Brain Awareness Hour: The Advantage of Being a Mermaid

Explore the wonders of the brain during Brain Awareness Hour.

This presentation will cover how injury to the Central Nervous System (CNS), i.e. Brain and Spinal Cord, induces loss of sensory and motor function leading to permanent paralysis. Although, mechanisms of repair occur in the mammal CNS, regenerative processes are abortive. However, other animals such as fish are able to regenerate their CNS, anatomically but also functionally, inducing a complete recovery. Comparison between mammals and fish leads us to the best compromise: The Mermaid.

Presented by Christine G. Gerin, Ph.D., President, Society for Neuroscience RGV Chapter, Neuroscience Department, UTRGV School of Medicine