Brain Decomposition Research Paper

Decomposition is a process that a specimen undergoes after death in which the body slowly starts to decay. In each specimen different parts of the body begin to decompose at different times. There are many factors that come into play in decomposition such as, how the specimen died, internal temperatures, the body size, and so on. As mentioned before different organs go through different decomposition processes, and when it comes to the brain it undergoes liquefaction. Liquefaction of the brain is a process where the brain begins to generate liquids because of the breakdown of its cells and lipids. With this being said, it has been extremely difficult for scientists to discover a way to accurately estimate the time since death of a specimen. It is known that brain fluid is produced once the specimen has passed away; however, why it is produced cannot be directly answered. The position that the body is in after death may also be a leading factor in the amount of brain

The specimen that were utilized were Sprague Dawley adult male rats (10 rats). They were euthanized by 0.5ml of sodium pentobarbital, an intravascular injection, and then weighed. Afterwards, these animals were assigned randomly to a horizontal or vertical position (5 rats per group). The rats in the horizontal group were placed on a supine, head-up, position while the vertical group were placed on a prone, head-down, position. The room temperature was kept at 22°C. After 24 hours the animals were decapitated and the brain fluid was assessed using a moisture analyzer. The moisture analyzer removes all liquid from the brain and determines the amount of fluid in the animal. In addition, there was a second study conducted with the same species of rats (amount = 34). They went through the exact same process as the previous specimen. However, they were left in a horizontal position and were examined at time periods of 0, 3, 6, and 24 hours after