A Crafty Approach for Learning the Topographical Anatomy of the Cranial Nerves

Abstract

Certain neuroanatomical relationships can be complex for students to visualise and understand. This article describes creation of a simple and cheap model to help students more easily learn the relationships of the cranial nerves to each other and to the different regions of the central nervous system (forebrain and brainstem).

Keywords: Anatomical education; Brainstem; Cost-effective; Cranial nerves; Neuroanatomy; Teaching methods.

Fig. 1

Each cranial nerve is assigned a coloured pipe cleaner; the toilet roll tube is then annotated to demonstrate the forebrain and brainstem regions and the relationship of the cranial nerves to these areas

Fig. 2

Completed model with all 12 cranial nerves and their topographical relationship to the forebrain and brainstem; a superior view of the model demonstrates the use of each pipe cleaner to model each cranial nerve pair