Thread: What color is the human brain?

The cerebral cortex (outer layer) is referred to as gray matter apparently for a reason but why in text books and photographs is it usually a pinkish fleshy color? I grew up thinking the brain was this color: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...generation.jpg

It's grey compared to the white matter underneath and also probably because it would first have been named so by dissection on a dead body where the brain would definitely appear more grey. (the grey matter at least)

(The grey matter is the part of the brain containing the cell bodies of the neurons, hence the name! underneath is the white matter which is mostly synapses and all the other parts.)

heres an answer I read somewhere else:

pink from the numerous blood vessels through it. Some areas with a lot of myelin are more whiteish.
If you have a grey brain you are dead and maybe somebody dunked your brain in formalin or any other fixative. Not a desirable stage to be in. Sorry for all those people with grey brains here.
As the anatomists got to see somebody elses brain mainly fixed in formalin the term grey and white matter (to distinuish cell and fiber parts) comes from there. It doesn't have much to do with how the brain looks alive.

Zythum's right. It's pink. It doesn't become grey until after death.

Exactly which is the stat n which it would be namd. I couldnt initially be named after a live brain as how would that have been done!

Originally Posted by Robbie

Exactly which is the stat n which it would be namd. I couldnt initially be named after a live brain as how would that have been done!

People have been able to drill holes through live skulls for some time now, whilst not killing the individual. And besides, the technical name of the brain is not based on its living/dead status. ‘Grey matter’ is a slang term more-or-less, and is used as simply a reference. We can still use it as a slang reference for the brain without having to chuck all our knowledge out the door and start assuming that it is actually grey.

After all, how many tree trunks are actually brown?


Regards,
Rv. Jon

Originally Posted by Jon

Originally Posted by Robbie

Exactly which is the stat n which it would be namd. I couldnt initially be named after a live brain as how would that have been done!

People have been able to drill holes through live skulls for some time now, whilst not killing the individual. And besides, the technical name of the brain is not based on its living/dead status. ‘Grey matter’ is a slang term more-or-less, and is used as simply a reference. We can still use it as a slang reference for the brain without having to chuck all our knowledge out the door and start assuming that it is actually grey.

After all, how many tree trunks are actually brown?


Regards,
Rv. Jon

Well, to go so far as to figure out that there's two different kinds of 'matter' that compose the brain, they'd have to do far more than drill a few holes.

If someone stabbed you in your brain. you actually wouldnt feel it at all.

Originally Posted by leohopkins

If someone stabbed you in your brain. you actually wouldnt feel it at all.

No, you wouldn't. However, you would still be one dead son of a gun :wink:.

You would still have sensation as deep as your meninges so you would have quite a good idea that something wasnt right! (Assunng you survived!!!)