Interesting facts about the brain. Facts and myths about the human brain

We continue to expand our horizons with small infusions of facts. This time we invite you to enrich your brain with facts about the brain, forgive me for such a clumsy pun.

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1. The brain, like muscles, the more you train it, the more it grows. The brain of an average adult male weighs 1424 grams; by old age, the mass of the brain decreases to 1395 grams. The largest female brain by weight is 1565 grams. The record weight of the male brain is 2049 grams. The brain of I. S. Turgenev weighed 2012 grams. The brain evolves: in 1860 average weight of the male brain was 1372. Lightest weight normal non-atrophied brain belonged to a 31-year-old woman - 1096 grams. Dinosaurs, reaching 9 m in length, had a brain the size of Walnut and weighing only 70 grams.

2. The most rapid development of the brain occurs between the ages of 2 and 11 years.

3. Regular prayer reduces the frequency of breathing and normalizes the wave vibrations of the brain, contributing to the process of self-healing of the body. Believers go to the doctor 36% less often than the rest.

4. Than more educated person, topics less likely brain diseases. Intellectual activity causes the production of additional tissue to compensate for the diseased.

5. Engaging in unfamiliar activities - The best way brain development. Associating with those who are superior to you in intelligence is also potent agent brain development.

6. Signals in nervous system people reach a speed of 288 km / h. By old age, the speed decreases by 15 percent.

7. The largest brain donor in the world is the monastic order of sister teachers in Mankato, Minnesota. The nuns donated about 700 brain units to science in their posthumous wills.

8. Most high level intellectual development(IQ) demonstrated by Marilyn Much Vos Savant of Missouri, who at the age of ten already had average IQ for 23 year olds. She managed to pass the most difficult test for entry into the privileged Mega Society, which includes only about three dozen people with such high rate IQ, which is found in only 1 person in a million.

9. The highest average national IQ in the world for the Japanese is 111. Ten percent of Japanese have a score above 130.

10. Super-photographic memory belongs to Creighton Carvello, who is able to memorize the sequence of cards at once in six separate decks (312 pieces) at a glance. Usually in our life we ​​use 5-7 percent of the capacity of the brain. It is difficult to imagine how much a person would have done and discovered if he had used at least the same amount more. Why do we need such a margin of safety, scientists have not yet figured out.

The brain is central authority human body. It is extremely complex and sophisticated. The functions of the brain were considered by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks in 400 BC. Hippocrates was the first to discover that the brain plays important role in sensation and intellect. Nowadays, everyone understands the importance of having a brain, but most of us know little about it. Here are a few interesting facts For you.

1. There are no pain receptors in the brain, so the brain cannot feel pain.

2 . The human brain is the fattest organ in your body and can be made up of at least 60% fat.

3 . Neurons develop at a rate of 250,000 neurons per minute per early dates pregnancy.

4 . Humans continue to create new neurons throughout their lives in response to mental activity.

5 . Alcohol interferes with the process of weakening the connections between neurons in the brain.

6 . Altitude allows the brain to see strange visions. Many religions include special visions that happened on high altitudes. For example, Moses heard a voice coming from a burning bush on Mount Sinai, and Muhammad was visited by an angel on Mount Hira. Alpinists report similar phenomena, but they do not think that this is something mystical. Many of the effects are due to reduced oxygen supply to the brain. At 8,000 feet and above, some climbers report seeing invisible companions, light from themselves or others, seeing a second body as their own, and suddenly feeling emotions such as fear. oxygen starvation can actively interfere in areas of the brain.

7 . Reading aloud and talking often with a young child contributes to the development of his brain.

8 . Information is transmitted at different speeds within different types neurons. Not all neurons are the same. There are several different types of neurons within the body and information transfer according to these various kinds, maybe as slow as 0.5 m/sec. and fast, more than 120m/sec.

9 . The ability to experience emotions such as joy, happiness, fear and timidity is already present at birth. The type of parenting a child has will affect how these emotions will develop.

