Brain dead?

In option E, students are to study about two aspects of the human brain. First how various ways of studying the brain leads to our understanding of how the brain functions.  The methods include lesions such as strokes and accidents as well as deliberate cutting of brain tissue; animal experimentation which could include some of the above but more likely the implanting of electrodes into or onto the brain tissue to determine how various stimulations provoke different responses and finally fMRI.  fMRI means functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging which biologists don't really need to know how this works but what we can get from this technique.  Physics students studying Medical Physics option do need to understand how the magnetic fields cause molecules to vibrate in line of the field or out of line thus allowing us to detect their position.

The second aspect is to explain how the pupil reflex can indicate brain damage to determine brain dead patients. Obviously there are much more sophisticated methods than just the pupil reflex to determine brain dead but students need to apply this reflex in their exam responses!

In any case, fMRI is non-invasive and is being used to delve into the unconsciousness of comatose patients to determine if the patient is actually able to respond.  In this article, Is Anybody In There?, the surprising stories of how some patients who have been comatose or in a vegetative state for up to 12 years actually respond to questions while in the fMRI tube.  The responses match those of healthy people asked similar questions suggesting that the responses could reflect some level of consciousness.

Teachers could have students read this article to generate a discussion about the syllabus topic of brain dead and the use of the pupil reflex as an indicator.  

I had a friend who was comatose for many years and wrote this class activity to support this topic.  When is human life over? is a worksheet that teachers can provide to students to lead them towards an understanding of the issues in this discussion.