…it’s a poll, and an odd poll at that. But I think it’s all pretty much there in the title.
But I would lik to add that if the person the brain belonged to was still alive at the time, that’d be a “bonus.” At least for this discussion.
So…any takers?
I have. It belonged to a contract worker who was asked to use a manlift which was designed for perfectly even concrete floors outside to clean our fancy glass roof.
He was alive at the time, but was dead the ambulance arrived. I wouldn’t describe anything about the situation as a “bonus.” 
I’ve seen one in a college psych lab. I think I can safely say it was not operating at the time as it was sitting on a glass tray with no other body parts attached. Thank gawd.
Hmm, I have. Wasn’t as unpleasant as Larry’s experience, though. During brainanotomy classes. Educational yes, although at the end of the week when you throw away the minced stuff that used to be a brain, you feel a bit icky.
In 8th grade our science class took a field trip to a medical school specifically to view the corpses. There were permission slips and everything. The instructor had a ‘joke’ where he’d stand in front of a display case, call you over by name, then stepstep quickly and laugh at your reaction. In the display: a human head in a jar, cut in half vertically with the “interior” up against the glass.
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has displays of cross-sectioned cadavers (in slim cases between panes of glass) in one of its stairwells. IIRC, the slices are about 2" thick. That’s the first place I ever saw a real human brain “in person.” I’ve also seen them in human anatomy sessions in college, and preserved in displays.
In a jar. Lots of them.
It was the smell of the embalming fluid that I remember.
I’ve seen a handful or so at schools and in museums. None have been alive at the time, and I’d like to keep it that way, thankyouverymuch.
Yup. Inna jar.
I’ve seen preserved brains, both in jars of fluid and encased ones. Never saw a live one, though.
In the Boston Museum of Science there’s a section on the human body (and animal bodies), and they have a large ciollection opf brains under a plastic hemisphere.
It’s pretty neat, but every time I see it I want to say “5,000 Quatloos on Kirk!”
I’ve seen about 3,000 of them, all dead. But then, I’m a forensic pathologist.
Any neurosurgeon will have seen a whole lot of them alive.
I have also sectioned (sliced to youse) about 2,000 of them. I am fond of the lateral geniculate body, because if you nail it just right, it looks like Captain Crunch’s hat.
My pet peeve: Whoever named the mammillary bodies didn’t have a clue how actual teats look. I expect he was some brilliant but totally socially inept graduate student, still working in Vienna late on a Friday night while all the other anatomy students are out carousing with large-bosomed barmaids, and alone and bitter, staring at his current brain with narrowed eyes, his expression suddenly relaxes, he gets his closest approach to a twinkle in the eye since he was three, and he declaims (in Latin probably): “Say! What do THOSE remind you of!”
I once took a preserved half-brain in Lucite to a party (long story). I got a lot of the Oooh gross look at that comments I expected. My absolute favorite response, though, came from a female cop. She held it for a long minute, then she looked up at me and said calmly, “This came from a female-to-male sex change, right?”
Ok, that’s hilarious.
I also took one of those junior high/high school field trips to the university cadaver lab. Not only did I see a human brain, but those of us who wanted to could hold and prod it a little (wearing gloves and everything, of course). It felt pretty much as expected. Later, in college physiology classes I saw some displays of human anatomy in addition to the non-human stuff I fondled during my pig dissections, etc.
I went to graduate school for neuroscience so I have seen many, many of them. I used to have a 5 gallon bucket with several brains in formaldehyde right beside my desk. I always liked giving quick neuroanatomy lectures to students that had never seen a brain before. Most of them loved it.
I have. Three that I can recall (all dead) -
I viewed an autopsy as a pre-med student.
while working at a hospital, I watched a brain cutting.
In a college anatomy class I was shown a preserved brain.
I’m trying to remember the color of the staircase - was it the yellow one? (there are 4 main staircases in the Museum, each a different color [yellow, blue, red and green, I think], and each has different displays - I remember the sectioned Human in one, and the mechanical devices in another staircase)
I did, in middle school science class. My teacher was holding it in both hands and making gross jokes. It reeked.
I’ve also seen the Body Slices at Science and Industry. Kinda cool, in an icky way.
I saw one with some other guy’s eyes once, so I guess I can’t post.
I love the Body Slices. At the Museum of Science and Industry, I spend the most time at the Slices and at the Fairy Castle. Interpret that how you will.
Unfortunately, my visible brain tale is much like Larry Mudd’s. I saw the aftermath, on the highway, of a Japanese tourist who missed the offramp and got squished by a city bus. There was a sheet thrown over his body, but his foot was sticking out of it and near what I hope was the head lay a pile of brain sitting on the road.
Saw one once while working as an ambulance attendant. It wasn’t alive, but had been until a few minutes before. It was all smushed.
I’ve been to at least a few autopsies, so I’ve seen non-functioning brains. It was nothing compared to the smell though. Phew.