The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regulates our body. Together, the brain and spinal cord that extends from it make up the central nervous system, or CNS
Here are mind-blowing facts about your brain
- The human brain runs on about 20 watts of power enough to power a lightbulb . All that power calls for some much-needed rest. Adequate sleep helps maintain the pathways in your brain. Research shows that sleep deprivation is linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
- The average adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds; that’s about as much as a half-gallon of milk. Men tend to have slightly larger brains than women, but this does not impact intelligence.
- The spinal cord is the main source of communication between the body and the brain. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) causes the neurons in the brain and spinal cord to die, impacting controlled muscle movement. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is another disease that affects both the brain and the spinal cord. In MS, the immune system attacks the protective layer that covers nerve fibers, causing communication problems between the brain and the body.
- The brain has a higher cholesterol content than any other organ. In fact, about 25% of the body’s cholesterol resides within the brain. The brain is highly dependent on cholesterol, but its cholesterol metabolism is unique. Because the blood-brain barrier prevents brain cells from taking up cholesterol from the blood, the brain must produce its own cholesterol. The brain’s cholesterol is much more stable than the cholesterol in other organs, but when it breaks down, it is recycled into new cholesterol right in the brain.
- A brain freeze happens when you eat or drink something that’s too coold. officially called sphenopalatine genglioneuralgia . It chills the blood vessels and arteries in the very back of the throat, including the ones that take blood to your brain. These constrict when they’re cold and open back up when they’re warm again, causing the pain in your forehead. This is your brain telling you to stop what you are doing to prevent unwanted changes due to temperature.
- The brain can’t feel pain. There are no pain receptors in the brain itself. But the meninges coverings around the brain , periosteum coverings on the bones , and the scalp all have pain receptors. Surgery can be done on the brain and technically the brain does not feel that pain.Most surgical brain surgery are done when the patient is awake
- We remember everything we experience. Many people claim to accurately remember events from long ago and the belief that everything that happed to us is somehow stored in our memory is pervasive. In fact, studies of eyewitness testimony show that our memories are very unreliable and that they are reconstructed again and again over time and it is mostly influenced by environmental factors
- Experience changes the brain by changing the strengths of connections between neurons. This affects the electrical signals sent across networks of neurons, changing behaviour, performance, perception and cognition.
