Brain Facts:
Fun Facts
| Topic | Discussion | Resource |
Axons |
Axons are the brain’s equivalent of wires. The thin threads are each only 1 hundredth of the thickness of a human hair. |
11 Katz, Lawrence C., |
| Axons | Axons can be 3 feet long, but dendrites are always short—less than a millimeter. |
Brynie, Faith
Hickman |
Brain Energy Use |
Neurons and synapses are so efficient that the brain uses only twelve watts of power. Over the course of a day, your brain uses the amount of energy contained in two large bananas. The brain is only 3 percent of the body’s weight, but it consumes one-sixth (17 percent) of the body’s total energy. |
Sandra Aamodt, PhD and Sam Wang, PhD |
| Cerebral Cortex | The cerebrum (or gray matter, or cortex) is the seat of intelligence. It provides us with the ability to read, write, speak, make calculations, compose music, remember the past, plan for the future, and imagine things that have never existed before. It is divided into two cerebral hemispheres. The outer rim of gray matter that covers the cerebrum. It is about 2-4 mm in thickness and containing billions of neurons. | Gerard J. Tortora and Sandra Reynolds Grabowski |
Cerebral Cortex |
Contains about 30 billion neurons linked by a million billion synapses. | Richard Restak, MD |
Cerebral Cortex, Size |
Cortex, spread out, would cover the front page of a newspaper. It contains 100 million nerve cells in every square inch. | Lawrence C. Katz,
PhD and Manning
Rubin |
Dendrites |
Dendritic spines on neurons: One trillion synaptic compartments, or "dendritic spines," could fit into a thimble. | Science News. Scientists Reveal Details Of Brain Cell Communication: Implications For Learning & Memory. Article. |
Endorsements |
A long extablished advertising gimmick of using a expert of celebrity (or someone who is both) to convince people that the product being endorsed is what a cool person would want. In a 2006 presentation at the University of Michigan, Smidts shared imaging studies proving that even a single exposure to a combination of product and expert “leads to a long-lasting change in memory for an attitude towards the product.” |
Zack Lynch |
Fingerprinting |
According to Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, “Brain Fingerprinting testing does not measure guilt or innocence, and nor does it measure participation or non-participation in a crime. It simply detects the presence or absence of information stored in the brain. |
Zack Lynch |
Learning—Motor Programs |
Whenever you’re learning or practicing a new manual skill, you’re engaging your brain primary motor cortex and prefrontal cortex. These two areas remain active during the first forty minutes of training. During the time, the prefrontal cortex is drawing up the plan of action and the motor cortex is practicing it. After you’ve learned the skilled movement or enhanced your performances, it’s necessary for your brain to consolidate the memory for what you’ve learned. This takes several hours and cannot be hurried. |
Richard Restak |
Non-stop |
The brain and the spinal cord function 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, nonstop from conception to death. The quality and health of life is profoundly affected by the way you feed and care for these complex pieces of anatomy. | Kenneth Giuffre, M. D. The Care and Feeding of Your Brain |
Synapses |
The cerebral cortex contains about 30 billion neurons linked to one another by means of a million billion neuronal connections called synapses |
Richard Restak |
| Truth | According to one resent study, seven parts of our brain pool their efforts when we tell the truth. When we’re faking, fourteen areas have to come online. | Zack Lynch |
| Unique Brain | The particular configuration of bumps and fissures along the cortical surface of any individual brain is as unique as the pattern of loops and whorls in a fingerprint. | Lawrence Miller, PhD Inner Natures - Brain, Self & Personality |
| Unique Brain | Each brain’s developmental pattern is unique so no two brains are alike. Even the brains of identical twins are not exactly the same. | Richard Restak, MD |
| Unique Brain | There are about 6 billion belief systems in the world (since each human brain is unique). | Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman Why We Believe What We Believe |
| Unique Brain | Every human brain is as unique as a fingerprint; no two are exactly alike. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that no two brains function identically. | Linda Williams |
|
|
