Your Brain Is Weird But I Like It

There are several reasons to get into medicine, just like anything in life! Sure, this comic may be an over-simplification, but after talking to many of my classmates, these are the most common responses I’ve received. I haven’t really met anyone who is purely one type, though. To be honest, I think that we are all some combination of these 4 types…

The good life 👌😉 ~Credit to my friend Eva for the joke and character!~ 

Watch: Bill Nye uses science to defend women’s reproductive rights

An excerpt from Time Magazines 10 Questions: Neil deGrasse Tyson.

As a Harry Potter fanatic, I am proud to present you with the Harry Potter Cranial Nerve Mnemonic!

Before I introduce you to the mnemonic, let me briefly talk about cranial nerves.

Few things you need to know about cranial nerves:

1) They emerge from the brain (duh - cranial = brain)

2) There are 12 pairs

3) Some are sensory, some are motor, some are both

4) They pretty much control your body’s functions

Here are the 12 pairs:

I - Olfactory (smell)

II - Optic (vision)

III - Oculomotor (pupil constriction)

IV - Trochlear (downward movement of eyes)

V - Trigeminal (jaw movement, sensation of face and neck)

VI - Abducens (lateral movement of eyes)

VII - Facial (facial movement, taste on anterior 2/3 of tongue)

VIII - Vestibulocochlear (hearing and balance)

IX - Glossopharyngeal (swallowing, taste on posterior 1/3 of tongue)

X - Vagus (swallowing, speaking)

XI - Spinal/Accessory (flexion and rotation of head)

XII - Hypoglossal (tongue movements)

Now, the mnemonic.

Oh, Oh, Oh, They Traveled And Found Voldermort Guarding Very Secret (Ancient) Horcruxes

And to remember the type of nerve (sensory, motor, or both), you can use this mnemonic.

Severus Snape Meets Malfoy, But Mad Bellatrix Stays Behind Bushes Misusing Magic.

(S = sensory, M = Motor, B = both)

Now, let the study begin!

Fingers, Knees, Toes

“Head, shoulders, knees and toes” as the nursery rhyme goes. These two mouse embryos have been genetically engineered to carry markers revealing the locations in the body where a gene called Growth and differentiation factor 5 (Gdf5) is switched on (highlighted in blue). It’s involved in making joints and is turned on by a number of different genetic control switches near the gene. Each of them specifically activates Gdf5 in joints in the head, spine, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, fingers and toes. The same switches are also present near the human version of Gdf5, and are located in a region of our genome that has been linked to an increased risk of developing arthritis (joint disease) in adults. Figuring out how changes in these control switches lead to joint problems – either during development in the womb or later in life – could lead to more targeted treatments in the future.

Written by Kat Arney

Image from work by Hao Chen and Terence D. Capellini, and colleagues

Department of Developmental Biology, Beckman Center B300, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Genetics, November 2016

Partial Cross-Section of Adult Skull

Displaying the divisions of the ear and naso-pharyngeal cavity. As you can see, even though the skull has some pretty well-defined zones and areas, everything is a lot more inter-connected than most of us learn about in grade school. The close connection between the ear canal and throat is why, when you have a sore throat, many times earaches come along with it, and why when you have a sinus headache, the ears often feel “plugged up”.