Get facts and photos about the body’s control center.You carry around a three-pound mass of wrinkly material in your head that controls every single thing you will ever do. From enabling you to think, learn, create, and feel emotions to controlling every blink, breath, and heartbeat—this fantastic control center is your Brain. It is a structure so amazing that a famous scientist once called it “the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.”
Your brain is faster and more powerful than a supercomputer.
Your kitten is on the kitchen counter. She’s about to step onto a hot stove. You have only seconds to act. Accessing the signals coming from your eyes, your brain quickly calculates when, where, and at what speed you will need to dive to intercept her. Then it orders your muscles to do so. Your timing is perfect and she’s safe. No computer can come close to your brain’s awesome ability to download, process, and react to the flood of information coming from your eyes, ears, and other sensory organs.
Your brain generates enough electricity to power a lightbulb.
Your brain contains about 10 0 billion microscopic cells called neurons—called “gray matter,”so many it would take you over 3,000 years to count them all. Whenever you dream, laugh, think, see, or move, it’s because tiny chemical and electrical signals are racing between these neurons along billions of tiny neuron highways. Believe it or not, the activity in your brain never stops. Countless messages zip around inside it every second like a supercharged pinball machine. Your neurons create and send more messages than all the phones in the entire world. And while a single neuron generates only a tiny amount of electricity, all your neurons together can generate enough electricity to power a low-wattage bulb.
according to a 2012 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The brain also has about the same number of non-neuronal cells, such as the oligodendrocytes that insulate neuronal axons with a myelin sheath. This gives axons (thin strands through which electrical impulses are transmitted between neurons) a white appearance, and so these axons are called the brain’s “white matter.”
Neurons send info to your brain at more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour.
A bee lands on your bare foot. Sensory neurons in your skin relay this information to your spinal cord and brain at a speed of more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour. Your brain then uses motor neurons to transmit the message back through your spinal cord to your foot to shake the bee off quickly. Motor neurons can relay this information at more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) per hour.
Riding a bike seems impossible at first. But soon you master it. How? As you practice, your brain sends “bike riding” messages along certain pathways of neurons over and over, forming new connections. In fact, the structure of your brain changes every time you learn, as well as whenever you have a new thought or memory.
Exercise helps make you smarter.
It is well known that any exercise that makes your heart beat faster, like running or playing basketball, is great for your body and can even help improve your mood. But scientists have recently learned that for a period of time after you’ve exercised, your body produces a chemical that makes your brain more receptive to learning. So if you’re stuck on a homework problem, go out and play a game of soccer, then try the problem again. You just might discover that you’re able to solve it.
Brain Weigh
The human brain weighs about 3 lbs. (1.4 kilograms) and makes up about 2% of a human’s body weight. On average, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains, according to Northwestern Medicine in Illinois. The average male has a brain volume of nearly 78 cubic inches (1,274 cubic centimeters), while the average female brain has a volume of 69 cubic inches (1,131 cubic cm). The cerebrum, which is the main part of the brain located in the front area of the skull, makes up 85% of the brain’s weight
Other Cool Factes About the Brain
- The brain can’t multitask, according to the Dent Neurologic Institute. Instead, it switches between tasks, which increases errors and makes things take longer.
- The human brain triples in size during the first year of life and reaches full maturity at about age 25.
- Humans use all of the brain all of the time, not just 10% of it.
- The brain is 60% fat, according to Northwestern Medicine.
- The human brain can generate 23 watts of electrical power — enough to fuel a small lightbulb.
What’s the Differance Between the Left Brain and Right Brain?
The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right, connected by a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. The hemispheres are strongly, though not entirely, symmetrical. Generally, the left brain controls the muscles on the right side of the body, and the right brain controls the left side. One hemisphere may be slightly dominant, as with left- or right-handedness.
The popular notions about “left brain” and “right brain” qualities are generalizations that are not well supported by evidence. However, there are some important differences between these areas. The left brain contains regions that are involved in language production and comprehension (called Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, respectively) and is also associated with mathematical calculation and fact retrieval, Holland said. The right brain plays a role in visual and auditory processing, spatial skills and artistic ability — more instinctive or creative things, Holland said — though these functions involve both hemispheres. “Everyone uses both halves all the time,” he said.
Difference between Brain and Computer
The following table highlights all the significant differences between the Human Brain and a Computer −
| Human Brain | Computer |
|---|---|
| Brain is constituted with neurons and synapses. | Computer can be constructed using IC, transistors, diodes, capacitors, and transistors. |
| The memory growth of a brain increases every time synaptic links are connected. | The memory growth of the computer can be increased by adding memory chips to it |
| The brain has a built-in backup system. | The backup systems are manually constructed. |
| Brain has a memory power of about 100 teraflops (approx. 100 trillion calculations/seconds) | Computer has a memory power of about 100 million megabytes. |
| The memory density of the brain is 107 circuits/cm3. | Computer has a memory density of 1014 bits/cm3 . |
| The energy consumption is 12 watts of power. | The energy consumption is in terms of gigawatts of power. |
| The information is stored as electrochemical and electric impulses. | The information is stored in numeric and symbolic form (as in binary bits). |
| The weight of the brain is around 3.3 pounds. | Its size and weight varies depending on type system- from a few grams to tons. |
| The information is transmitted using chemicals that fire the action potential in the neurons. | The communication happens using electrical coded signals. |
| The information processing ability of the brain is low. | Computer has the ability to process large amounts of information. |
| The input or output equipment is the sensory organs. | The input and/or output equipment includes keyboards, mouse, web cameras. |
| Brain is self-organized. | Computer has a pre-programmed structure. |
| Brain implements massive amounts of parallelism. | Computer has limited parallelism. |
| Brain is reliable, and self-maintaining. | Since computer performs a monotonous job, it can’t rectify its mistakes on its own. |
- CELL “Evolution of the brain and intelligence,”
- NIH: The BRAIN Initiative
- NSF: Understanding the brain
