stupid question about the brain...

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but you are looking at a picture of the brain cut and not butterflied. It does look that way, but IMO, this isn't a very good picture. What about looking through an anatomy book or if you have Netter's, his drawings are amazing of the human brain.

I'm really trying to bone up on neuro because I feel nursing school doesn't do much for it and I take care care of stroke patients sometimes. Knowning where the caudate is can help, I don't know, "enlighten."

One thing I'm having trouble with is pictures of brains. When I look at them, it looks like I'm seeing a part of the brain, cut and then "butterflied" to get a better look, because otherwise there would be two of everything. Two hippocampi, two internal capsules etc... But maybe there are two? Here's an attachment that illustrates what I'm talking about. The lit-up parts are the basal ganglia (caudate, putamen, substantia nigra etc...) It looks like there's two of each, as if a mirror image. Is that right?

see the little hole in the middle that looks like an orifice in the middle of a pelvis ,,that is acually the base of the brain and it is one slide of a ct scan @ the base of the brain ,,:trout:

picture the pic as looking down at a pt from the top of their head...and picturing the sliced films stacked together like a stack of plates..with the top "slice" being the top of the head....you are thinking that you are seeing "two" of many things but really are seeing the lower pic of it....if you stack more "plates" on top, you will realize that the pieces are actually 1...ct slices are stacked a variety of ways, and it depends on what slice (like the slice in the middle of a watermelon looks different than the ends )...hope it helps

One thing I'm having trouble with is pictures of brains. When I look at them, it looks like I'm seeing a part of the brain, cut and then "butterflied" to get a better look, because otherwise there would be two of everything. Two hippocampi, two internal capsules etc... But maybe there are two? Here's an attachment that illustrates what I'm talking about. The lit-up parts are the basal ganglia (caudate, putamen, substantia nigra etc...) It looks like there's two of each, as if a mirror image. Is that right?

There are 2 separate cerebral hemispheres: the left and right. Each side is an almost mirror image of the other. The exceptions are that only one side will have the Broca's center for expressive speech and only one side will have the Wernicke's center for receptive speech.