Fascinating Brain Facts part 1
Fascinating Facts About the Brain – Part 1
The brain is arguably the most vital organ in our entire body. Without it, we are notable to function. In a way the brain is like a giant computer that stores an immense amount of information. With that said, there are many fascinating facts about the brain.
Check out these fascinating facts about the brain.
1. The brain is one of the most complex organs in the human body. In fact, the human brain is so complicated that it remains an exciting frontier in the study of the body: clinicians, psychologists, and scientists are continually endeavoring to learn exactly how the many brain parts work together intricately to create our powerful human mind. Thus, there are many things about the brain that scientists still do not understand to this day.
2. Relative to size, human brains are much bigger than other mammals. In fact, our brains are over three times bigger than mammal’s brains similar in size. As you can imagine, there is no correlations between the animals’ absolute brain sizes and cognitive abilities. Cows, for example, have larger brains than just about any species of monkey, but unless they are very, very good at hiding it, cows are almost certainly less cognitively capable than most, if not all, “lesser-brained” primates.
3. Our brains weigh about on average 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg), the same weight as the average brain of a dolphin (which is also a very intelligent animal). But there are animals with larger brains that are not considered to be as intelligent as a dolphin. For instance, a sperm whale has a brain that weighs about 17 pounds (7.7 kg).
4. The right side of the brain interacts with the left side of our bodies, and the left side of the braininteracts with the right side of our bodies. Both sides of the brain have specific functions, but sometimes the two sides of the brain interact and work together. The right brain focuses on the expression and reading of emotions, understanding metaphors, and reading faces while the left brain is far more logical, focusing on language skills, analytical time sequence processing and skilled movement.
5. On average, men’s brains are between 10 and 15 per cent larger than women’s. Obviously, it does not mean that men are smarter than women, but these differences partly reflect the fact that men are generally bigger and taller than women. Men and women’s brains also differ in overall composition. Male brains tend to have a slightly higher proportion of white matter, whereas those of females have a higher proportion of grey matter in most parts of the cerebral cortex. Consequently, the cortex is slightly thicker in women’s brains than in men’s and, according to several studies, is slightly more convoluted as well. There are also sex differences in the size of individual brain structures. The hippocampus, a structure involved in memory formation, is on average larger in men than in women, as is the amygdala, which is also involved in memory, as well as emotions.
6. Having a bigger brain does not mean you are more intelligent. Clearly, there is more to intelligence than brain size, or Albert Einstein, one of the smartest people who ever lived, who had an average brain size, would have been out of luck! It is important to take into consideration how to actually define intelligence.
