30 Interesting Facts about Human Brain Posted by admin on March 29th, 2009 2 Comments Printer-Friendly Brain is the central

organ of the human body. It is extremely complex and sophis ticated. The functions of the brain were found by the ancient Egyptians and Gree ks in 400 BC. It was Hippocrates who first discovered that brain played an impor tant role in sensation and intelligence. Nowadays, everyone understand the impor tance of having the brain, but most of us don t know much about it, so Brain is the central organ of the human body. It is extremely complex and sophis ticated. The functions of the brain were found by the ancient Egyptians and Gree ks in 400 BC. It was Hippocrates who first discovered that brain played an impor tant role in sensation and intelligence. Nowadays, everyone understand the impor tance of having the brain, but most of us don t know much about it, so here are so me interesting facts for you. (image credits: jepoirrier) 1) There are no pain receptors in the brain, so the brain can feel no pain. 2) The human brain is the fattest organ in the body and may consists of at least 60% fat. 3) Neurons develop at the rate of 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregna ncy. 4) Humans continue to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental act ivity. 5) Alcohol interferes with brain processes by weakening connections between neur ons. 6) Altitude makes the brain see strange visions Many religions involve special v isions that occurred at great heights. For example, Moses encountered a voice em anating from a burning bush on Mount Sinai and Muhammad was visited by an angel on Mount Hira. Similar phenomena are reported by mountain climbers, but they don t think it s very mystical. Many of the effects are attributable to the reduced sup ply of oxygen to the brain. At 8,000ft or higher, some mountaineers report perce iving unseen companions, seeing light emanating from themselves or others, seein g a second body like their own, and suddenly feeling emotions such as fear. Oxyg en deprivation is likely to interfere with brain regions active in visual and fa ce processing, and in emotional events. 7) Reading aloud and talking often to a young child promotes brain development. 8 ) Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. N ot all neurons are the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec. 9) The capacity for such emotions as joy, happiness, fear, and shyness are alrea dy developed at birth. The specific type of nurturing a child receives shapes ho w these emotions are developed. 10) The left side of your brain (left hemisphere) controls the right side of you r body; and, the right side of your brain (right hemisphere) controls the left s ide of your body. 11) Children who learn two languages before the age of five alters the brain str ucture and adults have a much denser gray matter. 12) Information can be processed as slowly as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 m eters/sec (about 268 miles/hr). 13) While awake, your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power or enough e nergy to power a light bulb. 14) The old adage of humans only using 10% of their brain is not true. Every par t of the brain has a known function. 15) A study of one million students in New York showed that students who ate lun ches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14% be tter on IQ tests than students who ate lunches with these additives. 16) For years, scientists believed that tinnitus was due to a function within th e mechanics of the ear, but newer evidence shows that it is actually a function of the brain. 17) Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought, you are creating a new

