Museum of the Eccentric: Inside the BRAIN museum

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Inside the BRAIN museum

Inside the BRAIN museum which boasts nearly 3,000 exhibits where even the hardiest observers are driven to faint and vomit

The Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Hospital in Lima has collected organs for more than 300 years
It is the only museum in Latin America, and one of the few in the world, that displays a large collection of brains
It attracts around 20,000 visitors each year, but is not for the faint hearted
Neuropathologist Diana Rivas said women's brains are more evolved than men's

By Afp Reporter and Dave Burke For Mailonline

Published: 22:56 GMT, 27 December 2016 | Updated: 17:19 GMT, 28 December 2016

A 'brain library' in Peru which has collected more than 3,000 of the most complex organs in the human body over the last 300 years attracts thousands of visitors each year.

The Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Hospital in Lima has a massive collection of diseased and healthy brains, giving researchers and the general public a glimpse of what is going on inside our heads.

It is the only museum in Latin America, and one of the few in the world, with a large collection of brains that is regularly open to the public.

Doctor Diana Rivas at the Museum of Neuropathology in Lima, which has a collection of nearly 300 brains on display

It is the only museum in Latin America, and one of the few in the world, with a large collection of brains that is regularly open to the public

A glass container with a human skull and brain immersed in formaldehyde is displayed at the museum in Peru

The hospital, which was founded more than three centuries ago, has a total of 2,912 brains collected over the years, and nearly 300 of these are on display in a mind-opening exhibit.

Around 20,000 people visit the museum each year.

On arrival, visitors are invited to touch a real skull, where they can feel the cranial bone structure and imagine how it holds 22 square feet of intricately-folded brain matter.

Dr Rivas holds a glass container with a human head immersed in formaldehyde at the unusual museum in Lima

A collection of sick human brains is displayed at the museum - which is not for the faint hearted

A brain of a person who suffered from Alzheimer's disease is on display at the museum in Lima

Neuropathologist Diana Rivas, surveying the collection, said: 'We show students what a healthy brain looks like, and then a sick brain, like this one with cysticercosis, which causes convulsions.'

And she said there is a discernible difference between the male and female brain, stating: 'A human brain weighs between 1.2 and 2.4 kilos, depending on the height and weight of the person, and on the sex,' she says.

'Women's are more evolved than men's. What differentiates us is the evolution of language, which we use much more than men.'

Pointing to a brain stained with marks left by invading tapeworms, she said the parasites are present in pork and can also be transmitted when people fail to wash their hands properly.

But it is not for the faint hearted. Dr Rivas said: 'Around five percent of students are afraid when they see it. Some faint, others vomit.'