Category Zoology

Although the brain makes up less than three percent of our body weight, it uses 20 per cent of our total daily energy supply. Energy is required to fire neurons, and the brain has more than 100 billion of them. Two-thirds of the energy used by the brain fuels this neuron activity. The remaining third is used to repair and maintain neurons.

Full power

Scientists have found that the best way to maintain a healthy brain is to keep using it. Activities can be intellectual, such as learning a new language, or physical, such as running a race. Providing the brain with different kinds of challenges helps the growth maintenance, and regeneration of neurons.

Cube challenge

A Rubik’s cube stimulates neuron activity. Challenging the brain lifts the mood, reduces stress, and speeds up thinking.

A good night’s sleep

Nobody knows exactly how and why we sleep, but most experts agree that sleep is probably important for the health of the brain. Sleeping and dreaming may give the brain the chance to store memories, process information tken in during the day, and delete data.

Sleep cycle

We pass through the different stages of sleep several times a night, from light to deep sleep and back again.

• Light sleep: Body processes slow down; waking up is easy.
• REM sleep: The eyes flicker under the eyelids; dreams occur at this stage.
• Deep sleep: Body systems slow even more; walking is more difficult.

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The brain organizes and stores experiences as memories. These put information into context, such as whether you have been somewhere before or met someone previously. They also repeat useful information, such as the way to school. The brain does not keep every memory. If a memory is unimportant or the memory is not revisited, it soon gets forgotten.

Memory bank

Memories are not stored in a single part of the brain – in fact, recalling just one memory can involve several different parts of the brain.

The amygdala helps to form emotional memories. The hippocampus is where the brain stores long term memories. The frontal lobes holds short-term memories. The temporal lobe stores such as words and facts.

Setting a pattern

An experience will cause a certain set of brain cells to fire together. This creates a distinct neural pattern or activity in the brain. The information is bundled up and encoded as a memory.

• Neural pattern: A new experience triggers a neuron to send signals to other brain cells, forming a connected neuron network.
• Strong connection: when this experience is remembered, the same network is used. It grows bigger and the connection becomes stronger.

Making memories

Experiencing a memorable moment stays in the memory because a unique pattern of neural activity is created and reinforced.

• Formation: If you win a race, everything you experience – the way your body feels, the people around you, the weather on the day – combines to create a unique pattern of neural activity in the brain.
• Consolidation: Afterwards, when you talk about winning the race with a friend, you revisit the experience and add emotions, which make the memory even stronger.
• Revisiting: You replay the memory by looking at a photograph from the day. The more often you revisit this memory, the stronger the neural connections become, ensuring you don’t forget it.

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The cerebrum is divided into the right and left hemispheres. They communicate with each other through a thick bundle of nerve fibres called the corpus callosum. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, while the left hemisphere controls the right side.

Brain divide

The brain’s left side tends to control verbal and written skills, and logical thought. The right side tends to be where creative and emotional impulses come from. But the sides work together in a complex way that we don’t yet fully understand.

Left hemisphere

Language

Fluency with spoken words is controlled by the left hemisphere.

Writing

The left hemisphere controls your ability to express yourself in written words.

Logical thought

The left side is responsible for thinking logically and finding solutions to problems.

Maths and science

The left side handles numbers, problems, and scientific thought.

Right hemisphere

Special skills

The right side of your brain deals with 3D shapes and structures.

Imagination

Creativity and imaginative thoughts are fuelled by your right side.

Music

The right hemisphere is more active when you listen to music or play an instrument.

Art

Your artistic streak shows up on the right whenever you draw or paint.

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The human brain is a million times more efficient than a computer the same size. This busy control centre is responsible for our thoughts, movements, and memories. The brain needs a lot of energy to fuel its amazing processing power. Trillions of electrical impulses pass along the neural networks every second. These networks must be maintained and alternative routes planned, so if there is a problem, the signals can still get through.

Making moves

Body movement is stimulated by electrical impulses carried along nerve cells, called motor neurons. The impulse to move begins in the brain’s cerebral cortex, travels down the spinal cord, along the motor neuron, and to the muscle. As muscles contract, the body moves.

Conscious movement

Sometimes the body does not move until it receives specific sensory information. This prevents a player swinging at a tennis ball before it reaches the racket. Nerves carry electrical impulses from the brain to the muscles to make sure the body moves at the right time.

Returning serve

As the tennis ball is coming, a signal is sent to the brain to predict where the ball will land and move the body into position.

