What Do We Have In Mind?

The human brain is one of the most complex organs of the human body, therefore it is one of the most studied and the least known; for that reason it is still considered a mystery in many respects. Here is a compilation of a series of curiosities of the human brain ; Some are known, others not so much, but all are extremely important when it comes to assessing what we carry inside that box that we carry over our shoulders (literally).

Let’s start with a purely morphological issue: the brain is divided into two hemispheres, the right and the left, which control the parts of the body that correspond to them on the opposite side to which they are, that is, if we move the right hand, the order comes from the left side. Broadly speaking, the right part is the creator and the left the analytical and most men use the left hemisphere to process information (which justifies that some cannot do two things at the same time), whereas women use both hemispheres alike.

Regarding the layers from the inside out, we have three: the procencephalon (the famous reptilian brain that controls senses, thoughts, basic emotions, motor functions, etc.) the midbrain (from where consciousness operates and visual reflexes are controlled and the auditory system) and the rhombencephalon (which deals with coordination, analytical sense and abstractions).

20% of all the air we breathe goes directly to oxygenate our brain, since it has more than one hundred thousand blood vessels (if we put them together, we could go around the world almost four times). As for the number of neurons (nerve cells), it can reach a whopping one hundred billion (a 1 followed by eight zeros).

We have heard countless times that human beings use only between 10 and 12% of our brain, because that is a Myth, since each function corresponds to a piece of our brain, so everything depends on the activity that is done.

Another Myth is that of size; a normal, ordinary brain weighs around 1360 grams (we are talking about averages) and yet Einstein’s brain (which was donated to science although it was “missing” for more than 23 years and appeared cut into 240 sections) weighed 1230 grams; Regarding this super-brain, some “anomalies” have been detected in the conformation of its cortex on which several theories about its intelligence are based.

If a child learns a second language before the age of five, it is proven that the brain develops in a different way. The gray matter, which is composed of the accumulation of the bodies of neurons, is denser, but not the white matter, which is made of the filaments of these nerve cells, which does not undergo variations.

The brain’s storage capacity is truly amazing, since if it were a hard drive like those of computers, it could hold no less than 4 terabytes of information (the equivalent of about 850 DVD discs or about 80 Blue Ray discs)

As for another of the “sayings” with purely cerebral references about women being more emotional and men more rational, it must be recognized that it has some truth, although it is not a constant. Physically speaking, there are certain propensities, since men have more elongated lower parietal lobe that controls, among other things, mathematical ability and women have a more voluminous limbic system, which is the one dedicated to emotions.

Tell me your opinion, provide more data, criticize me, well … use what you have in your head! and express yourself. Please!

Photo courtesy of: solarseven.