Tutorial 2: Dissection
Sample dissection of the Temporal Lobe
Training in the dissection room is considered to be essential for learning the three-dimensional relations of the gross anatomical features of the human brain. Often, dissection of human tissue is exclusively taught to medicine students, whereas neuroscience students work with animal brains. Prof Lennart Heimer has recorded his dissection lectures and made them available as a supplement to his book, so all can learn human brain anatomy from this expert anatomist.
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About the author:
Lennart Heimer was considered one of the preeminent neuroanatomists of his generation. Dr. Heimer was born in a small town of Northern Sweden on the 11th of March, 1930. He earned an MD degree in 1963 from Gothenburg University. In 1965 he moved to the USA to join Walle Nauta's laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He remained there until 1972, gaining reknown first for the Fink-Heimer silver stain method, the culmination of the era of degeneration stains to map neuronal connectivity. It was at MIT that he began much of his groundbreaking work in the functional organization of the basal forebrain. In 1972, Dr. Heimer became professor of Anatomy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, USA, where he remained for the rest of his career, except for a short stay at the Anatomy Department of Aarhus, Denmark, in 1979 and 1980. Dr. Heimer wrote more than 110 scientific papers, dealing primarily with the anatomy of the basal forebrain. He also wrote and edited several books, including a text book for medical students, The Human Brain and Spinal Cord, and two editions of the well-regarded Neuroanatomical Tract-tracing Methods.
Tutorial details
Learning goals
L. Heimer
This book presents the anatomical systems that take part in the scientific and clinical study of emotional functions and neuropsychiatric disorders. It discusses the limbic system—the cortical and subcortical structures in the human brain involved in emotion, motivation, and emotional association with memory—at length and how this is no longer a useful guide to the study of psychiatric disorders. The book provides an understanding of brain anatomy, with an emphasis on the new anatomical framework which has emerged during the last quarter century. The goal is to help the reader develop an understanding of the gross anatomical organization of the human forebrain.
The book also includes an enlightening DVD describing the basic surface anatomy of the cerebral hemispheres, coronal and horizontal sections, and blunt dissection of the forebrain with special attention to clinical-anatomical correlations of interest to psychiatrists.
3D Brain models
These teaching materials can help you understand the three-dimensional organization of the human brain and skull.
BrainTutor
BrainVoyager Brain Tutor is an award-winning educational program that teaches knowledge about the human brain the easy way. The program lets you interactively explore high-quality 3D head and brain models, which can be rotated, moved, zoomed and morphed in real-time. The head and brain models have been computed with BrainVoyager QX using data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Besides having fun with the rotatable 3D models, the program contains information about lobes, gyri, sulci and Brodmann areas of the cerebral cortex, which may be explored simply by clicking a location in the brain or by selecting a region by its name from a list. BrainVoyager Brain Tutor runs on Windows and Mac.
L. Heimer
This is the dissection DVD in a more edited version, suitable for teaching purposes.
e-Anatomy
This website has potentially interesting learning modules. It does however require a subscription, but some content is free as well.
