Sheep Eye Dissection Analysis

An excellent view of the cornea, the dark bluish section. The sclera, also known as the whites of the eye, are clearly seen around the cornea in contrast to the bright blue mat behind it.

Extrinsic muscles, fatty tissue, and especially the optic nerve sticking out are very noticeable features on the back of the eye we observed.

This is a beautiful view of the eye split into two hemispheres. The vitreous humor is the jelly and glossy liquid in the lower part, while the upper hemisphere remain rather empty. Some of the vitreous humor is also spilled onto the blue mat. 

Here you can identify the lens in the middle, and surrounding it the ciliary body and suspensory ligaments. Notice that the colors are cloudy, known as cataract. The lens is usually clear, but the eye we observed was from a dead sheep, and so there has been quite some time for this cloudy condition to grow as it continues to prevent or reduce the amount of light reaching the retina. 

Here we have the other hemisphere. It's quite an excellent picture of the sclera, the clearly white border on the outside, the retina, the aqueous humor, and the choroid, with the nice deep blue color.

After removing the pupil and the iris, we were able to isolate the lens and observe its shape.

In this lab, we were able to look at a lot of things which really gave us a deeper understanding of location, size, texture, and function of several parts of the eye. The sclera proved to be the tough boundary its supposed to be. The cornea was a very vibrant color, so we were able to identify it and really see how it worked. Usually, in a dissection we just locate muscles. But in this case, we see the cornea is ovalish and ellipsical in shape, and clearly shows the cloudy condition compared to our current transparent corneas. The fatty tissue is used to protect the eye, as our heads move around a lot, preventing the eye from taking damage from our skull or what not. The optic nerve in the back also really shows that it's going straight to the brain to make the connection so eyes can give proper feedback. As we take a look inside, the vitreous humor is the gooey liquid that surround the lens and the aqueous humor in front of the retina. The choroid, in the back of the eye, is a network of blood vessels that provides noursihment and oxygen to itself and the other layer of the eye. Along with it is tapetum lucidum, which reflects light onto the retina. We humans do not have this, as this only functions as night vision, which we don't have, because we don't particularly need it. We're supposed to have our eyes closed shut when we sleep at night. Additionally, the cilliary bodies are muscles that can control the eye to rotate up down left and right. Suspensory ligaments also help with movement. The pupil is located in the center of the iris, and several muscles layers determine how intense the light comes in. The lens is convex shaped and elastic in texture, which bends the light in. One condition that can occur is glaucoma, which is when fluid pressure becomes so high the eye takes physical damage from the pressure. 

The Clay Brain

Left Hemisphere                                                        Right Hemisphere

The task was to use a visual diagram made from clay to show the parts of the brain.
The left hemisphere is a view from a sagittal plane, and the right hemisphere has a lateral view.
Working with my new group wasn't difficult, but making it look even remotely like a brain was very challenging. From our point of view, when we first laid down the building blocks of our plan, it looked fine and everything was in place accordingly. However, as time passed, we realized we didn't have enough colors, and overlapping parts also made our jobs trickier than it already was. Thankfully, we put all the pieces together in a timely fashion.

The Woman with a Hole in Her Brain

Reading this article, I realized how short it was and actually how little information it gave (or just how curious I was). I wanted to find out whether her cerebellum did not grow as she was developing in the womb, or it did but just faded away or something because of how small it is. I don't know, I'm just throwing out ideas because obviously the article didn't really go into detail about it. However, it was interesting to learn what it did to her in her early years, such as the speech impediment and the walking clunkiness and the headaches. It's always fascinating to know miracles like this can happen. She may have some issues, but she's alive isn't she?

The precentral gryus ties directly with the primary motor cortex, and specifically has control over the leg area medially, the head and face laterally, and hand and arm motors. So essentially, if the precentral gyrus was missing or somehow damaged, we would be looking at someone who has facial palsy, or paralysis in the face. Additionally, we'd be finding weakness in the arms and legs, and even hemiparesis, which is weakness in an entire side of the body, left or right. Such weakness could range from stuck in a wheelchair, to possibly assisted walking with some sort of brace. There's definitely still a huge chance of survival, however, as this doesn't exactly affect any cognitive or respiratory or some other lethal mishap. With help from others and a nonthreatening environment, there's a high chance of survival. The postcentral gyrus and central sulcus could potentially be tapped into for support of the motors, but for the kind of strength and endurance of a normal person, you'd really need the precentral gyrus.