Chapter 5: Getting Ahead

I really didn't feel like reading anything, but Shubin caught my attention when he said that 2 cranial nerves, trigeminal and facial, were "outrageously easy" in the beginning of the chapter. I always knew that whatever was going on in the head was complicated and I wanted to stay away from any information about it until I was to learn them in class. Shubin hooked me to reading the rest of the chapter to understand what he meant by "outrageously easy."

I really enjoyed the simile of vessels and nerves in the brain to tangled fishing lines. I know how it feels to have tangled fishing lines and I found it easy to relate to Shubin when he opened up a human head. Additionally, I never thought that dentists needed to know the trigeminal nerve well. I always took them from granted thinking that they jabbed the anesthetic anywhere. Now, I will keep in mind that dentists know something.

When Shubin named the facial nerves like depressor angulioris, corrugator supercilii, and nasalis, I was doubting whether Shubin really found the 2 nerves easy, or he was completely crazy. However, by the end of the chapter, I found the 2 nerves easy as well. He stated the importance of 2 nerves such as the facial nerves control the muscles to smile and open our eyelids effectively. He also proved to me that history is a major factor in understanding one's cartilages' and nerves' placement in the head. He went as far back as to the embryo and explained the significance of the insignificant arches, swelling, and indentations of the embryo.

As he explained the way to find nerves easy, he even advised me about the embryos' head's similarities between humans and sharks. Additionally, he informed me about the Amphioxus which is an invertebrate that has the huge similarity to a vertebrate, the notochord.