10 . Left side brain ( left hemisphere) governs right side body, but the right side of your brain ( right hemisphere) controls left side body.

11 . Children who are bilingual before the age of five change the structure of their brains and have much denser gray matter as adults.

12 . Information can be processed both slowly, at a speed of 0.5 meters per second, and quickly, at a speed of more than 120 meters per second. (about 268 km / h).

13 . While awake, your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of energy, which is enough to power a light bulb.

14 . The old adage about people who only use 10% of their brains is not true. Each part of the brain has its own function.

15 . A study of one million students in New York City found that students who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, or dyes did 14% more better tests in IQ than students who ate lunches with these additives.

16 . For many years, scientists thought that tinnitus was due to a function of the mechanics of the ear, but new evidence shows that it is actually a function of the brain.

17 . Every time you remember something or have a new thought, you create a new connection to your brain.

18 . Memories evoked by scents have a strong emotional connection, therefore seem more intense than other memories.

19 . Every time we blink our brains are working and keeping things lit up. This way the whole world is not plunged into darkness every time we blink (about 20,000 times a day).

20 . Laughing at some joke is not such an easy task, as it requires activity in five various fields brain.

21 . The average number of thoughts that run through our heads every day is 70,000.

22 . There are two different schools of thought about why we sleep: the physiological school, and the psychological school. Although many theories have been proposed, there is no single consensus as to why we dream. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no purpose, while others believe that dreams do. importance for mental, emotional and physical well-being. One theory suggests that dreams serve us to clear debris from our minds.

23 . The hypothalamus, part of the brain, regulates body temperature much like a thermostat. The hypothalamus knows what your body temperature should be (about 98.6 Fahrenheit or 37 Celsius), and if your body is too hot, the hypothalamus shows it with sweat. If you are too cold, the hypothalamus makes you shiver. Shivering and sweating help bring your body temperature back to normal.

24 . Approximately 85,000 cortical neurons are lost every day in your brain. Luckily, it's not noticeable, thanks to the built-in redundancy, and even after three years, the loss is less than 1% of the total overall.

25 . Differences in brain weight and size do not equal differences in intelligence. Albert Einstein's brain weighed 1230 grams, which is less than the average human brain.

26 . The living brain is so soft that it can be cut with a table knife.

27 . There are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain.

28 . London taxi drivers, known for knowing all the streets of London by heart, have a larger than usual hippocampus, especially drivers who work the longest. Research shows that as people memorize more and more information, this part of their brain continues to grow.

29 . The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it starts to die. Without oxygen for 5 to 10 minutes will cause permanent brain damage.

30 . Our brain often fools us. He often perceives things differently than reality.

The 1.3kg supercomputer inside your skull simultaneously processes facts and faces, stores memories, regulates movement and speech, and makes decisions.

Over the past few years, thanks in large part to advances in neuroimaging techniques, scientists are learning even more about how wonderful our brains really are.

So what do we know today? Here are 26 interesting facts about the wonderful, strange and incredibly powerful human brain:

1. There are about 80-100 billion neurons in the brain ( nerve cells). They look something like this:

2. There are almost 200 million more neurons in the left hemisphere than in the right.

3. Neurons vary in size from 4 to 100 µm wide. To get an idea of ​​how small that is, look at the dot at the end of this sentence, it's about 500 microns in circumference, which means over 100 of the smallest neurons can fit inside it.

4. Despite its small size, scientists can measure the activity of a single neuron. A process called "registration of individual units," is often used to clarify the diagnosis of "epilepsy."

5. Sex differences in the brain are debatable, but according to a 2014 study published in the journal Neuroscience, there is more gray matter in the brains of women.

6. A greater percentage of gray matter can be in people of a humanitarian mindset.

7. Research shows that regular physical exercises can lead to an increase in gray matter inside the hippocampus.

8. Gray cells, which make up 40% of our brain, turn gray only after they die.

9. The brain of a living person has a pinker hue.

10. In men, with less gray matter, more white and cerebrospinal fluid.

11. white matter, which makes up the other 60% of the brain, gets its color from myelin, which insulates axons and increases the speed at which electrical impulses travel.

