We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

This parody (written by Greg Crowther) is sung to the tune of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback and performed by Taylor Swift).

This song is sung by an oligodendrocyte to a damaged spinal-cord neuron for which she used to provide myelin.

I remember when you broke off your axon,
Severed by the trauma of a spine fracture.
You haven't done much growing in a month,
Since you said you'd try to heal. (Right!)

Then you come around again and say, "Ollie,
I miss you and I swear I could regrow; help me!"
Remember this is not the PNS;
I'm not a Schwann cell; you're broken; I can't help; I'm sorry!

(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!)
I was your oligodendrocyte, but
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!)
This time, I'm telling you, I'm telling you...

We are never ever ever getting back together!
We are never ever ever getting back together!
You can't talk to neurons through your axon without me,
But we are never ever ever ever getting back together!
Like, ever!

• MP3 (demo by Leila Zelnick and Karaoke-Verson.com)

Songs like this one can be used during class meetings and/or in homework assignments. Either way, the song will be most impactful if students DO something with it, as opposed to just listening.

An initial, simple follow-up activity could be to answer the study questions below. A more extensive interaction with the song might entail (A) learning to sing it, using an audio file and/or sheet music as a guide, and/or (B) illustrating it with pictures, bodily poses, and/or bodily movements. The latter activity could begin with students identifying the most important or most challenging content of the song, and deciding how to illustrate that particular content.

(1) In this song an oligodendrocyte is singing to a neuron. Do we know what kind of neuron is being addressed? Explain your reasoning.

(2) The oligodendrocyte, Ollie, says, "I'm not a Schwann cell." What is the basic difference between an oligodendrocyte and a Schwann cell?

(3) Ollie also notes emphatically, "Remember this is not the PNS." Assuming that Ollie is not simply being pedantic, why do you think she is stressing this distinction between the CNS and the PNS?

(4) Ollie says, "You can't talk to neurons through your axon without me." Is this true, or is Ollie being unnecessarily harsh? Explain your reasoning.

(Answers may be found on the answers page.)