If someone says that the brain is the most fascinating organ in human body, it will be kind of an insult to other organs like heart, kidneys, liver etc. But still, our brain is what makes us unique.
If any other life form on earth gets a brain with same capabilities as our brain, we will no longer be the most advanced life form on earth. Do you agree? You should!
Can you ever point out a cow or a dog building Burj Khalifa? Can you ever point out a cat or giraffe digging up and studying dinosaur fossils? These questions can be answered with one word – ‘NO’! So, because our brain is unique, it is time that we learn 45 interesting facts about human brain. Are you ready?
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 1-5
1. Our brain is one hell of a greedy organ in our entire body. Why? It weighs a mere 3 pounds and yet consumes nearly 25% of the energy supply that our body gets throughout the day!
2. Human brain consists of 100 billion neurons and 1.1 trillion cells.
3. The minimum or the lowest speed at which information travels across brain is nearly 260 miles an hour.
4. Do you know how many atoms are present in our observable universe? It is approximately between 1078 and 1082. That’s quite an amount right? For a typical human brain, that number is nothing. Why? Because, human brain is capable of wiring itself in 10 to the power of 1 million different ways. So, how big is that? Place one million zeros after 10! Stephen Hawking may call it finite but for us, that’s infinite.
5. Approximately 75% of human brain is made of water but interestingly, if water is sent into brain from an external source, it won’t survive.
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 6-10
6. Do you know how much amount of information is stored in National Archives of Britain? Around 70 terabytes covering 900 years of history. A human brain can have a storage capacity of anywhere between 3 terabytes and 1,000 terabytes.
7. Normally we would think that our brain is far more active during day because it needs to process numerous information. Actually, that’s not true. Scientists have found out that brain is far more active when a person sleeps during night! Scientists don’t yet have an explanation for this but that’s a weird fact about brain!
8. Scientists say that people with higher IQ dream more. Does that mean that if a person cannot remember a dream, he or she is mentally lacking? Not really! Even for people with very high IQ, dreams are really difficult to recall because most people forget 50% of their dreams in first 5 minutes after waking and 90% of the dream within 10 minutes.
9. Dreams are black and white for nearly 12% of people.
10. Why do people don’t act out of their dreams? That’s because when a person sleeps, the brain releases a hormone which virtually paralyzes the person.
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 11-15
11. Human brain is responsible for processing pain. So, if you cut your hand or you hurt yourself in some way or the other, you will feel pain. However, it brain itself is incapable of experiencing pain. Why? That’s because brain does not pain receptors. So, why does your head hurt? That’s because your brain is surrounded by loads of tissues, blood vessels and nerves that have a load pain receptors!
12. There was a time when it was believed by the scientific community that neural tissues in brain are incapable of regenerations. That’s not true! Neurons in human brain keep growing throughout the lifespan of an individual. In other words, neurons keep regenerating.
13. Nearly 20% of the entire oxygen that enters our body is consumed by brain. Thus, the brain takes maximum hit in case of oxygen deprivation.
14. The brain is not really a gray and firm mass. It is jelly-like, pink and squishy matter. This is because of the high water content of the brain.
15. Can you name the fattiest organ in your entire body? It is the brain, 60% of which is made of fat! Huh?
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 16-20
16. And who said thought is intangible? Amidst that squishy, jelly-like, pink and fatty organ called brain, thoughts are actually physical pathways. So, if you are actually thinking something, you are actually travelling on that physical highway located in your brain. The more you think of a single thought, the more you return to that particular path. So, stop thinking that you are not good.
17. A human can have 70,000 thoughts a day. Of these 70,000, many thoughts are actually looping around. So, if you keep thinking that you are good for nothing, you may very well consume a high percentage of your daily thought quota and end up becoming a person that sucks!
18. It has been scientifically proven that reading out loud helps in better development of brain among kids.
19. There are literally two sides of human brain – the left and the right. At any given point in time, either one of the two will be dominant. This switching takes place every 90 to 120 minutes. So, if can plan your activities accordingly, you will come more productive in everything you do.
20. There is never a drop in brainwave activity. Even when a person is sleeping, the brain works hard (in fact, it works harder when a person sleeps) to keep the heart, the digestive system, the immune system etc. functional.
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 21-25
21. It is nothing but a myth that humans only make use of 10% of their brain. Every part of the brain has its own function and every single individual uses the entire brain and not just 10%. You don’t believe it? Okay, how about cutting a piece out of your brain for the sake of experimenting?
22. Did you know that taxi drivers in London have bigger hippocampus than individuals in other parts of the world? Hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for dealing with visual-spatial awareness. In London, a taxi driver is not issued a license unless he or she literally learns every single street in London. This may take months and even years!