12. Fat can damage the heart, but it's good for the brain. More than half of the brain, including myelin, is made up of fat.

13. With a weight of about 1.3 kg, the brain makes up only 2% to 3% of body weight, but consumes 20% of the body's oxygen and 15% to 20% of its glucose.

14. The brain produces an incredible amount of energy. The energy of a sleeping brain could light a 25-watt light bulb.

15. Brain size does not affect mental capacity person. So, for example, the brain of Albert Einstein weighed 1.2 kg, which is slightly less than the average size of the human brain.

16. Axons (neurites, along which nerve impulses go from the cell body to the innervated organs) in the brain of each person can be about 161,000 km, and can envelop the Earth 4 times.

17. There are no pain receptors in the brain. Therefore, neurosurgeons can cut the brain of a person in consciousness.

18. Don't believe the stupid 10% myth. We use almost 100% of our brain.

19. Brain texture - matters. Big. The wrinkles in our brains, called gyri, increase the surface area of ​​the brain, allowing it to contain large quantity neurons responsible for memory and thought.

20. Want more convolutions? Try meditation. The process of knowing one's inner peace is closely associated with an increase in the number of convolutions in the brain area responsible for concentration, introspection and emotional control.

22. But even an exhausted brain can be productive. Some experts claim that a person has 70,000 thoughts per day.

23. Information in the brain passes through various types of neurons on different speeds ranging from 1.5 km per hour to 440 km per hour (comparable to the speed of the fastest car in the world).

24. Our brains can scan and process complex images (such as a subway platform during rush hour) in as little as 13 milliseconds. This is pretty fast, given that blinking an eye takes a few hundred milliseconds.

25. Even 15 years ago wxtyyst believed that the brain is formed during the first years of human life. But recent research has shown that adolescents are undergoing critical changes in the brain, especially in the prefrontal cortex and limbic system, which are responsible for social decision making, impulse control and emotional processing.

26. When it comes to your brain, developmental delay is absolutely normal. Of course, you legally become an adult at 18, but according to neuroscientists, brain development continues until the age of 25.

Have you ever wondered how neurosurgeons perform brain surgery without anesthesia? There are simply no pain receptors in the brain. But they are in meninges and blood vessels. So when we experience headache, it is not the brain itself that hurts, but the tissues surrounding it.

2. The brain works more actively when we sleep.

As it works, the brain creates electrical fields that can be measured on the surface of the scalp using electroencephalography (EEG) techniques. It seems to us that during sleep the brain is turned off, but in fact it works even more actively than during the day. During wakefulness, it produces alpha and beta waves, and during sleep, especially on its initial stages, theta waves. Their amplitude is greater than that of other waves.

3. Brain cells are not just neurons

There are about ten glial cells per neuron. They provide neurons with access nutrients and oxygen, separate neurons from each other, participate in metabolic processes and transmission of nerve impulses.

4. Falling in love can be seen on fMRI images

Some people think that falling in love is just a concept, but fMRI scans of the brain prove otherwise. In people in this state, areas of the brain associated with are active. The pictures show how the places in which dopamine is present, a neurotransmitter that causes pleasant sensations, “light up”.

5. The brain produces enough electricity to turn on a small light bulb.

9. The brain, like the muscles, is subject to the “use it or lose it” rule.

We can expand our cognitive reserve, or the brain's innate ability to recover, by different types learning and new experiences. It has been proven that people with more developed cognitive reserve are better at handling surprises. But if the brain is not used, this reserve will be reduced.

10. Short-term memory lasts 20-30 seconds

Have you ever wondered why, after we have been distracted for a while, we forget what we wanted to say? This is due to the ability of the brain to retain small amounts of information in memory. He saves it for quick access, but only for 20-30 seconds. Numbers, for example, are held in memory for an average of 7.3 seconds, and letters for 9.3.

The brain is something amazing.
John Medina

Try to multiply in your mind the number 8 388 628 by 2. It turns out? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times in a few seconds. And this is far from the limit of the abilities of our brain. Proven.

