As many AP Psychology students held human brains they described it as a soggy grapefruit.

As soon as Senior Maddy Crofts felt the brain she said it felt yucky to her. Many of the AP Psych students participated in Brain Day and thought it was an amazing experience.

Senior Kayla Bicknell said, “I am glad that I held a brain but they were kind of squishy.”

[Brains are a peculiar organ to the human body] For the past four years AP Psychology teacher Bill James has had Brain Day. James gives his students the once in a life time chance (for most) to see and feel human brains up close. Dr. Paul Walker, the guy who brought in the human brains, explained specific parts and function.

For example, he pointed out the region of the Medulla Oblongata which is the basic life support (heart rate, breathing and digestion) of human beings.

Walker works for the department of anatomy at Wayne State University, teaching gross and neuron anatomy and researches Parkinson’s disease.

The most interesting situations that Walker has come across are strokes and brain tumors. Walker is amazed sometimes at how people can still function with such large tumors.

After the students passed around and held the brains, Walker cut open a brain to show the inside and pointed out specific areas that are not normally visible.

He also brought in a rat brain to show the texture of it. The human brain has wrinkles and looks crumpled up, which allows us to be more intelligent.

However, the rat brain is smooth on the outside with indicates they are less intelligent. The brains were alive during this past summer and donated for medical research and educational purposes.

Senior Bryan Gottschalk stated, “It was cool how the people were alive a couple of weeks ago and now we are holding their brains.”

In one of the brains, Walker talked about how he could tell the person had some degree of dementia because part of the frontal lobe was decayed.

He also said that you can’t tell if a person has Alzheimer’s or not until after they have passed away and an autopsy has been performed to see the brain.

“Instead of just memorizing everything about the brain through pictures and diagrams, bringing actual human brains gave me the visual aid and brought everything together,” Senior Amanda Higgins stated.