The Forebrain Magnified

	MAGNIFIED 4x	MAGNIFIED 10x	MAGNIFIED 20x
MONKEY			N/A
CAT
RAT

Unfortunately, we don't have photomicrographs at each magnification for every animal. However, an interesting comparison is between the cat and rat forebrains at 20x (highest power) magnification. The neurons in these pictures look very similar, don't they? Amazing!

At the same magnification, the neurons of each animal look very similar and even identical. Why, then, do you suppose these animals behave in different ways if their neurons look similar? If the building block of the brain (the neuron) is the same in every type of animal's brain, why don't all animals act the same?

No one has a true or certain answer to that question. However, people often generalize that one must look at the larger picture to get an answer. Others argue that more needs to be known about the neurons in particular. What do you think? Do we learn more by looking at the larger-scale structures of the brain or studying each individual neuron? Click here to learn more about the neuron, or click one of the buttons below to continue magnifying parts of the brain.