Top 10 Facts About the Brain

The brain is one of the most important, if not the most important organ from the human body. Everything is related to it, whether if it is breathing, moving, talking, and so on. However, the brain has always been a source of mystery, and there are some things about it which you might not know. Here are 10 interesting things about the human brain.

The human brain can weigh up to 1.4 kilograms, and many neurosurgeons have said that it has the texture of the toothpaste. However, neurosurgeon Katrina Firlik stated that the brain does not have that texture, as she said that it has a texture similar to the one of tofu.

Most of the content from the cranium is made out of your brain, the rest being blood and cerebrospinal fluid, which is the liquid that buffers neural tissue. Blending it all together will result in about 1.7 liters of liquid.

If the size of the brain seems impressive, you should know that the people from the past had them bigger than we have them nowadays. University of Wisconsin at Madison paleoanthropologist John Hawks stated that our brains have shrunk by about 10 percent in comparison to the brains of the people from 5000 years ago. It is unknown why the brains are shrinking; however it is believed that the large mass is not required. Simply the brains are becoming more efficient by being smaller. Think about it as a computer. The brain of our ancestors was similar to the initial computer which was very large, and our brains are similar to a portable computer. The portable computer is way smaller but it is capable of doing more things.

There are some who believe that the brains are shrinking because our skulls are getting smaller, because we do not consume the types of food that we used to, and as a result we do not need very big jaws. Regardless of the situation, the brain size is not related to one’s intelligence. If you want proof just think about the level of intelligence of our ancestors.

The brain is very small in comparison to the rest of the body, as it represents 2 percent of the total body weight. However, regardless of its size, it uses 20 percent of the total oxygen used by the body, and 25 percent of the glucose which runs through our bloodstream. This is one of the main reason why people have believed that people with big brains are more intelligent. Some have said that the main reason why the brain consumes so much energy is because of the fact that we consume meat. However, that theory has been debunked, as it has been proved untrue.

Nowadays it is believed that the main reason why our brains have expanded in size is because of the social competition, ecology, and climate change.

It is believed that the main reason why we are smarter than the rest of the beings is because we have wrinkles. No, not the ones seen on the elders, but the ones from the brain. They are small striations located on the brain. The top of the brain is convoluted by deep fissures, smaller grooves called sulci, and ridges called gyri. The surface is called the cerebral cortex and more than 100 billion neurons or nerve cells are located on it.

It is believed that we are able to contain so much information thanks to the way in which the brain is designed. This is why we are so smart even though we have very tiny skulls. However, it seems that we are not the ones with the biggest brain striations, as the dolphins are more advanced than us from this point of view.

It is said that we only use 10 percent of our brains, but that is not true. However, it is true that the neurons are located in just 10 percent of the brain. The remaining 90 percent is represented by the glia, or glue in Greek. It was believed for a very long time that the glia is the liquid which makes the connection between the neurons. That is true, but it has been recently discovered that the glia has more than that single task.

It seems that the glia has the task of protecting the brain, and of encouraging the development of the synapses as well.