, they moved their tongues.

We also had time to discuss spinal cord anatomy and reflexes.  I asked for a volunteer to come up to the front of the room and got a quick response.  This monk climb up a bench I set up at the front of the room and sat in a chair with his leg dangling over the edge.  With a reflex hammer, I tapped just below the knee of this monk to demonstrate the knee jerk response.  It worked perfectly and the monk’s leg kicked out.

Tomorrow it is on to neurons:  what they look like and how they work.