The Melting Pot

Science Sunday – The Brain

30 October 2022
AuntiE


Quora.com

What are the most mind-blowing facts about the human brain?

  1. About 75 percent of the brain is made up of water. This means that dehydration,
  2. even in small amounts, can have a negative effect on the brain functions.
  3. The human brain will grow three times its size in the first year of life. It continues to grow until you’re about 18 years old.
  4. Headaches are caused by a chemical reaction in your brain combined with the muscles and nerves of your neck and head.
  5. Your brain uses 20 percent of the oxygen and blood in your body.
  6. Alcohol effects your brain in ways that include blurred vision, slurred speaking, an unsteady walk, and more. These usually disappear once you become sober again. However, if you drink often for long periods of time, there is evidence that alcohol can affect your brain permanently and not reverse once you become sober again. Long term effects include memory issues and some reduced cognitive function.
  7. During the mummification process, Egyptians would usually remove the brains through the nose
  8. The human brain gets smaller as we get older. This usually happens sometime after middle age.
  9. The human brain begins to lose some memory abilities as well as some cognitive skills by your late 20s.
  10. A brain freeze is really a sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. It happens when something you eat or drink something that’s cold. 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 with they’re warm again, causing the pain in your forehead.
  11. Dreams are believed to be a combination of imagination, phycological factors, and neurological factors. They prove that your brain is working even when you are sleeping.
  12. It is a myth that humans only use 10 percent of our brain. We actually use all of it. We’re even using more than 10 percent when we sleep.
  13. Over the course of human evolution, brain size has tripled.
  14. Your brain uses about the same amount of power as a 15 watt light bulb.
  15. Older brains aren’t slower because they’re weaker, but because they hold more information.
  16. Your brain is only about 2% of your body mass, but uses up to 20% of its blood.
  17. The brain can survive for up to 6 minutes after the heart stops.
  18. Your brain can’t feel pain.
  19. A human brain can do more computations per second than a powerful supercomputer.
  20. If your brain’s cortex were laid out flat, it would be about the size of a newspaper page.