John Medina is a molecular biologist and professor at the University of Washington, one of the leading researchers in the brain. His book"Brain Rules" showed how much we can improve in life when we understand how our brains work.

1. Physical education is candy for the intellect

Although there is much debate about the evolution of mankind, one fact is recognized by paleoanthropologists around the world. In three words, it can be formulated as follows: people moved a lot. Average per day ancient man covered more than 19 kilometers. And his brain developed not when he was idle, but when he worked. The brain still tends to be active, although modern people, to which we also belong, lead.

Brain training - .

Exercise stress stimulates the brain. Helps people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking attention and ability to solve problems. Physical activity like candy for the cognitive system. A person can return to his athletic past. We just need movement. Scientists have found that it is enough to exercise twice a week.

And daily twenty-minute walks will reduce the risk of an attack of angina pectoris - one of the main causes of age-related disorders. mental activity- by 57%.

2. Sleep deprivation = brain drain

Only some of them manage to convey a message to consciousness, the rest are partially or completely ignored. It's amazing how easy it is to maintain this balance, effortlessly giving airtime to one of the many messages that have previously been ignored. (As you read this sentence, are you aware of where your elbows are?) Attention-grabbing messages are related to memory, interest, and consciousness.

5. The brain is able to see

It is no secret that visual information is better remembered and reproduced than printed text or oral speech. It turns out that vision is generally more important than other senses, a good half of the brain's resources are spent on it. In addition, what we see is what the brain tells us to see, and the accuracy of the reproduced picture is far from 100%. Being just a camera, the brain actively parses the information provided to it by the eyes, passes it through a series of filters, and then reconstructs what it thinks it sees - or what it thinks it should see.

The brain can see
3D painting on asphalt "Ice Age". Author - Edgar Müller.

We do not see with our eyes. We see with the brain. And visual perception not only helps to cognize the world - it dominates over all other ways.

6. When is stress helpful?

Hippocampus, fortress human memory, like a ham with spices, studded with receptors, which makes it very susceptible to. If the stress is not too strong, the brain works well, and its owner is even able to remember information better.

The reason for this lies in evolutionary development. Exactly life threatening events should be kept in memory. In difficult conditions for life, everything happened at lightning speed, and only the fastest individuals who could remember this experience and accurately reproduce it at the required speed survived. This is confirmed by the results scientific research: human brain instantly remembers the experience gained under stress, and quickly reproduces it over time.

7. The brain of a man and a woman

In terms of structure and biochemical composition The brains of men and women are different - for example, men have larger amygdala and produce serotonin faster. Men and women react differently to severe stress: Women engage the amygdala of the left hemisphere and remember the details of emotions. Men use the amygdala of the right hemisphere and perceive the essence of the problem.

8. Proust effect

Smell has the ability to bring back memories. This phenomenon is called the Proust effect. The French writer Marcel Proust in his work indirectly proved the connection between smells and memory. The standard experiment made it possible to establish unusual properties odors and their effect on improved reproduction.

After watching the film, two groups of subjects were asked to take a test in a laboratory. The control group was in a normal room and just took the test, while the experimental group performed the test in a room that smelled of popcorn. In terms of volume and accuracy of data reproduction, the results were simply incomparable. The experimental groups reproduced information twice as accurately as the control groups. Scientists recorded a 20% improvement in results.

They found out that certain types memories are highly sensitive to smells. Fragrances perform their delicate work when the subjects recall the emotional details of the memories.

9. We are all great discoverers

By nature, a person is a researcher, even if the thirst for knowledge then "stings" him. This strong desire can make us disciples for life. We never lose our thirst for knowledge.

Google takes the power of research seriously: 20 percent of the company's time is spent following the brain. This is confirmed by the end result of their work: half of the new products, including Gmail and Google News, are created during those 20 percent of working time. Don't lose your curiosity.

The human brain can do a lot. And the most interesting thing is that we still do not know about everything. It's only the beginning.