Odd harvest Reflections on the practice of brain collection

Brain donation is an unusual pursuit. It is an aspect of medical research that the lay public may not necessarily know much about. In 2003, to learn more about the underlying pathophysiology of essential tremor (ET), we established the Essential Tremor Brain Repository (ETCBR) at Columbia University, a research effort whose purpose was to enhance understanding of the ET brain (NIH R01 NS042859, Elan D. Louis, principal investigator). Now, at a 10-year point in this endeavor, we pause for a moment to reflect, distill, and share. Why? From the moment potential brain donors first inquire about the possibility of donating their brains to science, all the way through the long course of postmortem brain tissue analyses, health professionals are involved. They experience a range of emotions, thoughts, and reactions, yet we are unaware of any literature that has attempted to capture and record the human elements of this process.