Interesting Facts About The Human Brain with Introduction and Functions

In This Article You Will Know:

  • How many neurons make up your brain?
  • When does your brain sleep?
  • Why babies have bigger heads?
  • How many types of neurons are there in your brain?

Human Brain Basic Facts

Average Weight1,500 grams (1.5 Kg)
Contains Water73%
Brain’s Memory CapacityQuadrillion, or 1015, bytes.
Contains Brain Cells86 Billion (Latest Est.)
Integral Part of Every Brain CellCholestrol
Specific Types of NeuronsAs Many As 10,000
Brain information travels up to268 miles/h
Brain generates electricity≈ 12-25 watts

Did you know most of what you know about your brain has been discovered in just the last two decades? Still the experts agree that there’s more you don’t know about this organ than your presently do know!

Like the heart that keeps on pumping blood throughout your life, the brain remains active and never goes to sleep. When brain stops working, the individual is legally declared to be dead. However, while the person is legally dead, the heart may be made to beat by putting the patient onlife support.

The Human Brain

Brain in Brief:

The most complex organ in your body, the brain is located in your head and is enclosed by a hard bony structure, called the skull. This natural CPU is believed to have unlimited potential and miraculous powers. Many of its secrets are yet to be unveiled.The sensory organs found in its proximity include the eyes (vision), the ears (hearing), the nose (smell) and the tongue (taste). The skin, acting as a protective envelope around your body, also serves as an organ of touch. All the data collected through these senses is processed in the brain.

Made up of several billion neurons (nearly 100 billion) and contributing nearly 2% of body-weight, brain is the supreme structural and functional unit and control centre of the body. It is also the superior-most region of CNS (Central Nervous System). Broadly speaking, major part of the brain is comprised of the hemispheres (left & right) of cerebral cortex. Cerebellum, the horizontally furrowed structure of brain’s rear part, is located behind brainstem that is attached to cerebrum.

The Human Brain Diagram

What Does Your Brain Do?

Primary components and associated structures of brain work in coordination with one another and execute a huge number of vital functions. The tasks like growth, maintenance, reproduction, sexual maturity, detecting and responding to environmental hazards, and personal & behavioural developments are all initiated, executed and regulated by your brain.

Brain Disorders:

Like other structures of the body, the master organ is also vulnerable to several disorders, injuries, damages and severe ailments. Some of the brain problems are difficult to cure and can immediately lead to the death of the victim.

Meningitis, encephalitis, concussion, intracerebral haemorrhage, brain tumour, hydrocephalus, and haemorrhage stroke are some of the major conditions that can be addressed through various successful treatment measures.

19 Amazing and Interesting Facts About The Human Brain

  • Your brain is 73 percent water and just 2 percent dehydration can affect your memory, attention and other cognitive activities.
  • Did you know sweating can temporarily shrink your brain? After 90 minutes of continuous sweating, it will temporarily shrink as much as one year of aging does.
  • A brain mass of the size of a sandgrain contains around 100,000 neurons and 1 billion synapses!
  • There are around 10,000 different types of neurons in your cranium!
  • Compared to their body size, the babies have big heads to house rapidly growing brain mass. A two-year-old baby’s brain is about 80 percent of adult size!
  • Your brain is the fattiest organ of the body! Actually, 60% of its dry weight consists of fat.
  • An integral part of every brain cell, cholesterol is essential for their health and even life. In the absence of adequate supply of cholesterol, the brain cells die.
  • Your master organ houses 25% of the body’s cholesterol.
  • Did you know each neuron in the brain can transmit as many as a thousand nerve impulses per second? It can also make tens of thousands of contacts with other neurons.
  • The brain of a male, having the same height and surface area of body as that of a female, weighs 100 grams heavier!
  • The difference of brain weight in opposite sex members has no obvious relation to their IQ (Intelligence Quotient) or any other measure of the cognitive efficiency.
  • The mean volume of a fully grown-up male and female brain-mass measures about 1260 cm3 (cubic centimeter) and 1130 cm3, respectively.
  • The average weight of an adult human brain is about 1,500 grams (1.5 Kg), but it also greatly varies from one individual to another.
  • Concerning brain-to-body-weight ratio, human skull contains the largest living brain structure as compared to all the other animals.
  • Human brain is almost thrice as large as that of a chimpanzee, and two times larger than that of bottlenose dolphin.
  • Cerebrum (or telencephalon) is the major part of brain that is not only largest in size but also the most developed of all the major structural divisions of the brain.
  • Thinking and reasoning are some of the most complex activities of human brain that still remain least understood even in this post-modern era of science and technology.
  • The gray or whitish matter of brain is composed of neuron cells that are responsible for gathering and transmitting signals or nerve impulses and delivering the processed responses back to the same regions to carry out desired actions.
  • The voltage variations in the electrical activity along your scalp are recorded by a process called EEG (Electroencephalography) that is the measure of ionic current flowing through the neuron cells.

About the Author

Posted by: M. Isaac / Senior writer

A graduate in biological sciences and a PhD scholar (NCBA&E University, Lahore), M. Isaac combines his vast experience with a keen and critical eye to create practical and inherently engaging content on the human body. His background as a researcher and instructor at a secondary school enables him to best understand the needs of the beginner level learners and the amateur readers and educate them about how their body works, and how they can adopt a healthier lifestyle.

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