Friday, April 06, 2007

My Sheep Brain


Our lecture professor advised us Tuesday to bring a Ziploc bag to lab this week, so we could bring home the sheep brain we'd be dissecting, because there will be several sheep brains on the next Lab Exam. I brought a gallon Ziploc, but I didn't need one that big. Sheep's brains are surprisingly small--about the size of your fist, if you put your thumb against the side of your index finger and not across the front of the fingers. I probably could have used a sandwich bag.

We had to pull the cerebellum (the cauliflower-looking glob on the left) down from the cerebrum (the main part of the brain) and look inside to find the superior and inferior colliculi ("they look like a baby's bottom on a toilet seat") and the pineal gland on top of the baby's bottom.

Then on the underside of the brain, we had to find cranial nerves I through VI plus XI. I cut the pituitary gland away (keeping cranial nerve V intact), and then my lab partner cut the brain in half, so we could identify everything in a sagittal section. She did an exceptional job, because she kept the septum pellucidum intact on both halves. (I have to wonder if Edgar Rice Burroughs got the name Pellucidar from this brain structure. I'm using him to help me remember what it's called.)

Our exams are going to be fast and furious this month. We have Lecture Exam III (Endocrine & Nervous systems) on the 10th, Lab Exam II (Muscle, Endocrine, Nervous systems) on the 19th, and Lecture Exam IV (Cardiovascular system) on the 26th. Aargh!

Of course I realize this isn't interesting to anyone but my friend the cardiac nurse, but every now and then, I have to share my ick factors with you anyway.

Update:

Oops! I called them spinal nerves, when they're really cranial nerves. That would lose me points on the exam. My error has been corrected.

4 comments:

Christina said...

Ahh...come on now. That's just gross. That kind of picture needs to come with a warning!

Ewwwww...Yuck....Disgusting...and Gross!

However, speaking of the size of the sheep's brain, is it any wonder why God calls us the "sheep of His pasture"? I have a feeling it's not a coincidence.

Happy Easter!

SkyePuppy said...

But Christina,

I had to touch it (with gloves on). You only had to look...

Yes, sheep aren't very bright (I'll tell you, sometime, about the sheep in Scotland), and they don't smell too good, either. Just like us on occasion.

Happy Easter to you too!

SkyePuppy said...

Christina,

Next week we have to dissect a cow's eyeball. I will NOT be posting a picture of that.

Bekah said...

WOW. That was an unexpected pic and story! :) I'm glad it's you and not me doing the dissecting. I gave that up after freshman year biology. We had to dissect a pig and every lab table had a specific area of the body to focus on. Our table had the male reproductive system and we accidentally cut him in half. WOOPS. Mr. Goodrich wasn't too thrilled about that. Or about my lab partner cutting the wax in the pan like it was a pan of brownies.

Anyway, you are much smarter than I to be able to do this! (And you have a stronger stomach!)