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Brain Surgery Games: An Educational Experience like None Other
If there were ever two terms that you’d thought you’d never hear together, “brain surgery” and “games” probably rank fairly close to the top of that list. However, despite your natural surprise, brain surgery games are real and they are rapidly increasing in popularity as an educational tool. In this article we will show you what these games are and what they are intended to teach, and list just a few of the parts of the brain you can become more familiar with as a game participant.
What Are Brain Surgery Games?
There’s probably no need to tell you that brain surgery games do not involve real surgery, but it is a simulated virtual experience which many experts admit is the closest thing to genuine that a non-surgeon can participate in. Virtual brain surgery takes players through the world of deep brain stimulation surgery—from prepping the patient to closing the incision—and gives them a firsthand experience into the inner workings of the mind.
Virtual brain surgery is intended to be an educational experience and is appropriate for anyone who wants to test their hand-eye coordination in a surgical setting. Many teachers use these games to help their more visual learner-oriented students better understand certain glossary terms associated with the brain. The game is animated, naturally, to protect the squeamish, but there is a disclaimer on the software that certain parts of the experience are fairly graphic.
What Can Brain Surgery Games Teach You?
Participating in virtual brain surgery teaches patience, cooperation and coordination, but it is also a great way for older children to become more familiar with certain terms related to the surgery experience and the brain. Some of these include:
• Anesthesia. Certain drugs, usually administered intravenously, that prevent a patient from remembering and/or feeling anything during the surgery.
• Basal Ganglia. A part of the brain responsible for coordination, voluntary movements and certain cognitive functions.
• CT scan. Short for computerized tomography, this type of x-ray is used by doctors to produce images of the brain.
• Fiducials. These can best be defined as screws are markers that are placed in a patient’s skull to aid in the scanning and mapping of the brain during deep stimulation.
• MRI Scan. Short for “magnetic resonance imaging” this sort of test uses magnetic fields instead of x-rays to produce two-dimensional images of certain soft-tissue organs, including the brain.
• Neurologist. A doctor who specializes in the non-surgical treatment of the brain.
• Neurosurgeon. A specialist who is trained to perform surgical intervention as it relates to the brain.
• Parkinson’s disease. A degenerative disease of the brain that causes tremors along with speech and coordination difficulties.
These are just a few of the terms and procedures that students can become familiar with using the variety of brain surgery games available. Teachers who have used these types of games in their classroom regularly report a more comprehensive understanding by their students as a whole, not to mention the more important benefit which is that their students actually look forward to learning this new information when these games are involved.