If you’re like me and find brains fascinating, here are a few places to see, touch, or even hold a brain.

India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences maintains a brain museum and brain bank.  A fascinating article on the Atlas Obscura website notes that visitors can view preserved specimens of brains and learn about their diseases and damage. For years, only medical professionals and students were allowed to see the many specimens, but in 2010, the museum was opened to the public, and the many thousands of visitors are encouraged to touch and hold actual brains that have recently been dipped in a liquid preservative.  You can read the article and see some fascinating images at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nimhans-brain-museum

Although India’s museum is far superior, there are also museums closer to home that you can visit. The National Museum of Health and Museum (NMHM), once also called the Walter Reed Army Medical Museum, is located in Silver Spring, MD. It is a small museum, but it does have a display of brains and spinal cords. Of particular interest is that they usually have plasticized body parts on display, so you can touch and hold a human brain that has been preserved with plastic. Because of the plastic, its texture will not be as realistic as those of the brains that you can hold in India, but it is still an interesting experience. Their website is here:  http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/ My family found that it took under an hour to see the whole museum.

A larger brain exhibit is a bit farther away at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. The Mütter has slices of preserved brains, including several from Albert Einstein’s brain. The entire museum is quirky and engaging all at once. If you go, be sure to check out the wet specimens collection.  Muttermuseum.org

If you’d rather see a brain online than in person, check out this short excerpt from Jill Bolte Taylor’s famous Ted Talk.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbhwbzuK6OQ  Or, to get a better sense of what a human brain really looks like before hardened with preservatives, check out this video from the University of Utah’s neuroscience initiative. I hope you’ll look, because despite the medical terminology the doctor uses, it is impressive to see just how soft the brain really is. Be forewarned, though, that this is real (think watching a surgery), so only go there if seeing a human organ doesn’t bother you.  https://www.sciencealert.com/what-human-brain-really-looks-like-video-incredible