Just saw this super interesting post about the optic chiasm: https://sensitivemotor.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/siamese-cats-and-the-optic-chiasm/
Isn’t it amazing how much an animal’s neuroanatomy can tell us about its body, behaviour and environment it lives in?
Today I learned why a pituitary tumor often leads to visual problems - it becomes clear once you see where the pituitary sits in the brain. When the tumorous cells multiply, they expand up and forward (because there is bone underneath), which puts lots of pressure on the optic chiasm.
I also learned that the informational input to the cerebellum is 40 times greater than its informational output. Just incredible when you think about how much information the cerebellum has to consider to make a decision.
And another cool thing - during development, the spinal cord doesn’t grow as much as the vertebral column does so, as a result, in an adult, the spinal cord ends roughly where the bottom end of the rib cage is!
PS: Today I also got to see the brain of an individual that suffered from Alzheimer’s - very very sad…
PS2: What is also sad is that there is no way to know whether a person has had an ischemic or a hemorrhagic stroke without brain imaging. Just made me realise how much time is lost until the correct treatment can be started even if the person is rushed to the hospital immediately (which is so rarely the case)…