# Who here has seen a human brain...with their own eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 26, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700 "2003-08-26T06:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/61 "2011-11-04T21:20:54Z")
Appropriate-brains…zombies…perfect match. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/62 "2011-11-04T22:28:53Z")
I’ve seen living brains in the operating room–at least the part that they’re operating on. We also saw plenty in the cadaver lab while in training. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/63 "2011-11-04T22:54:12Z")
That’s one of my all-time favorite lines from the original Star Trek. I regard it as a very good day when I _don’t_ have to look at a human brain, meaning there has been no autopsy that day. If I’m truly dedicated this weekend, I’ll come in and work on the parts harvested from the last autopsy, including the brain which has been pickling for the past couple weeks (dang things are so mooshy when fresh). There is no zombie thread better than a zombie brainsss thread. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/64 "2011-11-04T23:05:10Z")
A friend of mine recently needed big-opening-sawn-in-skull kinda brain surgery. She desparately wanted a photo of her brain, or at least of the exposed area. The surgeon declined to oblige. She was \*soooo \*dissappointed. The surgery was a success & greatly improved her quality of life. The lack of a brain pic still pisses her off. She really wanted that for her facebook personna / avatar thingy. I’ve seen pieces of freshly-detached human brain. Not nice. I’ve seen an intact one in a jar of formaldehyde in a museum. Interesting, but not really much different than the other species’ brains nearby. I dissected a cow brain back in college. They’re broadly similar to human ones at the gross macroscopic level. Good thing ours works better. If not the cows would be writing on message boards & we’d be in pastures. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/65 "2011-11-04T23:08:06Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Who here has seen a human brain…with their own eyes? How could I see it, if it had my eyes? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/66 "2011-11-04T23:08:32Z")
Grandma’s sister was married to Bill, a PhD in some kind of science. Psychology, I think. Anyway, his house was filled with specimens of this and that, including a human brain. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/67 "2011-11-05T03:49:56Z")
They had a nice collection (in jars) in the bio labs at school. I only ever got to dissect a sheep’s brain, though. ☹ All those perfectly good human brains just sitting there. What a waste! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/68 "2011-11-05T04:51:57Z")
When I was working at the Science Center, and we had the Bodies Exhibit there, I got to hold a human brain. (Preserved, of course) ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/69 "2011-11-05T05:43:05Z")
I took a neuroanatomy class last semester. I saw a ton of brains in the labs. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/70 "2011-11-05T06:00:42Z")
I’m an operating room nurse in the Air Force, my last base had a robust neurosurgery service, and I’ve been deployed to Afghanistan. I’ve seen tons of 'em, and, what’s more, all the ones I’ve seen were alive at the time, though some only nominally so. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/71 "2011-11-05T06:02:56Z")
Oh yes, and I’ve also seen a dog’s brain, when my surgery team performed a necropsy on a military working dog in Honduras. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/72 "2011-11-05T12:26:56Z")
There were several, in jars, in a display case in a corridor in the psych department of Cornell University when I was there. One had belonged to E.B. Titchener, the head of the department in the early 20th century and one of the leading psychologists of his time. I think one of the others was from some criminal Seeing several together, it was quite noticeable how different they were from each other in shape and size. Human brains are not nearly as similar to one another, even to the naked eye, as you might imagine from reading much of the neuroscience literature. (Although some of the differences I saw may have been due to the preservation methods used.) ---
**Author:** ![YoDoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e68b1a/32.png) [@YoDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoDoc)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/73 "2011-11-05T12:34:53Z")
War. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/74 "2011-11-05T12:52:55Z")
Not sure if it counts, but I had a head xray and managed to get a look at the picture. I can confirm that I do, indeed, have a brain and I have seen it with my own eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/75 "2011-11-05T13:17:04Z")
I think they were parts of it, but I could have been wrong. It could have been flesh/bone bits squashed at the back of the skull & sticking out at odd angles and surrounded by congealed blood. Like an egg where 1/8 inch has been squashed flat on a counter, except you can’t quite tell what is shell and what isn’t. Someone decided to try to run across both the north bound & the south bound sides of Rt 440 (a busy truck route) in Jersey City w/o stopping once. They didn’t get a chance to try it twice. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/76 "2011-11-05T14:58:58Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > There were several, in jars, in a display case in a corridor in the psych department of Cornell University when I was there. One had belonged to E.B. Titchener, the head of the department in the early 20th century and one of the leading psychologists of his time. I think one of the others was from some criminal And when von Frankenstein’s assistant sneaked into the lab to steal a brain for his master’s experiment, which one did he take? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/77 "2011-11-05T15:15:47Z")
Yes, a psychology professor brought one to class in a bucket of formaldehyde. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/78 "2011-11-05T21:24:37Z")
Not “in the flesh,” but on TV once I saw a professor (of medicine I think) giving a lecture to a theatre full of students. He had a human brain in a jar of liquid, to show them. Then, without any real warning, he opened the jar, pulled out the brain, put it on his desk, took out a large knife, and began slicing the brain into thin slices as he calmly continued to lecture about it. The memory still freaks me out a bit. I think I am glad I wasn’t in that class, seeing it live. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/79 "2011-11-07T00:07:51Z")
Haven’t seen one in many years (not enough), but I saw more than a couple when I was a deputy sheriff. Mostly traffic accidents. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700/80 "2011-11-07T00:30:11Z")
The owner wasn’t alive, and the brain was preserved, rather than fresh or _in situ_, but…yeah. I’m actually kind of amazed by the thought that some people haven’t… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-seen-a-human-brain-with-their-own-eyes/197700.md?page=5)