I have seen a dead brain when I viewed an autopsy as a lab tech student. Saw it popped out of the brain cavity and everything. Did you know that the skull is notched when it is cut off for an autopsy so that it fits back on properly for the funeral? And that your whole scalp and face can come right off your skull?
I’ve also seen every other body part that comes off in surgery. When your bits get taken off in surgery, they go down to the lab where they are examined, fixed, placed in wax, sliced and dyed for examination by a pathologist. Then they are kept for a period of time and then thrown out in the medical waste incinerator. I came back from lunch once as a lab student, and the old histotechnology ladies had thrown an old half leg (foot to knee) out into the “to-be-incinerated” garbage can, where it kinda stuck out and was reeking to high heaven. That was a pretty fascinating job.
In the Gulf War, Part 1, we came upon an Iraqi BMP (armored personnel carrier) nose down in a very large hole, back end up in the air. The deceased driver looked like he has a nasty leg wound on his right thigh. He had been driving with his head sticking out of the round hatch when he hit the hole, we figured, and his forehead had briskly come in contact with the rim of the hatch, splitting the skull open nicely at the hairline, removing the top part. That was not a leg wound after all, it was a head wound that had dripped.
I’ve seen one whole dead brain close-up, while observing an autopsy. I’ve caught glimpses of live brains while walking around in various surgeries. There were scattered parts of brain at the site of a small plane crash on our farm. Not pretty.
During my senior year of high school, I saw a handful during my rotations throughout the hospital (courtesy of the New Visions program). Most of the brains were at various brain dissection labs, although I did see get to see one in it’s natural environment, so to speak, during one of the autopsies I attended. I’ve never seen a live, functioning brain.
I saw a preserved brain as part of my basic psychology class at Tennessee Tech-nologic-al (my own view reflected here, not the actual spelling) University
I’ve seen one once, but I see cow brains all the time. We get them and cut them up and then essentially puree them. The end result looks much like a strawberry milkshake.
When I was in fourth grade, we had an assembly about the human brain and at the end the woman brought out a preserved brain in a jar. It was gross, but kinda cool.
I’ve seen this too. For maximum gross-out effect, it’s best to realize that it’s a real human body only after looking at the slices for 5 minutes. It was the tiny hairs on the body that clued me in to the non-fiberglassey modelness of it.
While I was in kindergarten some people came to my class with various body parts that we kiddies got to play with. So I’ve handled a human femur, viewed some chyme in a bucket, and yes, touched the human brain. It was wet, gray and rather firmer than I expected.
I really enjoyed my kindergarten class, I think that’s been the peak of my life so far.
Two weeks ago I saw one for the first time. I was doing some work in the multimedia lab at the local medical school, and as I walked through the lab I noticed a human brain cut in thin slices (is that called “fractionated”?), each slice preserved in some kind of clear plastic. The slices were stacked casually in a corner, like copies of The Great Gatsby for an English class.
The brain was from an adult, but a lot smaller than I expected. Neat.
I touched a brain in law school, of all places. I was taking Mental Illness Law and the professor (a psychiatrist, not a lawyer) brought in a brain for us to look at or touch.
I’ve seen three species’ brains, all with their days of life far behind them. The first was a fetal pig’s, in high school. One group at an adjacent table was dicking around after the regular dissecting assignment was done. The second was a sheep’s brain, which we had to study and dissect for neuropsychology. Last was the bucketful of quartered and halved human brains I saw while doing the sheep brain dissection. They were in a grayish, murky liquid and were quite gray themselves.
I thought they were all pretty neat. It’s not everyday you see brains. (Well, unless you’re a forensic pathologist. ;))
I started a thread a while back enquiring whether a surgical procedure would be possible to enable a person to view their own brain directly (i.e. without the aid of mirrors etc) - the general consensus was that I required therapy.
I saw a preserved brain in a jar at school, I think.
