Biology discussion

There are no discussion questions to answer. This is an optional topic. You are welcome to ask questions if you want or take issue with anything here. When our terms were shortened to eight weeks I dropped this topic from the course, only to find out that some people wanted to see how to swallow neuroanatomy without choking. So please take or leave this topic as you wish, with my best wishes either way!

Changing your view from the neuron to the brain involves a major shift in scale and perspective. It’s much more dramatic than lifting your eyes from a house in the suburbs to a view of a city. Somewhere in the shift, consciousness appears, personality takes form, and a mind emerges. (While you’re thinking about that shift in scale, you might keep the human developmental timescale in mind as well, at least for the 100 seconds required for this video.) 

You might start with this interactive website.  
The brain and spinal cord are not a haphazard heap of parts. They have a long evolutionary history that has preserved some of the earliest features of the brains of invertebrates that are still visible in human development.    

Help with Review 

If you'd like to explore the human brain at a simpler level than our textbook, just to clear up a question, here's a site you can try. To go up a notch, try this site. Or try this free online guide or a Flash interactive guide.

Here are some study aids that may make the nervous system clearer:

• http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio201/brain/1neuro.htm
• http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/flash/brainfly.html
• http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0070960526/323541/mhriib_ch11.pdf

Here are some quizzes to test your knowledge, from easy to more serious:

• http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/_bfs_NSquizsource.html
• http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/sci__tech/human_body/nervous_system_and_the_senses.html
• https://www.superteachertools.net/jeopardyx/jeopardy-review-game-from-com.php?gamefile=http://www.superteachertools.com/jeopardy/usergames/Nov201048/jeopardy1291076306.txt#.VKLEQF4AAA
• http://www.neuroanatomy.ca/quizzes/weekly_quiz_index.html

Postscript 

We don't have human brains to hand out, but you can get a sense of practical instruction thanks to these lab sessions from the Philippines: 

Either narrated by a female neuroanatomist who still uses some old terminology (Fissure of Rolando for central sulcus and Fissure of Sylvius for the lateral fissure)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80woZbNkKj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPdZfzNplG8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbKLSjJ2p6M

Or a male neuroanatomist who relies heavily on labeling by Brodmann areas, a practice that has become uncommon, though that is no bad reflection on Korbinian Brodmann.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjNmMFUWQss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrOrJDKsjb8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_oTMcNpuNo

Illustration credit: http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2007/10/ocular_dominance_columns_and_t.php