Over 600 samples on display at Nimhans' Brain Museum

BANGALORE: Remember `The Beautiful Mind', a tribute to the complex and brilliant mind of mathematician John Nash? There are millions of such minds waiting to be explored for research on diseases or even to understand their uniqueness. A fraction of those are displayed at the one-month-old Brain Museum at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans).It has a diverse collection of over 600 brain samples.
The museum, the brainchild of Dr S K Shankar, professor and head of department of neuropathology, came up after an effort of 30 years of facilitating brain donations. During the autopsy of various patients, permission was taken to take parts of their brain for research. In the process the team has stumbled upon some fascinating revelations that are otherwise not seen through MRI scans.
"Initially, these were used only to teach the students of neuropathology or other subjects. But later we wanted to share our knowledge. As a community we did not want to be closed. Let people come and see for themselves how the brain looks, what kind of diseases can affect it, how the mind works," explained Dr Shankar.
DISPLAY OF VARIETY OF BRAINS
When you step into this huge room full of brain samples, of various sizes, there is a sense of eeriness. The fact that these brains were living and thinking makes you wonder of how these samples were collected over the years.
There are brains with head injuries that have suffered intracerebral haemorrhage or parts of the spinal chord that were injured. Often persons who meet with an accident can't remember what had happened before or during the accident. Dr Shankar shows a sample of a similar brain, which had probably lost its memory as the fibres going to the frontal cortex were disconnected.
"Every adult brain weighs around 1.2 to 1.4 kg. Many brain diseases are related to sociological problems. The whole idea of creating this museum was also to highlight that too. For instance, cerebral venous thrombosis, which is often a postpartum phenomenon, is common in Karnataka because women are not given fluids after delivery. Their blood becomes thick. Similarly consanguineous marriages which are very common in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana lead to developmental anomalies of the brain," he added.
When asked about the interesting cases that he has dealt with, he lifts a perfectly shaped brain jar labelled `Schizophrenia'. He says that in many disorders of the brain, there is no external manifestation like in depression or schizophrenia but there is a chemical imbalance that causes it. He also showed two brains that have shrunk in size to an extent that they seem like miniature brains. These were brains of Alzheimer's patients whose nerves had dried and the size had shrunk. He showed brain abscesses that are common if an infection enters the brain even through cleaning of ears with pins or pencils. Dr Shankar remembers almost all the patients whose autopsies he had done and now their brain samples are in the museum.
LOVE IS...
A visitor asked Dr Shankar what makes a person fall in love and what has the heart to do with it. He explained that the faculty in the brain that is responsible for emotions and imaginations triggers love or liking for a person. The same triggers releases hormones that changes your heartbeat or paces it up," he says on a lighter note.
ANIMAL BRAINS TOO
You could also see a rat's brain and a duck's brain there. Speaking about animals and their brains, Dr Shankar says that they too have similar emotions as humans but the number of neurons is very different. For instance, a human has 86,000 million neurons compared to 200 million in rats and 6,376 in monkeys.
HAVE AN OPEN MIND
Despite dealing with some of the most complex brain diseases, Dr Shankar still believes that alternative therapies like yoga, ayurveda and unani play an important role in people's lives.
"I want everyone to have an open mind. Never become dogmatic in biology, but be a keen observer," he concluded.
OPEN ALL WEEKDAYS
The museum is open to public on all weekdays. It has charts on diseases like epilepsy, rabies and HIV. A curator would be appointed shortly to guide the visitors through the museum.