50 Amazing Human Brain Facts (Based on the
Latest Science)

By Deane Alban

These brain facts dispel many brain myths that linger from the past. Learn how the brain works, for better (or worse). All facts have original references. The study of the human brain has been called the last frontier in science.
The field of neuroscience is still in its infancy, but is exploding rapidly turning yesterday’s brain “facts” into today’s brain “myths.” Experts agree there is more we don’t know about the brain
than we currently know. (1 )
Here are some of the most interesting brain facts backed by science.
Some will fill you with awe.
Some will make you pause and think.
Others will make you realize what an imperfect
“machine” we’ve got running the show.
We think at least a few of these will …
Blow Your Mind!

Human Brain Facts by the Numbers

The most complex entity known resides between your ears.
Here are some of the fascinating facts and figures about the
human brain.

1. The typical brain is about 2% of a body’s weight but uses
20% of its total energy and oxygen intake.

2. Your brain is 73% water. It takes only 2% dehydration to
affect your attention, memory and other cognitive skills.

3. Ninety minutes of sweating can temporarily shrink the brain
as much as one year of aging.

4. Your brain weighs about 3 pounds. Of that, the dry weight is
60% fat, making your brain the fattiest organ.

5. 25% of the body’s cholesterol resides within the
brain. Cholesterol is an integral part of every brain cell.
Without adequate cholesterol, brain cells die.

6. No one knows for sure, but the latest estimate is that our
brains contain roughly 86 billion brain cells.

7. Each neuron connects with, on average, 40,000 synapses.

8. A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains
100,000 neurons and 1 billion synapses all communicating with
each other.

9. All brain cells are not alike. There are as many as 10,000
specific types of neurons in the brain.

10. Only 5 minutes without oxygen can cause brain damage.

11. Babies have big heads to hold rapidly growing brains. A 2-
year-old’s brain is 80% of adult size.

12. As any parent can attest, teen brains are not fully formed
until about the age of 25.

13. Brain information moves at an impressive 260 miles per
hour. This is faster than Formula 1 race cars which top out at
240 mph.

14. Your brain generates about 12-25 watts of electricity.
Contrary to popular belief, this is not enough to power the
average light bulb of 60 watts.

15. The average brain has around 50,000 thoughts per day and
70% of them are believed to be negative.

16. More than 100,000 chemicals reactions take place in your
brain every second.

Does Brain Size Matter?

With some things size matters, but with the brain, bigger
doesn’t always mean better or smarter.

17. In general, men’s brains are 10% bigger than women’s,
even after taking into account larger body size.

18. Albert Einstein’s brain weighed in at 2.71 pounds — 10%
smaller than the average of 3 pounds.

19. Neanderthal brains were 10% larger than our homo sapiens
brains.

20. Humans don’t have the biggest brains. That honor belongs
to sperm whales with 17 pound brains.

The Effects of Modern Lifestyle on Our Brains

Our modern lifestyle is changing our brains. There’s some
evidence it’s not all for the better.

21. Our brains are getting smaller. Over the past 10-20,000
years, the size of the average human brain has shrunk by the
size of a tennis ball.

22. We are not getting smarter. Since the Victorian era, average
IQs have gone down 1.6 points per decade for a total of 13.35
points.

23. Multitasking makes you less productive. When you
multitask, your brain simply rapidly toggles back and forth
between tasks. This results in decreases in attention span,
learning, performance, and short-term memory.

24. Surprisingly, millennials (aged 18 to 34) are more forgetful
than baby boomers. They are more likely to forget what day it
is or where they put their keys than their parents!

25. We’ve always compared the brain to the most advanced
technology of the day. It’s been compared to a clock, a switchboard,
a computer, and most recently to the internet.

26. Our attention spans are getting shorter. In 2000, the average
attention span was 12 seconds. Now it’s 8 seconds. That’s
shorter than the attention span of the average goldfish which
is 9 seconds.

27. Brain cells cannibalize themselves as a last ditch source of
energy to ward off starvation. So in very real ways dieting can force
your brain to eat itself.

28. Your brain’s storage capacity is considered virtually unlimited. It
doesn’t get “used up” like RAM in your computer.

Brain Myths Debunked

Rapid advancements in neuroscience means information gets
outdated fast.
That’s one of the reasons there’s a lot of misinformation
floating around about the brain.
Here are some well-accepted brain “facts” that have been
proven to no longer be true.

29. The popular myth that we use only 10% of our brains is flat-
out wrong. Brain scans clearly show that we use most of our
brain most of the time, even when we’re sleeping.

30. There is no such thing as a left-brain or right-brain
personality type. We are not left-brained or right-brained ; we
are “whole brained.”

31. In spite of what you’ve been told, alcohol doesn’t kill brain
cells. It “only” damages the connective tissue at the end of
neurons.

32. The Mozart Effect has been debunked. While listening to
certain kinds of music can improve memory
and concentration, there’s nothing unique about listening
to Mozart.

33. You may have heard that we have more brain cells than
there are stars in the Milky Way, but this is not true. Best guess
estimates are that we have 86 billion neurons and there are
200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way.

34. It’s often said there are 10,0000 miles of blood vessels in the
brain when it fact that number is closer to 400 miles. Still a
substantial amount!

35. Contrary to prevailing medical belief, having high total
cholesterol is not bad for your brain. In fact it actually
reduces your risk of dementia.

Facts About Memory

It was once thought our brain recorded memories like a camera
but this is not how memory works.
Our memories work less like a digital recording and more like
listening to live improvisational jazz.

36. Memories are shockingly unreliable. Emotions, motivation,
cues, context and frequency of use can all affect how accurately
you remember something.

