smooth pursuit... not just a nickname for a girl i know...

first let me say that its almost midnight and im still at school studying, and i have to say that medical school is perhaps the coolest thing that i have ever done and i feel so privlaged to be here. let me tell you what i have learned today.

smooth pursuit: this refers to the eyes tracking an object slowly across your visual field. the ability comes for the occipital lobe. however, it is impossibe to do this unless you are following an object. try it. start at the corner of the ceiling and try to slowly move your eyes to the other corner. your eyes will jump from spot to spot. now follow your finger, its a smooth movement. clinical application: this is how you tell if a schizophrenic person is really seeing something, if they can smoothly track it with their eyes. crazy, huh?
btw, the fast movement of your eyes is controlled by the frontal lobe of the brain.

random fact: men have a 1:2 chance of getting some form of cancer anywhere in the body during their lifetime. guys, look at your roomate/cubicalmate/playmate (oh, wait...) and chances are either you or they will develop cancer. most likely cancer? prostate, 1:6 chance.

tonight i was walking across the atrium of the school and tripped, but didn't fall. at first i blushed and hoped that no one saw. then i just realized that i knew the pathway that fired to keep me upright. my semicircular canals sent a signal to the vestibulochocler nerve (Crainial Nerve VIII) to my cerebellum through the inferior cerebellar peducle to the flocculonodular lobe, then to the fastigial nucleus, then out to the vestibular nuclei then down the spinal cord thru the lateral and medial vestibulospinal tract to my arms and legs to respond to keep me from falling. and it all took place in less than a second without me even thinking about what i was doing. amazing!

thank God we have such amazing and complex systems. i really am in awe of the body im struggling to learn about.

what to look forward to tomorrow? dysdiadochokinesia. (it really is a word, i promise)