Brain

BRAINS IN HISTORY

Neanderthal man had a brain capacity 100cc larger than modern man's.

Alcmaeon of Croton in the 6th century BC was probably the first to claim that we think with our brains.

Aristotle believed that the heart was the source of intelligence and the main function of the brain was to cool our blood.

Beethoven used to pour cold water over his head to stimulate his brain before sitting down to compose.

In 1848, Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survived a 3-foot (0.91 m)-plus iron rod being driven through his head. The resulting medical case was the first to indicate that damage to certain regions of the brain could affect personality and behavior.

Albert Einstein's brain was removed and sent around America to be studied by specialists after he died. The remains were found in the 1970s inside an old cider carton in a doctor's office.

The first brain-scan using x-ray computed tomography (CT scan) was performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London on October 1, 1971. The original 1971 CT Scan took 160 parallel readings with each scan taking a little over 5 minutes. The images from these scans took 2.5 hours to be processed on a large computer.

Historic EMI Scanner

In 2007, a 44-year-old French man went to the doctor complaining of weakness in his left leg. When doctors performed a brain scan, they were shocked to find that he was missing 90% of his brain. The man's brain was filled with cerebrospinal fluid, with only a thin layer of brain tissue left. The man had been living a normal life up until that point. He had a job, a family, and friends. He was able to hold conversations, read, and write. His IQ was tested at 84, which is slightly below average.

Doctors are still not sure how the man was able to live a normal life with so little brain tissue. They believe that the remaining 10% of his brain was able to compensate for the missing tissue.

THE HUMAN BRAIN

The average weight of a human brain is about three pounds, which is about 2% of your body weight.

The brain matures back to front, with the frontal cortex (used for decision making) maturing last.

The human brain reaches its maximum weight (around 1.5kg or 3.3lb) at the age of 19 — and gradually loses small amounts of mass after the age of 50.

The brain shrinks over the course of the day, ending up smaller in the evening – before returning to its full size the next morning.

About 60 per cent of your brain is fat.

The human brain is about 85% water.

Although the cerebellum is only 10% of the brain's volume, it holds over 50% of your brain's total neurons.

From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain.

There are about 100 billion neurons in a human brain, which is about the same as the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

The most accurate simulation of the human brain ever has been carried out detailing a single second’s worth of brain activity took one of the world’s largest supercomputers 40 minutes to calculate.

Scientists have figured out that the speed of nerve impulses in the brain is 404 feet per second. If an idea is complex enough to take 100 nerve messages from one side of the brain to the other, the thought could be completed in less than a tenth of a second.

It takes our brains 80 milliseconds to process information. That means we are all living ever so slightly in the past.

The power generated by electrical impulses in the human brain would light a 20-watt bulb.

You only use about 10% of your brain even if you're "thinking hard."

The human brain is much more active at night than during the day.

Every time you open your eyes, your brain activity changes drastically.

The human brain is very soft and has a consistency similar to tofu.

The brain itself cannot feel pain, despite its billions of neurons, even if you stick a knife in it.  However, the meninges (coverings around the brain), periosteum (coverings on the bones), and the scalp all have pain receptors and this is why you have migraines.

The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body and vice versa.

The storage capacity of the human brain exceeds 4 Terrabytes.

Experts estimate that in a lifetime, a human brain may retain one quadrillion separate bits of information.

The male brain is 10% larger than the female's but the female brain works more efficiently.

The typical brain uses 20% of the body's total energy and oxygen intake.

Your brain uses one fifth of a calorie per minute.

Half the brain of an eight-year-old child can be removed with no ill-effects

Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7000 brain cells a day.

While animal brains are part of many countries' cuisines, eating human brains can cause a deadly disease similar to mad cow disease called Kuru. 

ANIMAL BRAINS

The animal whose brain accounts for the largest share of its body weight is the squirrel monkey. It's brain makes up about 5% of its total weight.

Spider brains are so large, that in smaller species they spill into their legs.

A cat's brain is more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog's brain. Humans and cats have identical regions responsible for emotion.

Cat's brain

A hummingbird’s brain makes up 4.2% of its weight—proportionally, that’s the largest of any bird’s.

The animal with the largest brain in proportion to its size is the ant.

A koala's brain is only 0.2% of its body weight.

A manatee has the smallest brain of all mammals in relation to its body mass.

Starfish have no brains.

Source Daily Express