Advertisement
Adam Vorhees: I was on assignment for Scientific American, and my wife and I were to photograph a normal human brain that had been donated. So we went to University of Texas and were talking to Tim Schallert, who owns the lab, and he says, "Hey, do you guys want to check out the brain collection?" So we go into a teaching lab, and there's a storage closet filled with cabinets that contained these jars stacked two-deep on the shelves, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, with human brains. It's the kind of thing you see in the movies.
Advertisement
No, it was very much the mystery of it. It was a feeling of responsibility where I felt I could do something positive. The secondary thing is the sociology aspect, wanting to understand what these people's experiences were like. There were brains of people who had Down's syndrome. I was really confused by that. I grew up in the 80s, and my perception of it wouldn't be that a person [with Down's] would be in a mental hospital. Another thing is that decades ago, if somebody had a low IQ, they would be put into a school that is essentially a state-run ward, and it would kind of be a life sentence to a mental institution. So you had these people who had Down's syndrome who ended up in this collection for that reason. There's another brain with meningitis—it's an inflammation of the brain. It's not a mental illness. Why were they there? I wanted to know.So how did 100 ancient brains end up apart from their owners, banished to jars for eternity?
The collection was amassed from the 1950s to the early 80s. Back then, if a person was in a state hospital, and they had a really low IQ, a degree of mental retardation, or some kind of brain disorder—and they passed away while they were in state care—there had to be a brain autopsy. So these were all patients at the Austin State Hospital, which was originally established in the late 1800s.
Advertisement
I honestly have no idea. I think a lot of it has to do with disposal issues, but that's a really interesting question because the bodies were definitely taken care of. It is a relevant question, but what I've really been focusing on are questions like: What is so special about this collection? How is it scientifically relevant? What use is there to it?So there weren't any documents accompanying the collection that offered any clues about it?
One of the things we wanted to do was uncover these medical records at the state hospital. They told us we had access to these records whenever we want. Well, somebody at this hospital had thrown them out. So all of this medical data that went with the collection was thrown away. Just gone. So that's why we don't know as much as I'd like to know about a lot of the brains.What kind of place was the Texas State Mental Hospital? Some of the jars look like they just contain chunks of brains. Did doctors carry out procedures like lobotomies and psychosurgery?
In the late 1800s, it was incredibly progressive. It was all about rest for patients, giving them fresh air, room to exercise and breathe. It was a very forward-thinking place. And as you go forward in history, then you get into electroshock therapy, you get into heavily medicating patients, so that kind of stuff did happen. So these ups and downs in history. As far as lobotomies, I don't know whether that was or wasn't done.
Advertisement
You have incredibly rare brains. Somebody had a severe brain tumor, and they would have headaches, behavioral changes. You have brains with giant brain tumors that wouldn't happen now due to medical advancement. You have some rare disorders where the brain is completely smooth. That person probably wouldn't be able to talk. He would have seizures. Most of the brains have a buildup of cerebral fluid, which is another thing that wouldn't really happen today. The doctors now would put a little device at the base of the skull that would drain excess fluid. Here we see fluid building up in the inside or the outside of the brain, which would cause the brain to be incredibly large. It can cause the brain to be small. It can cause the brain to grow in a shape that isn't normal, and those were the ones that were wild. And then Alzheimer's—you have an incredible amount of decay in the brain tissue. And elderly brains, where the wrinkles are kind of shrunken and pulled apart more.
So what can we learn today about mental health from the brains?
It's pretty exciting. The brains in this collection wouldn't exist today because of the technologies and medication we have, so they can be used as a teaching tool. The response from the scientific community has been fantastic. A lot of pathologists have reached out, and they are very excited about the project. You have brains where people were medicated when they wouldn't be medicated today, and people can do comparisons of the tissue. You could compare people suffering from schizophrenia who didn't have any medications with people who do now. There's so much to it that's really valuable.What's in the future for the brains? Will they be put on display?
After we started this project, UT got a rejuvenation of interest in this collection. They've decided to do MRI scans, and that would be a way to study the entire mass of the brain and could be something people could use anywhere to do a study. UT is building a new medical teaching facility, and they have plans to put them in a sort of museum there. They have a room at Harvard Medical where they have brains on display in a very tasteful manner. I think it would be exciting if UT had something along those lines.
Follow Claire Voon on Twitter.