1. The adult human brain weighs approximately
3 pounds.
Men average 2.9 pounds (1,336 grams) and
women average 2.6 pounds (1,198 grams). A
bigger brain doesn’t correlate to higher
intelligence: After all, Albert Einstein’s brain
weighed a rather average 2.7 pounds (1,230
grams).
2. Your brain generates enough electricity to
power a 25-watt light bulb.
3. A small portion of the population experiences
synaesthesia: they may hear colors, smell words
or see a concept in a spatial location.
First discovered in the 19th century, this mixing of
the senses is a perceptual condition. While
synaesthesia may be caused by brain trauma or
degeneration, many people report symptoms from
an early age.
4. The reason why we dream is still a scientific
mystery.
Some scientists posit that it’s a way to “exercise
your brain” by keeping it stimulated as you sleep;
others claim that allows the brain to fully absorb
thoughts and memories from the day.
5. Prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” affects
approximately 2.5 percent of the population.
Brain scan research and a 2012 study out of
Stanford University has suggested that our
temporal lobes -- most crucially, activity in the
fusiform gyrus brain region -- is crucial for facial
recognition. Prosopagnosia can be congenital or
acquired, but damage to this region inhibits the
part of the brain that allows one to see human
faces as holistic, memorable objects.
6. You can’t tickle yourself because your
cerebellum prevents you from doing so.
The cerebellum, which is responsible for physical
movement, can predict the sensation and prevent a
response, according to studies conducted at
University College London. Evolutionary scientists
posit that tickling behaviors developed in primates
as a form of social bonding.
7. In some circles, animal brains are considered
a delicacy.
But, as we mentioned before, they are fatty, high
in cholesterol, and may contain agents that cause
“mad cow” and other diseases. For the record:
Animal brains are said to have an “animalistic
flavor that's neither iron-intensive like the livers or
gamey like the kidneys,” according to Serious
Eats’ Chichi Wang.
8. Your brain uses at least 20 percent of the
oxygen in your whole body.
That’s about three times as much oxygen as your
muscles need.
9. There are no pain receptors in your brain, so
you can’t actually “feel” pain.
While your brain detects and processes pain in
tandem with your spinal cord, you actually can’t
feel someone poking at our brain tissue -- which is
why surgeons are able to perform brain surgery
while you’re awake. We will note that your scalp,
along with the membranes that cover your bones
and brain tissue, do have the ability to feel pain.
10. People who have lost limbs may use mirror
therapy to address phantom pain.
According to the New England Journal of
Medicine, phantom limb pain occurs in at least 90
percent of amputees. Introduced by neuroscientist
V.S. Ramachandran at the University of
California, San Diego, mirror therapy seemingly
tricks the brain into a more normal sensory pattern.
Research is still spotty, and scientists are still
unsure of how phantom pain works.
11. Here’s something that’s NOT true: You
definitely use more than 10 percent of your
brain.
A pernicious rumor that’s been around awhile and
persistent one in pop culture, but it’s patently
false: there is really not part of the brain that
doesn’t have a function.
12. Most right-handed people process language
on the left side of their brains, but left-handed
people sometimes show activation on both sides.
However, one hemisphere of the brain is never the
provenance for all language processing, and
creativity and intelligence aren’t separated neatly
along left brain / right-brain lines. In many cases,
the brain works bilaterally.
13. Human brain development does not finish
until around age 25.
As neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt quipped on
NPR, “The car rental companies got to it first, but
neuroscientists have caught up.” Aamodt
explained that the prefrontal cortex -- that is, the
area of the brain responsible for impulse control --
is not fully developed until your twenties, making
18-year-old “adults” more likely to engage in risky
behavior.
14. Brain is the only object that can contemplate
itself.

Another thread that makes Nairaland worth using my data on.

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