37. Memory is more of an activity than a place . Any
given memory is deconstructed and distributed in different
parts of the brain. Then, for the memory to be recalled, it
gets reconstructed from the individual fragments.

38. Your brain starts slowing down at the ripe old age of 24
but peaks for different cognitive skills at different ages. In fact
at any given age, you’re likely getting better at some things and
worse at others.

39. If you were drinking and don’t remember what you did last
night, it’s not because you forgot. While you are drunk your
brain is incapable of forming memories.

Brain Facts That Are Just Plain Weird

Some of these brain facts have been around for a while and
some are brand new, but I think you’ll find at least a few of
these mind-blowing.

40. The human brain is not solid. It’s soft and squishy similar
to the consistency of soft tofu or soft gelatin. And it’s very
fragile.

41. One half a brain is a good as a whole one. When surgeons
perform a hemispherectomy , they remove or disable half of the
brain to stop seizures. Shockingly, patients experience no effect
on personality or memory.

42. Think you’re in control of your life? Think again. 95% of
your decisions take place in your subconscious mind.

43. The brain in your head isn’t your only brain. There’s a
“second brain” in your intestines that contains 100,000
neurons. Gut bacteria are responsible for making over 30
neurotransmitters including the “happy” molecule serotonin.

44. Some scientists believe zombies could be real and that it’s
possible a mutated virus could attack our brains and rapidly
spread throughout large populations causing essentially a
“zombie apocalypse.”

45. A blood-brain barrier protects your brain from foreign
substances. But it doesn’t work perfectly. The nicotine in
smoke rushes into the brain in a mere 7 seconds. Alcohol on
the other hand takes 6 minutes.

46. Prescription sleeping pills don’t put you to sleep. They put
your brain into a state similar to being in a coma. This
essentially bypasses any restorative value of sleep.

47. Our brains crave mental stimulation. Men especially would rather
receive electric shocks than sit quietly in a room andthink!

48. Over 140 proteins in the brain are negatively impacted by exposure to
electromagnetic frequencies — the kind emitted by your cell phone,
electronics, and other electrical devices.

49. Although pain is processed in your brain, your brain has no
pain receptors and feels no pain. This explains how
brain surgery can be performed while the patient is awake
with no pain or discomfort.

50. Few facts about the brain are as weird as the story of Albert
Einstein’s brain. The pathologist who performed Einstein’s
autopsy kept the brain in a jar in his basement for 40
years. Eventually he made a cross country trip with
the brain in a Tupperware container to deliver it to Einstein’s
granddaughter.


SOURCE

These is really beautiful, and I can't believe I read everything

Wow.. very interesting facts... enlightening. ..
These are the ones I found most interesting for those that may not want to read the whole write up..


●Ninety minutes of sweating can temporarily shrink the brain as much as one year of aging.

●Only 5 minutes without oxygen can cause brain damage.

●Babies have big heads to hold rapidly growing brains. A 2-year-old’s brain is 80% of adult size.

●As any parent can attest, teen brains are not fully formed until about the age of 25.

●Multitasking makes you less productive. When you
multitask, your brain simply rapidly toggles back and forthbetween tasks. This results in decreases in attention span,learning, performance, and short-term memory.

●Your brain’s storage capacity is considered virtually unlimited. It doesn’t get “used up” like RAM in your computer.

●There is no such thing as a left-brain or right-brain
personality type. We are not left-brained or right-brained ; weare “whole brained.”

●Memories are shockingly unreliable. Emotions, motivation,cues, context and frequency of use can all affect how accurately you remember something.

●Your brain starts slowing down at the ripe old age of 24 but peaks for different cognitive skills at different ages. In fact at any given age, you’re likely getting better at some things and
worse at others.

●If you were drinking and don’t remember what you did last night, it’s not because you forgot. While you are drunk your brain is incapable of forming memories.

●One half a brain is a good as a whole one. When surgeons perform a hemispherectomy , they remove or disable half of the brain to stop seizures. Shockingly, patients experience no effect on personality or memory.

●Think you’re in control of your life? Think again. 95% of your decisions take place in your subconscious mind.

●The brain in your head isn’t your only brain. There’s a “second brain” in your intestines that contains 100,000 neurons. Gut bacteria are responsible for making over 30 neurotransmitters including the “happy” molecule serotonin.

●Some scientists believe zombies could be real and that it’s possible a mutated virus could attack our brains and rapidly spread throughout large populations causing essentially a “zombie apocalypse.”

●Prescription sleeping pills don’t put you to sleep. They put your brain into a state similar to being in a coma. This essentially bypasses any restorative value of sleep.

●Our brains crave mental stimulation. Men especially would rather receive electric shocks than sit quietly in a room and think!

●Over 140 proteins in the brain are negatively impacted by exposure to electromagnetic frequencies — the kind emitted by your cell phone, electronics, and other electrical devices.

●Although pain is processed in your brain, your brain has no pain receptors and feels no pain. This explains how brain surgery can be performed while the patient is awake with no pain or discomfort.

"Our brains crave mental stimulation. Men especially would rather receive electric shocks than sit quietly in a room and think!"


^^^^, could this be why men tend to want sex more than women?

Tnk op
Dis is part of reasons I joined nairaland

This shud make front page

Bwain.....nice one op

shirgles:
Tnk op
Dis is part of reasons I joined nairaland

You are welcome, we are all here to acquire knowledge in different ways.

I learn new things daily.

Sabadon:
Bwain.....nice one op

Cool

Saintwudi:
This shud make front page

Even if it doesn't, I see some of my threads as my personal archive I can easily refer to. I just read everything here again this morning.