Human brain

There is no sense of pain within the brain itself which explains why brain surgeons can probe areas of the brain even when the patient is awake;

The left side of your brain (left hemisphere) controls the right side of your body; and, the right side of your brain (right hemisphere) controls the left side of your body;

You will lose consciousness in 10 seconds after the loss of blood supply to the brain;

Of all creatures on earth humans have the most complex brain;

Differences in brain weight and size do not equal differences in mental ability;

If stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m or 2.5sq.ft;

Average surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft;

Your brain is 80% water;

Your brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day;

Brain imaging studies show that human feelings originate inside the brain;

The same part of the brain interprets both your physical and emotional pain;

Stress over long periods can weaken the brain’s ability to learn and remember;

A dog’s brain is 19 times smaller than a human adult brain; an elephant’s brain 4 to 5 times bigger than ours;

The human brain contains 400 miles of blood vessels;

The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and makes up 85% of the brain’s weight;

Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain;

Your brain is 60% white matter and 40% gray matter;

The human brain is the fattest organ in the body and may consists of at least 60% fat;

Music lessons have shown to considerably boost brain organization and ability in both children and adults;

The average number of thoughts that humans are believed to experience each day is 70,000;

Those who are left-handed or ambidextrous have a corpus collosum (the part of the brain that bridges the two halves) that is about 11% larger than those who are right-handed;

Altitude makes the brain see strange visions;

Juggling has shown to change the brain in as little as seven days. The study indicates that learning new things helps the brain to change very quickly;

 Each time we blink, our brain kicks in and keeps things illuminated so the whole world doesn’t go dark each time we blink (about 20,000 times a day);

Laughing at a joke is no simple task as it requires activity in five different areas of the brain;

Some people (about 12%) dream only in black and white while others dream in color.

If you are snoring, you are not dreaming;

Insulin works to regulate blood-sugar in the body, but recently, scientists have discovered that its presence in the brain also helps promote memory;

It goes to follow…lack of sleep may actually hurt your ability to create new memories;

Anomia is the technical word for tip-of-the-tongue syndrome when you can almost remember a word, but it just won’t quite come to you;

Your brain stopped growing at age 18;

Reading aloud and talking often to a young child promotes brain development;

The first sense to develop while in utero is the sense of touch. The lips and cheeks can experience touch at about 8 weeks and the rest of the body around 12 weeks;

Children who learn two languages before the age of five alters the brain structure and adults have a much denser gray matter;

Studies have shown that child abuse can inhibit development of the brain and can permanently affect brain development;

Oxytocin, one of the hormones responsible for triggering feelings of love in the brain, has shown some benefits to helping control repetitive behaviors in those with autism;

You can’t tickle yourself because your brain distinguished between unexpected external touch and your own touch;

Without any words, you may be able to determine if someone is in a good mood, is feeling sad, or is angry just by reading the face. A small area in the brain called the amygdala is responsible for your ability to read someone else’s face for clues to how they are feeling;

Scientists have discovered that men and women’s brains react differently to pain, which explains why they may perceive or discuss pain differently;

Women tend to take longer to make a decision, but are more likely to stick with the decision, compared to men, who are more likely to change their mind after making a decision;

The connection between body and mind is a strong one. One estimate is that between 50-70% of visits to the doctor for physical ailments are attributed to psychological factors;

Memory is formed by associations, so if you want help remembering things, create associations for yourself;

The neocortex makes up about 76% of the human brain and is responsible for language and consciousness. The human neocortex is much larger than in animals;

The old adage of humans only using 10% of their brain is not true. Every part of the brain has a known function.