Second year so far: Neuroscience block

So far, the second year of medical school has turned out to be remarkably like the first year: lots of lectures and didactic teaching. That's no surprise and is in fact quite the norm in medical education. We're currently in our neuroscience block, which I'm particularly enjoying. Just like last year when we had laboratory sessions coupled with hematology and microbiology coursework, the neuroscience block has offered some reprieve from the lecture hall with hands-on laboratory sessions to better learn neuroanatomy and synaptic transmission.

The neuroanatomy lab consisted of examining a whole brain, a hemisected brain (cut down the midline), and a brainstem+cerebellum, in order to identify important neuroanatomical structures. I was somewhat taken aback that this 3 hour session was the extent of our wet lab neuroanatomy exposure. Incidentally, a classmate of mine sent out the link to a website that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to teach neuroanatomy. It's pretty fun to play around with, and you can find it at www.headneckbrainspine.com.

The synaptic transmission lab made use of frog leg muscle fibers (connected to their motor neurons) and different drugs (curare, neostigmine) to demonstrate manipulations of signal transduction at the neuromuscular junction. When the motor neuron is electrically stimulated, you can record electrical responses from the frog muscle fiber - and even make it twitch, if the electrical stimulation is strong enough. Application of curare blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is the means of communication between the motor neuron and muscle fiber. Neostigmine has the opposite effect, stimulating synaptic transmission by making acetylcholine more available at the junction between the motor neuron and muscle fiber.

I learn well by doing and by putting information in context, so I found these laboratory sessions fun and particularly helpful.