connection in your brain. 18) Memories triggered by scent have a stronger emotional connection, therefore appear more intense than other memory triggers. 19) Each time we blink, our brain kicks in and keeps things illuminated so the w hole world doesn t go dark each time we blink (about 20,000 times a day). 20) Laughing at a joke is no simple task as it requires activity in five differe nt areas of the brain. 21) The average number of thoughts that humans are believed to experience each d ay is 70,000. 22) There are two different schools of thought as to why we dream: the physiolog ical school, and the psychological school. While many theories have been propose d, not single consensus has emerged as to why we dream. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while other believe that dreaming is essenti al to mental, emotional and physical well-being. One theory for dreaming suggest s dreams serve to clean up clutter from the mind. 23) The Hypothalamus part of the brain regulates body temperature much like a th ermostat. The hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (about 98. 6 Fahrenheit or 37 Celsius), and if your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat. If you re too cold, the hypothalamus makes you start shivering. Shiv ering and sweating helps get your body s temperature back to normal. 24) Approximately 85,000 neocortical neurons are lost each day in your brain. Fo rtunately, his goes unnoticed due to the built-in redundancies and the fact that even after three years this loss adds up to less than 1% of the total. 25) Differences in brain weight and size do not equal differences in mental abil ity. The weight of Albert Einstein s brain was 1,230 grams that is less than an av erage weight of the human brain. 26) A living brain is so soft you could cut it with a table knife. 27) There are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain. 28) London taxi drivers ,famous for knowing all the London streets by heart, hav e a larger than normal hippocampus, especially the drivers who have been on the job longest. The study suggests that as people memorize more and more informatio n, this part of their brain continues to grow. 29) The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it begins to die. No oxygen for 5 to 10 minutes will result in permanent brain damage. 30) Our brain often fools us. It often perceives things differently from the rea lity. Look at those pictures. Square A and B are actually the same shade of gray . Yawning Tired? That s not the only reason you yawn. According to doctors kids who are bored yawn more and each yawn is slightly longer than compared to kids who a re doing something fun. Think about that when you are bored and have nothing to do. Try to keep track of your yawns and write them down. Do the same thing when you re playing or anything else that s fun. Compare the two to see the difference. M any people have made the assumption that people yawn because our bodies want to get rid of extra carbon dioxide which scientists refer to as CO2 and take in mor e oxygen or scientifically called O2. There is a theory that when you are sleepy or bored, your breathing isn t as fast. When you started breathing slower, less o xygen makes it to your lungs. You get too much of carbon dioxide in your blood s o it signals to the brain and the brain tells the lungs to get a big breath of a ir and that s where yawning comes in. Doctors are still debating if this is why we yawn. For now it still remains a theory. Eye The process of seeing is performed by the brain not by the eye. The function of the eye is to translate the vibrations of light into patterns of nerve impul ses that are transmitted to the brain. Dreaming A form of mental activity. A dream period usually lasts from 5 to 20 m inutes. It is likely that other animals dream. Mammals, have D-sleep periods l ike those of humans. Sleep A normal, regular state of rest of an organism. In contrast to being awak e sleep is characterized of physiological functions (blood pressure, breathing,

heartbeat) and a relatively low response to things going on around. The brain wa ves of a person go through changes, classified as stages 1 to 4, in the course o f the sleep cycle. Basically, certain areas in the brain stem, the most primiti ve part of the brain and the part that controls such basic functions as breathin g and heart rate, are involved in the control of the two sleep states. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a procedure for recording the electrical activit y of the brain by means of electrodes attached to the surface of the skull. Man y new techniques help scientists learn more about the brain. Memory (mental process)The process of storing and retrieving information in the brain. The process is vital to learning and thinking. Little is known about the memory storage in the brain. Vomiting Is the expulsion of the contents of the stomach through the mouth. Vomi ting is often caused by nausea, flu, sweating, and other sicknesses, although it can happen without warning. It is controlled by a specific part of the brain st em, called the vomiting center. Thirst The urgent need to drink, stimulated by the body s need for water. Litt le is known about thirst. It is likely controlled by the drinking center, (hy pothalamus), the part of the brain that controls body functions such as body tem perature, hunger, and thirst. Physiological Psychology The study of underlying physiological bases of psycholo gical functions is known as physiological psychology. The two major communicatio n systems of the body the nervous system and the circulatory system. The nervous system has 12.5 billion neurons, of which about 10 billion are in the brain itse lf. Pain The complex nature of pain is illustrated by a story about soldiers who are severely wounded and do not complain of pain, or of athletes who are injured bu t continue to play. They do not experience pain until the contest is over. In s ome countries, an operation called trepanning is performed on the skull without anesthetic. The brain does not feel the pain. Handedness A preference for the use of either the right hand or the left hand. The differences in left- and right-handers in patterns of brain organization ma y be associated with differences in skills, aptitudes, and perhaps even personal ities. In the large majority of right-handers ,(90%) speech is controlled by the left side of the brain. The right hemisphere of the brain is usually specialize d for recognizing and remembering faces and understanding relationships in space . In left-handers, the pattern of brain organization is unpredictable. About 65% to 70% of left-handers have speech controlled by the left hemisphere of the bra in, as is the case for right-handers, but in 30 to 35 percent of left-handers sp eech is controlled by the right hemisphere. In some left-handers, both hemispher es of the brain are capable of controlling speech.