Head and Neck Hell...any tips on how to survive?

[oompa loompa]

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We're just beginning head and neck...had our first lecture...I'm so dead. I didn't think it was possible to be so behind after just one lecture...

anyway, um, so those cranial nerves. SH IT!!! how are we supposed to learn all of them, which fossa they go through and keep all their million branches and paths straight?

any advice would be much appreciated. Texts you used, websites, mnemonics, etc.

 

[cfdavid]

We're just beginning head and neck...had our first lecture...I'm so dead. I didn't think it was possible to be so behind after just one lecture...

anyway, um, so those cranial nerves. SH IT!!! how are we supposed to learn all of them, which fossa they go through and keep all their million branches and paths straight?

any advice would be much appreciated. Texts you used, websites, mnemonics, etc.

it sounds like your head and neck unit started much like ours. they throw em all at you at once, and you're like "oh, shi.t!".

don't worry though. you'll start studying the various structures individually, and you'll get repitition as to what all the nerves do as the unit goes on. in other words, there will be repetition.

just stay on top of things, and don't get behind. but, i remember the same thing.

 

[Lorrayne]

I would recommend starting with the skull, and working your way out. Learn the major foramina and which of the cranial nerves run through them. At least that helped me to separate them and work with them in segments (i.e. which nerves innervate the orbit, which innervate the tongue, etc).
When you get the basics down, then you can start looking at them in more detail. And I would highly recommend drawing out flowcharts, etc., when it comes to the complex nerves like the facial, which are associated with multiple ganglia. But don't worry, you've just started, and you've got plenty of time.

 

[Hodad]

I never fully understood the neck until three days before the exams, when a couple of crucial anatomic relations hit me like a mallet.

Then it all just... fell into place. And it was the part I knew best.

 

[braluk]

lol for a second I thought the title referred to your neck and head pains during a surgical rotation when holding retractors for hours.

 

[45408]

repetition. ad nauseum. look at them in situ as well.

 

[potato51]

We're just beginning head and neck...had our first lecture...I'm so dead. I didn't think it was possible to be so behind after just one lecture...

anyway, um, so those cranial nerves. SH IT!!! how are we supposed to learn all of them, which fossa they go through and keep all their million branches and paths straight?

any advice would be much appreciated. Texts you used, websites, mnemonics, etc.

The lab helped me. Actually finding the nerves in various parts of the head and seeing where they travel and what ganglia/other nerves they hooked up with formed most of my knowledge of the cranial nerves. Use a skull to trace the paths of these nerves and figure out why these paths make anatomical sense.

Maybe your upperclassmen will inundate you with Powerpoint files with the entire schematics of these structures, but I found it helpful to make my own diagrams. And don't even try to memorize it all at once because it won't work. Head & neck is when I realized anatomy isn't as memorization-based as I originally thought. good luck.

 

[cfdavid]

The lab helped me. Actually finding the nerves in various parts of the head and seeing where they travel and what ganglia/other nerves they hooked up with formed most of my knowledge of the cranial nerves. Use a skull to trace the paths of these nerves and figure out why these paths make anatomical sense.

Maybe your upperclassmen will inundate you with Powerpoint files with the entire schematics of these structures, but I found it helpful to make my own diagrams. And don't even try to memorize it all at once because it won't work. Head & neck is when I realized anatomy isn't as memorization-based as I originally thought. good luck.

i know what you mean. i've been pleasantly suprised with how relationships and locationd of structures dictate their function (which can then make sense). then again, there's still a lot to memorize.

 

[Kris1]

I never fully understood the neck until three days before the exams, when a couple of crucial anatomic relations hit me like a mallet.

Then it all just... fell into place. And it was the part I knew best.

I agree with that. It all made sense just prior to the exam. I wish I had started learning the skull inside and out, then putting in CN VII and CN V. Once you get those, the rest falls into place.

 

[ShyRem]

I hate head & neck. I wanna go back to upper and lower limb.

 

[logos]

I would recommend starting with the skull, and working your way out. Learn the major foramina and which of the cranial nerves run through them. At least that helped me to separate them and work with them in segments (i.e. which nerves innervate the orbit, which innervate the tongue, etc).
When you get the basics down, then you can start looking at them in more detail. And I would highly recommend drawing out flowcharts, etc., when it comes to the complex nerves like the facial, which are associated with multiple ganglia. But don't worry, you've just started, and you've got plenty of time.

Yes. Learn the head holes first, then the nerves that go through them and what they do.

Oh Oh Oh That Trick Asked For Very Good Vagina And Head

or some variation on that....I used it all last year in neuro too...just cant remember them all straight up...

