• Question: How come on every picture i see of the brain the colour is pink and it is actually grey? x

    Asked by jacko1301 to Ben, James, Jen, Michael, Susanna on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by blancaster1212, samprewbob.
    • Photo: Jen Todd Jones

      Jen Todd Jones answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Hi Jacko

      This is a great question! The brain is pink in some pictures because it has blood flowing through it, oxygenated blood from the heart is red (this is why blood is red when you bleed). When a person dies and the brain is removed the brain is drained of blood and actually white or gray!

    • Photo: Susanna Martin

      Susanna Martin answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I think (and someone correct me if i’m wrong) that it is pinkish if you see it when the blood is running through it, so when you see a brain in a jar it is grey because it is dead, also sometimes the preserving fluid will affect the colour of it.

    • Photo: Michael Craig

      Michael Craig answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Hi Jacko,

      As Jen and Susanna have said, the brain is actually pinky/red when we’re alive and blood is flowing through it like in this picture http://www.human-memory.net/brain.html

      Any brains that you see in museums have been preserved immediately after someone has died. This stops the brain decaying and preserves it in its natural shape. With no oxygenated red blood cells it looks grey, just like most of tissues would be without oxygen.

      It is confusing as we also have regions of the brain that people call grey and white matter, but they are not actually grey or white when we’re alive. This has a lot to do with the density of the regions and how many cells are in them. Different densities show up as different shades of grey on scanners e.g. x ray and this is where the white and grey matter areas get their names

Comments