23. Humans have something known as mirror neurons. What do they do? Okay, did you ever find yourself flinching when you see someone cutting his or finger for example? The moment you see that, the exact same pain area in your brain is lighted up, causing you to flinch despite the fact that you are not hurt. Scientists today believe that the mirror neurons are responsible for empathy in humans. Interestingly, the mirror neurons weren’t discovered until 1990s.
24. Multi-tasking is nothing but a myth. University of Utah conducted a research and found that of the entire global population only 2.5% people are capable of multi-tasking. They can literally do two different things simultaneously and that too consciously without degrading performance in either of the two activities. For rest of us, we don’t really do multi-tasking. Our brain simply moves forward and backward very rapidly creating an illusion of multi-tasking, which eventually ends up inhibiting our performance.
25. Look around yourself. What do you see? Everything! Everything in details! However, that’s not really what it is. You don’t really see as much details as you believe you see. Your brain is a supreme liar and keep tricking you. The brain is simply incapable of processing every single detail your eyes look at. Your brain has something called occipital lobe. What it does is that it presumes what’s present and joins the dots forcing you to believe that you are actually seeing every single detail. Feeling sad? Don’t be! My situation is no different than yours. In short, everyone in this world is a victim of his or her brain!
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 26-30
26. Brain never really captures memories in form of videos. What it really does is that it takes snapshots of important events. When you really try to recall a particular event, what the brain will actually do is guess a line of events that actually happened between two snapshots, thus creating a false memory.
27. In order to find out this awful behavior of the brain, scientists did an experiment. They Photoshopped some images of different people and asked them to recall the events based on those photos. Those people clearly visualized the entire events and gave a vivid narration. The reality however was that those people were never there. As a matter of fact, those events never occurred.
28. Do you know why the corporate houses that arrange for employee training for long hours at a stretch fail to get results? That’s because, the brain is simply incapable of concentrating for long periods. Human brain needs to refresh itself at least once every 90 minutes. The quicker the refreshment comes, the better it is. Thus, corporate houses must concentrate on giving multiple small breaks instead of one large lunch break after a long session of training.
29. Our brain is simply incapable of distinguishing between what we are imaging and what is really happening. That’s the reason why we almost shit our pants when we watch horror movies. Our brain fails to distinguish that it’s only a movie and that the events are not happening in real. We simply keep imaging the horrible and scary things.
30. Why do people get addicted to cocaine or heroin or other opiates? That’s because those drugs activate the nucleus accumbens (pleasure center of the brain) and forces the brain to release serotonin and dopamine. Stop being a jerk! Serotonin and dopamine can be released in other ways too. For instance, get laid often! Some people will say that even charity helps but for me, that sucks big time.
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 31-35
31. The brain’s ability to learn is never decreased unless of course, it is struck by some degenerative disease. So, how come a brain can keep learning? That’s because it is capable or rewiring itself constantly.
32. A man’s (women too) peripheral vision improves at night. That’s the reason why pilots learn to use peripheral vision to look for traffic at night. So, what has vision to do with brain? Good question! Humans don’t really see with eyes. Read about human eye facts here.
33. There are different parts of the brain that are said to regulate different functions. For example, danger is regulated by amygdala, emotions are regulated by limbic system and motor control is regulated by cerebellum, etc. However, despite the common notion that different parts operate independently, it is far from being true. Each part requires the help of every other part of the brain to perform the job assigned to it.
34. A person passes out after 10 seconds once the blood flow to the brain stops. The brain is not equipped to deal without blood for any longer than 10 seconds.
35. Similarly, the brain is not equipped to deal without oxygen. Once the brain is deprived of oxygen, it can sustain normal functions for 5 to 10 minutes after which, it starts dying.
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 36-40
36. When a person is awake, his or her brain is capable of producing around 10-23 watts of power that is enough to power up a small electrical bulb.
37. All blood vessels present in brain together cover an amazing 100,000 miles!
38. Imagine the effects of war on soldiers. The same effect comes on children’s brain because of home violence.
39. Every time a new memory is formed, a new brain connection is created.
40. Chocolate’s smell helps a person to relax by increasing the amount of theta waves in brain.
Interesting Facts About Human Brain: 41-45
41. The number of cells in brain at birth is almost the same as number of cells in adulthood. However, these cells grow in size reaching their maximum size when a new born child reaches the age of six.
42. The size of the brain of a newborn baby increases 3 times the size during birth. This explains which babies have large heads compared to remaining body. No wonder they look like aliens. Don’t get me wrong! Your child looks absolutely beautiful. I was only talking about others’ babies.
43. The brain files and arranges all memories and everything you learned throughout the day when you sleep. So, never ignore your sleep.
44. Try tickling yourself. Do you end up laughing? You don’t! That’s because your brain knows when exactly you are tickling yourself.
45. At any given point in time, the brain uses 20% of the total blood in body. Just 3 pounds in weight and this bastard needs 20% of the total blood. Our brain is really greedy!
If you have any more facts about human brain, do let us know by dropping a comment in the comment box.
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