The human brain is a very mysterious organ whose proper functioning and evolution scientists have not understood yet. It is the brain of the humans that made him superior among all the animals. Advancements in science and technology have uncovered many surprising facts about the human brain.
Here are top 10 facts about the human brain.
Brain Contains Billions of Neurons
Our brain contains Neurons that act as a processor. All the neurons together with glial cells form a complex brain whose proper functioning is still unknown. It is estimated by scientists that the brain of an adult contains about 86 billion Neurons on average. This high number of neurons is one of the reasons for our intelligence. They continuously transmit signals to other neurons for carrying, processing, and storing information.
Glial Cells in the Brain are Equal to Neurons
Glial cells are very important cells in the brain that glue the neurons together. Also, they are responsible for supplying nutrients to the neurons, cleaning the carcasses of dead neurons and excess neurotransmitter, and supports synaptic growth.
Previously before the advent of modern technology, it was thought that there are about 10 times more glial cells than the neurons in our brain. But recent discoveries suggest that the number of glial cells and neurons is identical – means 1:1 ratio.
Brain Keeps Forming New Connections with Other Neurons
Our brains keep working throughout our lives – even if you are sleeping. When the brain processes any data or thinks, it forms a new connection with other neurons and can make the existing connection stronger or weaker. A neuron on average can form about 10,000 connections with other neurons. But previously it was thought that the brain stops changing further in old age. Now it has been confirmed that our brain keeps changing throughout our lives even when we are very old.
Brain Consumes High Amount of Energy
Our brain is a masterpiece that is only 2% of the total body weight but takes more than 20% of the body’s energy. It is estimated that the brain takes about 20% of the oxygen that we breathe and 25% of the glucose that we acquire from food. The reason for consuming a lot of energy is due constantly working to process the data from our body’s senses and our thoughts.
The Size of Human Brain has been Reduced Over Time
Our brain is a fantastic organ that evolved over time and became intelligent. One of the reason for the human brain to be intelligent is due to its size. There are many mammals whose brain size is larger than humans. But if you compare the brain to body ratio of the human brain to other mammals it is larger than most of the mammals. The weight of an average adult’s brain is nearly 1400 grams (3 pounds) which accounts for 2% of the body weight.
Does the brain size really matter in human intelligence? No really!
It is not clear that the brain size of organisms including humans affects the intelligence. If that was the case than humans should have become less intelligent because the size of the human brain has reduced over time along with its body. It is found from fossils of a human skull that the volume of human brains has reduced around 150 ml (9 cubic inches) since the past 5,000 years.
Physical Exercise Improves the Brain Health
Physical exercise is very important for every human being as it helps in making our body fit. But besides improving the health of our body it also improves the health of our brain significantly. When a person exercises, his brain releases certain hormones that will make his mood better. Also, the blood circulation increase towards the brain which delivers more blood along with nutrients thoroughly. In a study published recently suggests that exercise reduces the chances of Alzheimer and delay the age by 30% in which people usually get Alzheimer.
Neurons Multiply at Higher Rate during Pregnancy
Pregnancy may be one of the great responsibility that women have, but did you know that pregnancy also increases the rate at which neurons multiply and increase. The exact reason for what causes the neurons to increase the multiplication rate is not known. But it is suggested by many scientists that learning new things and remembering anything get easier for women that are pregnant.
Humans Use only 10% of their Brain – A Myth or Fact?
The human brain is the most mysterious organ that we have in our bodies. We don’t understand the proper working of the brain or exactly how it thinks? But many times we hear from folks that we only use 10% of our brain. This is one of most believed misconception in the people about the human brain.
There is actually no evidence to support this idea. Instead, scientists give reasons why it is only a misconception. One of the reasons to disprove this idea is in the evolution itself. Scientists say that, if we only used 10% of our brain, then the chances of our survival become very less because the journey of human beings began since 2 million years ago.
Neo-Cortex – Takes 75% of Brain Volume
Our brain has many complex structures and the brain itself is divided into many parts. Neo-Cortex is one of the parts of our brain that accounts for 75% of the total brain. This part of the brain processes the data from sight and hearing. It is also involved in a person’s cognition, the ability of reasoning, and language processing.
Neo-cortex is a recently evolved part of the brain in mammals. And one of the strange fact about neo-cortex is that it is larger in the human brain as compared other living animals. Some scientists think that this is also one of the reasons that make humans an intelligent species.
Human Brain is Faster than a Computer!
Many people think that computers are very fast as compared to the human brain. But in reality, they are not! Computers have processors that are made of tiny transistors packed into a small chip. These processors are better in calculating the serial operation of mathematics better than humans. But when it comes to image processing and understanding the contents of the image – computers are very slow and dumb. Human brains, on the other hand, are slower in mathematical calculations but they are very fast in recognizing and understanding an image.
The reason is that our brains are specialized in tasks of parallel processing such as images recognition. Image recognition requires a ton of parallel processor to process images faster. Our brain can perform 10 to the power 16 (10,000,000,000,000,000) operations per second in parallel processing.
