Scientifically proven FACTS about this mysterious thing we call the “brain”:

  • One human brain generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all the world’s telephones put together. Every thought and pattern of light, sound, movement, smell and sensation is converted into a sequence of electric pulses, which is received and translated by your brain.
  • Your brain needs a continuous supply of oxygen. A 10 minute loss of oxygen will usually cause significant neural damage. Cold can lengthen this time, which is why cold-water drowning victims have been revived after as much as 40 minutes — without brain damage.
  • Your brain uses a fifth of all the blood in your body. It needs it to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of its neurons. It needs not only the glucose that is delivered by the blood, but of course, the oxygen too.
  • There are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in one human brain. If they were stretched out, they would circle the earth more than four times.
  • Your brain feels no pain. There are no nerves that register pain within the brain itself. Because of this, neurosurgeons can probe the brain while a patient is conscious. By doing this, they can use feedback from the patient to identify important regions such as those used for speech or visualization.
  •  The cerebellum is sometimes called the “little brain” and weighs about 150 grams (a little over five ounces). Found at the lower rear of your brain. Your cerebellum enables you to maintain posture, to walk and to perform coordinated movements. It may also play a role in your sense of smell.
  •  The human brain weighs an average of a little over three pounds, or 1.4 kilograms.
  • Albert Einstein’s brain may have been smaller than yours, because he was smaller than average. There is a general correlation between body size and the size of our brains.
  • An elephant’s brain is huge — about six times as large as a human brain. However, in relation to body size, humans have the largest brain of all the animals, averaging about 2% of body weight. A cat’s brain weighs about one ounce, a little over 1% of body weight.
  • On average you have about 100 billion neurons. You’ll be happy about that after reading the next item.
  • You loose approximately 85,000 neurons every day of your life. Fortunately, this goes unnoticed due to the superfluous supply of neurons with which we are endowed; and the fact that even after three years this loss adds up to less than 1% of the total.
  • Recent research proves that your brain continues to produce new neurons throughout your life. Scientists refer to this as brain plasticity or neuro-plasticity.
  • It has also been proven that neuro-plasticity increases in response to stimulation.
Mariette Le Roux
(Psychologist)