The brain is one of the most amazing and complex parts of the human body. Many of us, like researchers, have asked ourselves many questions regarding the human brain, such as the number of neurons, the amount of electricity or its storage capacity.
The human brain continues to produce neurons until a certain age
The human brain is responsible for keeping your body functioning throughout the day. Not only does it help people think and learn new things, but it also controls your movement and speech. The brain is part of the central nervous system and receives a lot of information.
The brain itself cannot feel pain
Have you ever wondered how surgeons are able to operate on patients while they are awake? Neuroscientist Beth McQuiston explains that although the brain has layers and blood vessels that contain pain receptors, the brain itself cannot feel pain. When a person has a headache, for example, it is often thought of as a pain coming from the brain, but in fact it is not. However, the muscles and skin around the brain can feel pain.
Your brain is “greedy”
Your brain might only make up about 3% of your body weight, but it receives about 30% of the blood pumped by your heart. This shows how much attention and support it needs compared to the other seemingly important areas of your body. It takes the brain about 1/10,000 of a second to respond to something and generate an action.
You use most of your brain, most of the time
Bradley Cooper’s film Limitless is just the latest version of the myth that we only use 10% of our brains. This misconception arose because the brain is so adaptable that sometimes minor damage causes only subtle problems. The truth is that most of your brain is constantly working to feel, process, think, move and even dream.
Adult brains continue to produce neurons
While most of our neurons have been with us since birth and age has a negative impact, your brain is still producing new neurons. This process, known as neurogenesis, takes place in a special region called the dentate gyrus. These neurons are thought to be important for learning, memory and stress response. These brain facts have been hotly debated, but a 2019 study published in the journal Nature Medicine, which analyzed the brain tissue of 58 recently deceased people, found that the adult brain can indeed generate new neurons. Neurogenesis can be stimulated by actions such as sleep, exercise and a balanced diet. On average, the human brain has about 120 billion neurons.
Almost half of a child’s energy goes into fueling their brain
For the brain to function at its highest level, it needs significant amounts of energy. This is even more true for young children who are still learning, processing and developing at a rapid pace. Scientists at Northwestern University recently found that during the preschool years, when a child’s brain development is fastest, physical growth is slower, possibly to save more energy for the developing brain. During puberty, when physical growth is faster, brain development is slower.
Most brain cells are not neurons
Did you know that for every neuron in the brain, there are at least as many glial cells that support and protect those neurons? These unsung microscopic heroes ensure that neurons have a constant supply of nutrients and oxygen, insulate neurons from each other, and even help clean up after neuronal damage.
Your brain can rewire itself
Neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to reorganize and change over a person’s lifetime, is a truly remarkable thing. In a 2011 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Montreal compared the brain activity of people who were born blind and those who had normal vision. They found that the part of the brain that is normally wired to work with our eyes can rewire itself to process sound information instead of visual perception.
The visual areas of the brain are behind it
These brain facts might sound counterintuitive, considering that your eyes are at the front of your head, but the part of your brain responsible for vision, the occipital lobe, is located at the back. Similarly, the left side of the brain controls vision on the right side and vice versa.
MRI scans “light up” certain areas of the brain when a person is in love
Some might think that being “in love” is just an idea or just a term that people use, but brain scans reveal otherwise. For people who are romantically in love, functional MRI scans of the brain can show activity where dopamine is present. Other areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward may also show greater activity for people who have fallen in love.
Your brain activity is as unique as your fingerprints
Research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience suggests that a person’s brain activity may be as unique as their own fingerprints. To reach their conclusion, the scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to create “connectivity profiles,” which allowed the researchers to identify the brain activity of more than 100 individuals. Learning about individual brain connections has given scientists specific insights into an individual’s intelligence or personality. This could have implications for how brain scanning could be used in the future to one day help individualize care for each person.
Your brain is smaller than that of your ancestors
This might be one of the most interesting things about the brain, but paleoanthropological research suggests that our brains are shrinking. Skeletal evidence from every inhabited continent supports this theory. Some scientists suggest that this could be related to the fact that the average human body size has also decreased over the past 10,000 years. A larger body requires a larger nervous system, so as our bodies have gotten smaller, so have our brains as an evolutionary response.
The brain has more types of cells than any other tissue in our body
Unlike the liver or certain muscles in our body, where most of the cells are of the same type, the human brain is composed of a variety of complex and interconnected cell types.
When you’re awake, your brain produces enough electricity to power a small light bulb
According to Stanford University computer scientists, a robot with a processor that is practically as intelligent as the human brain would need at least 10 megawatts of electricity to function properly. Neurons in the brain produce enough electricity to power a light bulb – 100 billion cells generate this amount of energy. The brain works so fast that it is faster than the biggest computer in the world. Information reaching your brain from your arms and legs travels 240 km/h.
The brain waves of two musicians can synchronize when they play together
There’s a scientific reason why your favorite bands and musicians blend together harmoniously. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, used electrodes to record the brain waves of 16 pairs of guitarists as they played the same musical sequence. Even though the two individuals in each pair played different roles, their brain waves synchronized. This study suggests that there is a neural model for coordinating actions with others. Brain waves, neurochemicals, and some say even heartbeats begin to synchronize and become similar in those who sing together or in choirs.
Reading aloud uses different brain circuits than reading “in mind”
Researchers have long understood that toddlers first learn to read by saying words out loud, and only once this knowledge has been established can they learn to read for themselves. Environmental noise versus chaotic noise versus noise discrimination all use different channels. In the same sense, noise in the form of music is processed differently than ordinary speech, different pitches and frequencies, and also different harmonies. This is why reading is so important for your brain.
Your brain is mostly fat
Gray matter is the fattest organ in your body, consisting of a minimum of 60% fat. This is why a diet rich in healthy fats such as omega-3 and omega-6 is vital for brain and body health in general. Fat stabilizes brain cell walls and transports, absorbs and stores fat-soluble vitamins in the bloodstream. It also reduces inflammation and helps the immune system to regulate and function properly.
Reading allows the brain to directly download information
When you learned to read, your brain had to change and restructure itself so that your visual and language systems could transfer information from the page into your working memory.
Your brain’s storage capacity is virtually unlimited
There is no such thing as knowing too much or learning so much that you cannot retain more information. Your brain doesn’t “busy” like storing data on your computer or smartphone. There is endless brain power! However, lack of sleep can affect your brain’s ability to create more memories.
Use it or lose it
The brain is similar to a muscle. You can build your “cognitive reserve,” or your brain’s innate ability to do a job, through different types of learning and/or new experiences. People with a stronger and healthier cognitive reserve, one that has been strengthened with learned experience, have been shown to be better able to cope with life’s unexpected events.
Sleep deprivation can affect the brain in many ways
There’s a reason seven to nine hours of sleep a night is recommended: Your body and brain need rest to function properly, retain memory, and react in a timely manner. Judgment is even impaired when a man has not had an adequate night’s rest. Sleep deprivation kills brain cells, can create psychosis if it’s long enough, and will reduce the body’s and brain’s ability to heal. All of these things can affect cognition, judgment, or reaction time.
HUGE Mourning! The father of a great Pro TV star has DIED. They didn’t get along at all. He died alone…
