By John Ohab
Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 20, 2009 – Hundreds of
middle school students have passed through the halls of the National
Museum of Health and Medicine here this week to learn about brain
anatomy and pathology, as well as military medical history, as part of
National Brain Awareness Week.
The students got to hold a human
brain, view the bullet that killed President Abraham Lincoln, and learn
about the role the museum has had in military and civilian medicine
since its Civil War beginnings, Tim Clarke Jr., the museum’s director
of communications, said during a March 18 “Armed with Science: Research
and Applications for the Modern Military” audio Webcast on Pentagon Web
Radio. The museum is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology and is located on the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center here.
“The
idea is … to have young people really inspired about neuroscience and
to understand a little more about the brain in a context that they
might not be able to get in the classroom today,” Clarke said.
Established
in 1996 by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, a private
philanthropic foundation, Brain Awareness Week connects government
agencies, universities, scientific societies and other partners to
bring neuroscience-based education to young audiences. This year’s
Brain Awareness Week is March 16 to 22.
Since 1999, the Dana
Alliance has worked with the museum and other partners including the
National Institutes of Health, George Washington University, Howard
University, the Society for Neuroscience, the Tug McGraw Foundation,
the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, and the Army Audiology
and Speech Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“We want
to find a way through Brain Awareness Week to connect many of the
various disciplines that are involved in neurosciences,” Clarke said.
“And work with those groups to put together very compelling,
persuasive, hands-on demonstrations for young people.”
The
museum maintains the world’s largest and most comprehensive
neuroanatomical collection, which offers Brain Awareness Week
participants a unique, first-hand opportunity to learn about brain
anatomy and pathology. Students, chaperones and parents all have a
chance to handle actual human brains.
“The look of awe and
wonder on a young person’s face when they are holding an actual human
brain is something you really have to see to believe,” Clarke said.
“Nothing they had ever done compares to being able to hold a brain with
the spinal cord still attached.”
This year’s Brain Awareness
Week includes a new partnership with The Tug McGraw Foundation, which
was created by professional baseball player Tug McGraw in 2003 to
facilitate research that will improve the lives of those suffering from
brain tumors. The foundation taught kids how to start their mornings
with brain exercises designed to increase blood flow.
Clarke
noted that Brain Awareness Week also highlights the variety of federal
agencies conducting important basic and clinical neuroscience research.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism stages an
obstacle course that students traverse while wearing “fatal vision
goggles,” which distort eye-muscle coordination and simulate the loss
of balance induced by alcohol intoxication. In addition, the Army
Audiology and Speech Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center informs
students about how the center works with soldiers, veterans and their
families to treat communication disorders.
“We try to find
ways to engage the students on their level,” Clarke said. “They are
starting and ending the day with a lot of very interesting and
compelling scientific information.”
Students who participated
in Brain Awareness Week also had the opportunity to view the museum’s
newest exhibition, “Abraham Lincoln: The Final Casualty of War,” which
features several of its most popular artifacts. The exhibit honors the
nation’s 16th president with various items associated with his last
hours and the Army doctors who cared for him. On display is the actual
bullet that took Lincoln’s life and fragments of hair and skull that
were gathered during his autopsy in the White House.
“We are
able to tell a really interesting story that people know about, but we
tell a different side of the story than you might get in the history
textbooks,” Clarke said.
The museum was founded in 1862 during
the Civil War to collect anatomical specimens that could be used to
develop new treatments for injuries sustained during battle. The
museum, once led by Walter Reed, also played a role in shaping modern
germ theory and an understanding of infections, as well as helping to
found the Army Medical School and various clinical libraries focused on
treating soldiers.
“It was Army Medical Museum staff, curators
and scientists over the latter half of the 19th century that worked
with partners all over the world to indoctrinate those types of
practices into Army medicine,” Clarke said.
(John Ohab holds a doctorate in neuroscience and works for the Defense Media Activity’s New Media directorate.)
Related Sites:
Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military
National Museum of Health and Medicine
The Dana Foundation
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