SPLASH 2003 Neuroanatomy

SPLASH 2003
Neuroanatomy
Course design and teaching by
Emily Hueske & Neville Sanjana

Synopsis Sponsors Class Photos Handouts & Slides Links

Synopsis

SPLASH 2003's Neuroanatomy class ("How the Brain Works") took place on November 22-23, 2003. Emily and Neville had 36 enthusiastic students (and 3 very helpful parents!) who were in grades 7 through 12 from schools all over New England. We gathered in MIT's main Lobby 10 and then headed over to the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Once there, we briefly talked about the cerebral cortex and the five senses, emotion and memory in the limbic system, and the unconscious abilities of the brainstem. After a short break, we looked at some sheep brain sections to get familiar with the spatial arrangement of the central nervous system.

Then, with the help of some interesting patient case studies, we dived into a hands-on dissection of real sheep brains using proper lab safety procedures. We first cut the corpus callosum to separate the cerebral hemispheres and identified many of the structures visible in a mid-sagittal section. Then, we dissected out the hippocampus, a brain area studied by many neuroscientists at MIT due to its prominent role in learning and memory. Lastly, we removed the cerebellum for a fully exposed view of the brainstem.

Make sure to check out all the great photos that we have from Saturday's and Sunday's classes!

Class Photos

I (Neville) did a less than stellar job of taking pictures on Saturday, so we only have a few. Luckily, on Sunday, we had a helpful parent take over 50 photos of SPLASH, the class, and the instructors.

Saturday class (dissection photos and class members)
Sunday class (includes photos of SPLASH booth, CNS overview presentation, class members, story readings, and dissections)

Handouts & Slides

Both of us (Emily and Neville) faced a serious challenge in trying to give an overview of neuroanatomy to students who had never taken any anatomy and little, if any, general biology before. And our goal was to do it in just 3 hours. Luckily, they were young and equipped with very plastic brains.

We decided to focus on three major divisions of the central nervous system: the cerebral cortex, the limbic structures, and the brainstem. The slides below were used at the very beginning of the class to describe these three areas and their spatial organization within the CNS.

"A 10 minute whirlwind tour of the central nervous system"

The readings included two stories from Dr. V.S. Ramachandran's excellent book Phantoms in the Brain and an interesting story of one chicken with just a brainstem. We read these stories as we proceeded through the dissection, exploring the role of the corpus callosum, the limbic system, and the brain stem. Also, we provided a neuroanatomy guide based entirely on MIT's 9.01 (Introduction to Neuroscience) dissection guide for undergraduates; this material is courtesy of Prof. Gerald Schneider.

Readings (Split-brain, Capgras' delusion, brainstem survival)
Neuroanatomy Guide (Labeled sections: mid-sagittal, dorsal surface, hippocampus exposed)