#wwmcd

“Science doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t do deadlines or consolation trophies. You can design the perfect study, sleep one hour a night, feed on nothing but despair and Lean Cuisine for months on end, and your results can still be the opposite of what you were hoping to find. Science doesn’t give a sh*t. Science is reliable in its variability. Science does whatever the f*ck it wants. God, I love science.”

God, I love her.

“But what would be left of me without neuroscience? Who would I even be without my burning need to correct people who say that humans use only 10 % of their brain? (They even made a movie about this. For f*ck’s sake, does no one fact-check Hollywoood scripts?) Did you know that conservatives tend to have larger amygdalae than liberals? That taxi drivers’ hippocampi grow bigger as they memorize how to navigate London? That Brian differences predict variations in personality? We are our nervous systems, the complex combination of billions of neurons firing in distinctive patterns. What’s more exciting than spending my life figuring out what a little chunk of these neurons can accomplish?”

I’m crying. Are you?

The Hebenula: disappointment

Place: borders the third ventricle, in front of the pineal gland

Function: major function in limbic system pathways, regulates dopamine and serotonin, acts as a node between the forebrain and midbrain for emotional and sensory processing.

For those who are struggling to dig out their love for STEM after bad days, this post is for you >3

Neurosurgery is the only surgical field that uses psychology mid-op.

During awake craniotomies, neuropsychologists are sometimes present in the OR to help test memory, language, and cognitive function as the surgeon stimulates different cortical areas. This real-time mapping of function is essential when removing tumors near Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas, for example.

- International Neurosurgery Group IJCR central