The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. The brain is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. The brain is the most complex organ in a vertebrate's body. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 15–33 billion neurons,[1] each connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons. These neurons communicate with one another by means of long protoplasmic fibers called axons, which carry trains of signal pulses called action potentials to distant parts of the brain or body targeting specific recipient cells.
So as promised, here is the next set of facts about our brain. The more you know the more you're able to appreciate what you have and maximise your mental potential.
Check them out...
* Over 140 proteins in the brain are negatively impacted by exposure to electromagnetic frequencies, the kind emitted by your cell phone and other electronic devices.
* Relying on GPS to navigate destroys your innate sense of direction, a skill that took our ancestors thousands of years to develop and hone. When areas of the brain involved in navigation are no longer used, those neural connections fade away via a process known as synaptic pruning.
* The popular myth that we use only 10% of our brains is flat-out wrong. Brain scans clearly show that we use most of our brain most of the time, even when we’re sleeping.
* There is no such thing as a left-brain or right-brain personality/skill type. We are not left-brained or right-brained; we are “whole-brained.”
* In spite of what you’ve been told, alcohol does not kill brain cells. What excessive alcohol consumption can do is damage the connective tissue at the end of neurons.
* The “Mozart effect” has been debunked. While listening to certain kinds of music can improve memory and concentration, there’s nothing unique about listening to Mozart.
* You may have heard that we have more brain cells than there are stars in the Milky Way, but this is not true. Best-guess estimates are that we have 86 billion neurons while there are 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
* It’s often said that there are 10,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain when, actually, that number is closer to 400 miles. Still, a substantial amount though
* Contrary to the prevailing medical belief, having high total cholesterol is not bad for your brain. In fact, high cholesterol actually reduces your risk of dementia.
* Until recently, it was a “fact” that you were born with a set level of intelligence and number of brain cells. But it has since been discovered that your brain has the capacity to change throughout your lifetime due to a property known as brain plasticity. The brain can continue to form new brain cells via a process known as neurogenesis.
* . Memory is better thought of as an activity rather than being associated with a specific area of the brain. Any given memory is deconstructed and distributed in different parts of the brain. Then, for the memory to be recalled, it gets reconstructed from the individual fragments.
* Your brain starts slowing down at the ripe old age of 24, but peaks for different cognitive skills at different ages. In fact, at any given age, you’re likely getting better at some things and worse at others. An extreme case is vocabulary skills which may peak as late as the early 70s!
* If you were drinking alcohol and don’t remember what you did last night, it’s not because you forgot. While you are drunk, your brain is incapable of forming memories.
* It’s generally believed that people with exceptional memories are born that way, but this is rarely the case. Most memory masters will tell you that having an outstanding memory is a skill they developed by employing the best memory techniques.
* Human brain tissue is not dense. It’s very fragile — soft and squishy similar to the consistency of soft tofu or gelatin.
* The brain produces a half cup of fluid every day. It floats in this bath of cerebrospinal fluid which acts as a shock absorber to keep the brain from being crushed by its own weight.
* Sometimes half a brain is a good as a whole one. When surgeons operate to stop seizures, they remove or disable half of the brain in a procedure known as a hemispherectomy. Shockingly, patients experience no effect on personality or memory.
* Your brain has a pattern of connectivity as unique as your fingerprints.
* Although pain is processed in your brain, your brain has no pain receptors and feels no pain. This explains how brain surgery can be performed while the patient is awake with no pain or discomfort. Headache pain feels like it starts in your brain, but is caused by sensations from nearby skin, joints, sinuses, blood vessels or muscles.
* Brain freeze sure feels like pain in the brain but is an example of referred pain emanating from the roof of the mouth. Fortunately, brain freeze does not freeze brain cells because frozen brain cells rupture and turn to mush.
* The brains of introverts and extroverts are measurably different. MRIs reveal that the dopamine reward network is more active in the brains of extroverts while introverts’ brains have more gray matter.
* According to research done at Cambridge University, the order of letters in a word doesn’t matter much to your brain. As long as the first and last letters are in the right spot, your brain can rearrange the letters to form words as fast as you can read. This is why you can easily make sense out of this jumble of letters:
* The human brain is usually compared to the most advanced technology of the day. It’s been compared to a clock, a switchboard, a computer, and, most recently, to the internet. You might be surprised to learn that, in every way it’s been tested, the brain is still far superior to the most powerful computers in existence.
* Your brain’s storage capacity is considered virtually unlimited. It doesn’t get “used up” like RAM in your computer.
* The latest research shows that the brain’s memory capacity is a quadrillion, or 1015, bytes. Astoundingly, this is about the same amount needed to store the entire internet!
* The human brain is capable of 1,016 processes per second, which makes it far more powerful than any existing computer.
* There are almost 200 known cognitive biases and distortions that cause us to think and act irrationally.
* Our brains crave mental stimulation, sometimes to a fault. Men especially would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit quietly in a room and think!
* Synesthesia is a condition where stimulation of one sense automatically evokes a perception of another sense. People with synesthesia might “taste” words, “smell” sounds, or see numbers as colors. While it’s not known exactly why this occurs, the prevailing theory is that these brains have hyper-connectivity between sensory areas in the brain.
* The human brain is extraordinarily complex and consequently can go awry in some spectacular ways. Some of the strangest disorders include exploding head syndrome disorder (hearing phantom explosions in your head), Capgras syndrome (thinking loved ones have been substituted by impostors, robots or aliens), and Cotard’s syndrome (believing you are dead).
* Memories are shockingly unreliable and change over time. Emotions, motivation, cues, context and frequency of use can all affect how accurately you remember something. This includes “flash bulb memories” which occur during traumatic events.
* Of the thousands of thoughts a person has every day, it’s estimated that 70% of this mental chatter is negative — self-critical, pessimistic, and fearful.
* Think you’re in control of your life? Don’t be so sure. Ninety-five percent of your decisions take place in your subconscious mind.
* A blood-brain barrier protects your brain by preventing many foreign substances in your vascular system from reaching the brain. But the barrier doesn’t work perfectly and many substances sneak through. Nicotine rushes into the brain in a mere 7 seconds. Alcohol, on the other hand, takes 6 minutes.
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