I actually have one tomorrow: a neuroscience
practical =-) Can't wait!!!
While studying for this next experiment in memory I
realized how important memory is, and if you have a bad memory how miserable
your life can be. My memory could probably be classified as fair, I mean I am
in medical school. But, I'm most definitely not the top in my class! Nor would
I probably ever want to be...I like having a life.
So given my predicament (which is more of an issue
than you'd imagine the normal person would encounter with their brain) my
friends and I have come up with several memory devices otherwise known as mnemonics,
which help us remember. Sadly most of these are the most immature and provocative
sayings you will ever hear civilized people say. But, the fact is the more
'dirty' or ridiculous the saying is the more likely you are to remember
it.
Some of the most useless things I learned in high
school were due to horrid mnemonics. For example in the 10th grade my biology
teacher taught us the classification of species using the mnemonic:
Kids Put Condoms On For Good Fun --> Kingdom
Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species
I haven't forgotten it since.
As you can imagine the mnemonics for medical school
aren't much better:
(Make an X with your arms and in your best heavy
metal voice shout) TRIPLE X --> Kleinfelter's disease
Vladimir Putamin --> To remember the Putamin of
the Lentiform nucleus of the Brain
*Censor Warning* Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Virgin
Girls Vagina And Hymen --> The cranial nerves in order
The Egyptians live next to the Greeks --> Referring
to the location of the pyramids and olives on the brain stem.
The list goes on. But as you can see we can come up
with some fairly interesting stuff when put under enough stress!
So the next time you go to the doctor's and the
doctor says something that sounds kind of quirky, just pass it off as a mnemonic that will help diagnose you not as sexual harassment or
insanity.
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