Posts tagged anatomy
Articles and news from the latest research reports.
Medical illustrators and neurological imaging experts at Johns Hopkins have figured out how night-hunting owls can almost fully rotate their heads - by as much as 270 degrees in either direction - without damaging the delicate blood vessels in their necks and heads, and without cutting off blood supply to their brains.
In what may be the first use of angiography, CT scans and medical illustrations to examine the anatomy of a dozen of the big-eyed birds, the Johns Hopkins team, led by medical illustrator Fabian de Kok-Mercado, M.A., a recent graduate student in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine, found four major biological adaptations designed to prevent injury from rotational head movements. The variations are all to the strigid animals’ bone structure and vascular network needed to support its top-heavy head. The team’s findings are acknowledged in the Feb.1 issue of the journal Science, as first-place prize winners in the posters and graphics category of the National Science Foundation’s 2012 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.
Anatomical Wax Model cake based on the La Specola (Florence) museum collection of anatomical wax models from the late 18th century. This bizarre yet delicious human head cake was made by Conjurer’s Kitchen.
Wax anatomical model of human head, Europe, 1801-1900
The layers of this wax anatomical model of a human head have been peeled back to reveal the underlying structure of the brain and the meninges (the protective covering of the brain). The model may have been used to teach medical students the anatomy of the brain or have been made for medical exhibitions open to the general public.
“I’ve always been interested in the boundaries between human and animal, especially apes and primates, which are challenging to our ideas of being human and separate, … I decided to use artistic license and story telling to literally combine our bodies with animal bodies.” -Brian Andrews, TheScientist
The Hominid animation is based on a series of photo composites created from human and veterinary X-ray films in 2005. The series has been exhibited internationally, including at SIGGRAPH, in the Hong Kong Exhibition Center, and at numerous galleries and museums.
Researchers Find Regenerated Lizard Tails Are Different From Originals
Just because a lizard can grow back its tail, doesn’t mean it will be exactly the same. A multidisciplinary team of scientists from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University examined the anatomical and microscopic make-up of regenerated lizard tails and discovered that the new tails are quite different from the original ones. The findings are published in a pair of articles featured in a special October edition of the journal, The Anatomical Record.
“The regenerated lizard tail is not perfect replica,” said Rebecca Fisher, an associate professor at the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix. “There are key anatomical differences including the presence of a cartilaginous rod and elongated muscle fibers spanning the length of the regenerated tail.”
Researchers studied the regenerated tails of the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), which can lose its tail when caught by a predator and then grow it back. The new tail had a single, long tube of cartilage rather than vertebrae, as in the original. Also, long muscles span the length of the regenerated tail compared to shorter muscle fibers found in the original.
"These differences suggest that the regenerated tail is less flexible, as neither the cartilage tube nor the long muscle fibers would be capable of the fine movements of the original tail, with its interlocking vertebrae and short muscle fibers," said Fisher, who also is an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences at ASU. "The regrown tail is not simply a copy of the original, but instead is a replacement that restores some function."
Sheep Brain Dissection: The Anatomy of Memory
By dissecting the brain of a sheep -an animal in which brain structure and function are similar to our own- we can see where memory processes take place. Throughout our lives, our memories are constantly being formulated, accessed, and filtered by the brain. Fleeting electrochemical connections made between brain cells help us remember the thoughts, skills, experiences and knowledge that make each of us unique.
Caption: Brain and eye anatomy. Computer artwork of the brain from below, with the front of the brain and the eyeballs (both sectioned) at top. Nerves (yellow) include the optic nerves, the olfactory nerves (between the optic nerves), and the upper part of the spinal cord (lower centre). The cerebellum has been removed, and the brain made transparent to show the limbic structures (centre). The brainstem is above the spinal cord. At bottom are the occipital lobes (red), the visual processing centres at the rear of the brain. The optic nerves cross at the optic chiasma (centre), allowing the images from both eyes to be combined.