Wellcome Collection - BRAINS exhibition

In a moment of rare foresight I decided to spend my 1 hour waiting for a connecting train at Euston station, visiting the latest exhibition on brains at the Wellcome collection. Previously I'd visited the exhibition on skin (unsurprisingly named SKIN), which served up the right amount of visual and mental stimulation. This latest exhibition proved to be as interesting, but didn't live up to my own hype after the last visit.

Security staff greeted me with the deferential smile of 'I'm just doing my job mate', as they politely searched my bag. After being established as benign, I entered through glass doors to be welcomed by an aptly simple title for the show: BRAINS.

The familiar blurb preceeding the exhibition provided a précis and rationale for the show. The latter, as you can imagine, was due to a lack of understanding by the public and the obvious importance of the brain. I particularly enjoyed the boldness of the neuroscientists sentiment - to prove that personal individuality, thoughts, memories and feeling are not derived from a unknown mysterious theistic entity, but bundles of neurons connected differently in each of us.

Brilliant, I strode happily into the foray of other tourists scatterd throughout the room, staring into mysterious glass boxes or wearing headphones and concerned expressions as they listened to transcribed medical reports of brain dissection from the early 1900s. I thought I was about to be enlightened about the marvels of the brain - which parts control which physical bits, how memories form, ways of altering peoples perceptions of colour or hearing, radical treatments for reviving brain death, lobotomies, and most importantly, loads of interesting looking BRAINS! However, I learnt none of these things, and (AND) there were only 3 jarred brains. 'Unbelievable!' I hear you silently cry, fear not though, there were plenty of interesting bits. The curators can't pick everything to exhibit, and unfortunately they missed my subjective exhibition 'sweet spot', and fairplay, the topic is enormous. So, the main foci of the exhibition, as far as I can crudely break down were 1) a collaboration between art and science, featuring several interpretations of brains, skulls and drawings of distorted heads, 2) evolution of treatments for brain pathologies, and case studies of brain surgery; from trepanning (image above) to tumour visualisation and excision 3) methods of studying the brain, and 4) brain banking.

Within the artistic side of the exhibition was photography of a large collection of brains at the Berlin charite museum, which I'd previously visited (but foolishly never checked the adjoining building which housed these specimens). Similarly to the Berlin museum which exhibits anatomical dissection, and the founding fathers of immunology and microbiology (an amazing place to visit), BRAINS also touches upon the atrocities of scientists within the second world war. This notably included harrowing documentation of a notorious doctor who sent letters to parents of disabled children explaing how they had 'contracted pneumonia' or how their 'outcome could not be foreseen', essentially informing them the child was dead or about to die, but they were not, or at least had not died by the described causes. Instead, the handicapped children were dissected and analysed to ascertain the providence of their disability. This subterfuge permitted the continued 'cleansing' of Hitler's germany, whilst doctors exploited the guise of treatment to immorally 'study' their patients.

An interesting exhibit showed the latest technology used for visualising tumours; combining several imaging techniques to form a 3D image of a tumour. The recent advances in tumour location now allow for intricate planning of removal operations, and incredibly precise radiation therapy. An interesting case of the first successful tumour removal was that performed by the godfather of brain surgery, Harvey Cushing. Cushing operated successfully on a decorated military officer which he became good friends with, unfortunately 15 years after the operation the tumour re-emerged, and when Cushing - who advised that removal was too ricky - operated a second time under the officers wishes, it resulted in his death.

As well as newspaper clippings, sculptures, wax models and physical brains, the show also provided videos and sound clips. One clutch of screens documented the painstaking process of preparing brains for microscopic study. One screen displayed the 53 hour task of microtoming a brain. This process involves embedding a brain in wax, which is then very thinly sliced in a cold environment to main tissue integrity. These slices are then microscopically examined by staining with various dyes or antibodies. A very small articles on one wall documented an interesting looking Spaniard who looked more like more an artist than scientist. Indeed, this was Santiago Ramon y Cajal (above), the discover of the brain cell. This gentleman was the first to use histological dyes in the study of brain tissue preparations. I thought he probably deserved more attention within the exhibition, as this is all I know about him - but more can be found here.

The final aspect I've separated this exhition into is brain banking: an important process needed for the continued study of neurological diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers. I think the focus on this topic was essentially a subliminal way of making viewers realise the importance of organ donation, especially of brains; a box on the organ donation card some may hesitate to tick. Brief biographies of three 80+ year olds outlined their reasons for donating their brains after death. A particularly poignant donor was a 88 year old woman who could remember 0 years to 30, but nothing thereafter. A testament to the need for understanding neurological disease.

So on the whole I'd recommend going to BRAINS, as things can be learned. However I personally was not blown away, as it seems the brain still provides as big of an enigma as it always has, so possibly in another 30 years this show will be fascinating rather than intriguing.