This is an interactive DVD which displays head and neck anatomy in a pictorial fashion in combination with multiplanar T1 weighted MR images. The setup allows one to scroll over the MR images or over the anatomic drawings and with that the major structures are indentified. Additionally, movements of various structures are played in a cine-like mode and include eye, cervical spine, TMJ, larynx, face, and muscle animation. The drawings are excellent (particularly those involving the inner and middle ear); however, the MR imaging is not optimal. The displayed images, especially in the neck, are degraded by phase/motion artifacts and limiting the MR to just these T1WIs does not take full advantage of the power of MR to display anatomy. Images can be saved to your PC. The instructions for using the DVD are clear, and the format is intuitive.

For a student learning basic anatomy, the material is good and is a painless to way to learn the major structures; however, for the neuroradiologist, the DVD is found to be wanting in the brain. Only the most gross and obvious structures are labeled (white matter, cortex, cerebellum, etc). This obviously is of no help to anyone wanting to learn detailed anatomy of the brain. Things are a bit better in the neck and temporal bone, but still none of the material would be satisfying to any radiologist who had special interest in ENT radiology.

This DVD could benefit first-year medical students learning the basics of neck and head anatomy.

This DVD, authored by Lennart Heimer, MD, from the University of Virginia, is a demonstration of blunt brain dissection. With a running time of 2 hours and 43 minutes, it is divided into 3 sections. The first section demonstrates the major white matter tracts; the second, surface anatomy and deeper gray matter of the brain; and the third, major pathways such as the corticospinal tracts, sensory pathways, visual system pathways, brain stem, basal ganglionic structures, and the limbic system, among others. In some areas, the dissections are accompanied by diagrams showing structures that are to be seen.

What makes this DVD valuable is its reinforcement of the real-life location of many important tracts, including those that subserve the motor, sensory, and emotional circuits. Although the DVD is educational in its own right, the addition of accompanying MR images, particularly those demonstrating diffusion tensor imaging or selected tractography, would have made it more germane to practicing neuroradiologists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons. Perhaps in an updated DVD, Dr. Heimer could involve his neuroradiology colleagues at the University of Virginia to secure these correlative images. It would then become a more compelling DVD.