Guest Author - Violette DeSantis

Professor Paul Francis from King’s College London says there is a shortage of brains being donated to medical science. This shortage lengthens the time it will take to learn all there is to know about the hundred billion nerve cells in our brain.

Our brains are cool things. Every time a person has a new thought it is believed that a new connection between their brain cells is made. It is like one of those video games where you can create a new story each time you play it.

We have the most complex brain out of all the living beings on our planet. It is not the biggest brain in the world, but it is the biggest brain a being has compared to their body size. In the first year of our life our brains grow to three times the size it was when we were born.

It is divided into two sides, each controls the opposite of side your body. So when you are using the right side of your body the left side of your brain had something to do with it and when you are using the left side of your body the right side of your brain can take all the credit. Your brain is responsible for all the things you think, say and do.

Some people are born with brains that do not work as expected. Medical scientists have studied the brain over the years to learn all that they can about protecting the brain from the side effects of getting old and from diseases we are born with.

The shortage of donations is mostly of healthy brains to medical science. People think that scientists only want to look at unhealthy brains. To study the brain, scientists need to compare unhealthy or diseased brains with healthy brains.

The call for brains is actually for a small number. They estimate they need 300 people a year to donate their brains to science. It may seem like a lot of brains to you and me but with over 6 billion people in the world, somewhere over 50 million people die each year, about 155,000 a day according to numbers from the CIA World Factbook (figures estimated from July, 2005 data).

It is important to note that donating a brain to science is not the same as donating body organs. The care of the brain after death is handled differently than other organs and is not included during the removal of donated organs that save lives. While it is easy to sign up to donate organs, donating a brain requires a family member to make the deceased person’s wishes known, something to consider when discussing donating a brain with a family member.