Intro to Neuroscience

Brain, Brain Game

Today we finished up the history of neuroscience and started in on the anatomy of the brain.  First, to get an idea of what the monks knew about the brain, we played a game of “Brain, brain, what is a brain?”  Pairs of monks were given a common item like a cup, toothpick, leaf or paper clip.  The object of the game was to compare the item to the brain in form or function.  After 15 minutes of work, each group of monks shared one similarity and one difference with the entire group. 

To start the discussion of neuroanatomy, I talked about the layers of tissue on top of the brain ( the scalp, meninges) and the cerebrospinal fluid.  I got two raw eggs from the kitchen and placed one in a plastic cup with water and another egg in a cup without water.  The eggs represented the brain, the water was the cerebrospinal fluid and the cup was the skull.   Both cups were sealed with tape.  To illustrate how the cerebrospinal fluid acts to protect the brain from injury, I dropped both cups from the second floor onto the floor below.  The monks saw that both eggs broke, but the one with water had less damage.

In the afternoon, we talked about the external structure of the brain (sulci, gyri) and the brain’s hemispheres.  I mentioned split brain experiments and demonstrated how a patient with a split brain (cut corpus callosum) would function by having two monks sit in chairs at the front of the room.  One monk was the right hemisphere and one monk was the left hemisphere.  In most people, language is located on the left side of the brain, so only the monk on the left could talk.  I then put objects in their different hands to see if the “brain” could name and find the objects.  I think it was a good illustration to show how language is lateralized to one side of the brain. 

Finding the dominant eye

We talked about laterality of the brain and also about hand, foot, ear and eye dominance (right/left side).  To investigate dominance, the monks had three different tests for their hands, feet, ears and eye.  When we analyzed the data, 100% of the monks revealed that they were right hand dominant.  This is similar to past years when I have done this experiment.  About 90% of the monks said that they were right footed, but only about 50% said they were right eye and right ear dominant.

I ended the day by answering more of their questions…they have so many questions!  They are still asking about consciousness, but I think they are starting to understand that I do not have answers to all of their questions.