Brain Dissection 4/28

Today in class, we dissected a sheep brain, looking at is outer structure and two inner cuts, medially and coronally. We were able to classify the brain into different parts, and break each of those down into even smaller units with specialized functions. With our previous knowledge, we were able to find and label each part of the brain, including its specialized function in each description.

Outer view (with meninges removed to the side)

PINS

Black- posterior, White- anterior

Yellow- cerebrum- integrates information from sensory neurons + sends out signals to motor neurons

Green- cerebellum- muscle coordination and memory

Red- brain stem- main pathway for signals sent to and from brain

Medial view

Myelin- (better known as myelin sheathes) a lipid and protein molecule that wraps around sections of neurons to increase their signal movement speed

PINS

Yellow- thalamus- receives sensory information and processes it

Green- optic nerve- relays sensory information from the eyes (x-shaped structure)

Red- medulla oblongata- controls many involuntary neurons

Blank- pons- process and transfer sensory information

Blue- midbrain- controls motor neurons, processes and moves information

White- corpus callosum- bridge between the left and right hemispheres of brain

Black- hypothalamus- secretes a wide variety of hormones, signaled by brain

Coronal view

 White- (mylinated) white matter, Black- (low mylination) grey matter

Mix and Match of Terribad Sketches

Outer view

Medial view

Coronal view