 

[BlinkyCat]

I think it really helps to study the skull first and then pile on nerves arteries etc. I mean really learn the skull well. Another thing that helped me was I learned things in reasonable chunks, so instead of learning all the nerves..all the arteries, all the muscles, I learned them according to regions. So orbit...I learned everything associated with orbit...infratemporal region..everything associated with that...retromandibular region..learn all the stuff associated with that...and so on... That helped me condense information and makes remember stuff alot easier because it was organized in some kind of logical fashion. I know some of my classmates memorized all the cranial nerves..all the branches of the arteries....and that just didn't work for me. 🙂

 

[bjackrian]

Yes. Learn the head holes first, then the nerves that go through them and what they do.

Oh Oh Oh That Trick Asked For Very Good Vagina And Head

or some variation on that....I used it all last year in neuro too...just cant remember them all straight up...

Or
Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel A/Virgin Girl's Vagina! Ah, Heaven!

 

[CCLCMer]

We're just beginning head and neck...had our first lecture...I'm so dead. I didn't think it was possible to be so behind after just one lecture...

anyway, um, so those cranial nerves. SH IT!!! how are we supposed to learn all of them, which fossa they go through and keep all their million branches and paths straight?

any advice would be much appreciated. Texts you used, websites, mnemonics, etc.

I don't have any advice for you, but I wanted to say thanks for starting this thread. We're beginning neck (but apparently not head!) next week. So much for all of the good advice here to learn the head first. 😛 Anyone have any thoughts for learning the neck without the head?

 

[Church]

Best advice I can give is to get up early and go into lab for like an hour. No-one's around to disturb you, and you can see where things are and where they go... before the next dissection when the head gets MORE chopped up. If you wait until the week of the exam, it's a hopeless mess to try and sort through. Consistent study every day will let you stay on top of what's where.

 

[psipsina]

Well I'm nearing the end of head and neck, and the best advice I have is 1) learn your skull!!! and 2) watch acland's dissection videos before lab so you have a clue what you are looking at . . . expecially when your cadaver begins to no longer resemble a human being, it helps you orient yourself if you know what a good dissection would look like when you're looking at your own hacked up mess. oh and your chisel is your friend.

 

[LJDHC05]

Understanding branchial arch development helped me out with a lot of the innervation and blood supply issues that I was having trouble remembering

 

[45408]

Understanding branchial arch development helped me out with a lot of the innervation and blood supply issues that I was having trouble remembering

mf'in word. You'll be wondering forever why this nerve innervates that part of the tongue, but if you know where they all started, it's much easier to remember where they all go.

 

[CCLCMer]

mf'in word. You'll be wondering forever why this nerve innervates that part of the tongue, but if you know where they all started, it's much easier to remember where they all go.

Sigh. We haven't done any embryology yet, either. 😛

 

[45408]

Sigh. We haven't done any embryology yet, either. 😛

That sucks. 😛 Because when you get there, you'll be going "Ahhhh, oooooh, NOW I get it......"

 

[LJDHC05]

My advice for lab:
assign every table 2 structures to do a decent job of dissecting, and have them shred every other structure...that makes the practical much easier...😉

(I'm kidding completely...sort of)

 

[45408]

Our lab groups all write down a few structures that are really well-dissected on your cadaver, and then you can go look at structures that you completely removed on yours to get to something deeper (or never found). Our profs then use those as loose guidelines for what they might tag.

 

[Gut Shot]

Stupid, dirty, sexual and often violent mnemonic devices.

 

[BoredRlyin]

H&N brought me closer to insanity that I've ever been before.

 

[Flyfisher]

We just finished head and neck so I feel your pain.... everything clicked for me the morning of the test.

I'd recommend wathcing a dissection video before the lab and then doing ID quizes afterwards.

learn the skull first.. all the bones and features. we had bone boxes so we all had skulls at home to practice with. get some pipecleaners and push them thru foramina and fissures to visualize the path.

cranial nerves - learn a pnemonic, pick your favorite. the dirtier the better.

here is our class website, we have alot of head and neck links/resources if you scroll down.

http://comp2010.org/resources.html

the hardest part is the autonomics... as soon as they teach it to you try to learn it right away because it will take a very long time to get it!! the UMichigan Anatomy wesbite has a tutorial that is priceless. when you finish all the questions you can print out a summary slide.

http://anatomy.med.umich.edu/modules/head_autonomics_module/autonomics_01.html

SUNY has an awesome anatomy quiz with at least 1000 different tags. and if you get them wrong they keep showing them to you until you get it right. I went from clueless on the friday before the test to my best lab practical grade of the semester with this site. this was with only 1 hour of actual lab practice the night before the practical.

http://ect.downstate.edu/courseware/haonline/index.htm

I did alot better in head and neck than i did in gross. it figures that It would take me 2 months to figure out how to do anatomy.

good luck! let me know if you have any more questions or want more resource

 

[SitraAchra]

ahh i finished head and neck a few weeks ago.


two words my friend: BEND OVER.


Abducens and Oculomotor are your best friends.

Trigeminal and Facial..your worst enemies!


I suppose Olfactory and Optic aren't too bad either..but head and neck is a wild untamed beast.

 

[45408]

yeah, I realized I already forgot which branch of the trigeminal is for the muscles of mastication. great retention I've got there.....