Unconscious movement

Sometimes the body must respond so quickly to sensory information that it does not want to involve the brain. This is an automatic reflex that protects the body in times of danger, such as touching something hot.

Burning hot

When you touch something very hot, the pain signals travels through the sensory nerve to the spinal cord

Automatic response

A nerve signal is sent from your spinal cord to your arm muscle, which contracts to pull the hand away.

Pain signal

The pain signal reaches the brain after the hand has moved away, and you now start to feel pain.

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Different regions of the cerebrum are specialized for specific tasks, such as learning new skills, talking, or strong memories.

Front area

Front area deals with planning, personality and working out problems. It is also responsible for primary motor function, or our ability to consciously move our muscles, and the two key areas related to speech, including Broca’s area.

Motor area

The motor area of the brain, also referred to as the Primary Motor cortex, is localized to the Precentral gyrus of the Frontal lobe and is responsible for carrying out. Motor area controls muscle movements.

Sensory area

Sensory areas are often represented in a manner that makes topographical sense. Sensory area processes sensations from our touch organs.

Visual area

Visual area receives information from the eyes. Visual information coming from the eyes passes through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus and then reaches the visual cortex.

Lower side lobes

Lower side lobes responsible for emotions and memory.

Speech and hearing area

Speech and hearing area controls the ability to speak, hear, and understand words.

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If we could take the brain part, we would see that it has two distinct, very similar halves, called hemispheres. The largest part of the brain, the cerebrum, deals with our thoughts, speech, and senses. The brain has many other areas, and scientists are still not sure about the exact functions of all of them.

Right hemisphere

The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. A right hemisphere dominant person excels in arts. It is visual and intuitive. It is also called the analog brain.

Corpus callosum

The corpus callosum is a large white matter tract that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. It is an incredibly important structural and functional part of the brain. This connects the two halves of the brain, enabling them to swap information.

Putamen

The putamen is a large structure located within the brain. It is involved in a very complex feedback loop that prepares and aids in movement of the limbs. The putamen helps control movements.

Caudate nucleus

The caudate nucleus plays a vital role in how the brain learns, specifically the storing and processing of memories. It works as a feedback processor, which means it uses information from past experiences to influence future actions and decisions. This helps to maintain long-term and short-term memory.

Globus pallidus

The globus pallidus is a structure in the brain involved in the regulation of voluntary movement.[7] It is part of the basal ganglia, which, among many other things, regulate movements that occur on the subconscious level. This helps to make movements smooth.

Pituitary gland

The pituitary gland is located in the brain, between the hypothalamus and the pineal gland, just behind the bridge of the nose. It is about the size of a pea and is attached to the brain by a thin stem of blood vessels and nerve cell projections. This gland produces different hormones.

Cerebellum

The cerebellum is located behind the top part of the brain stem (where the spinal cord meets the brain) and is made of two hemispheres (halves). The cerebellum receives information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord, and other parts of the brain and then regulates motor movements. This helps the body to balance.

Brainstem

The brainstem (brain stem) is the distal part of the brain that is made up of the midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata. Each of the three components has its own unique structure and function. The brainstem controls basic body functions such as breathing and heart rate.

Ventricle

The ventricles of the brain are a communicating network of cavities filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and located within the brain parenchyma. One or four areas that hold cerebrospinal fluid, which brings nutrients to the brain.

Left hemisphere

The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body. If the left side of the brain is dominant, the person is logical and more academically inclined.

Cerebrum

The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, located superiorly and anteriorly in relation to the brainstem. This is the thinking and feeling centre of the brain.

Thalamus

The thalamus is a small structure within the brain located just above the brain stem between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain and has extensive nerve connections to both. The thalamus processes and passes on information from the sense organs.

Brain folds

These create a larger surface to pack in neurons for maximum processing power. The peak of such a fold is called a gyrus (plural: gyri), and its trough is called a sulcus (plural: sulci). The neurons of the cerebral cortex reside in a thin layer of gray matter, only 2–4 mm thick, at the surface of the brain.

Amygdala

The amygdala (Latin, corpus amygdaloideum) is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe. An area that affects emotions.

Hippocampus

Hippocampus is a brain structure embedded deep in the temporal lobe of each cerebral cortex. It is an important part of the limbic system, a cortical region that regulates motivation, emotion, learning, and memory. This creates and stores long-term memories.

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