The brain is one of the most astonishing and intricate parts of the human body, yet it only takes up a fraction of space. But, oddly enough, there’s so much the average person doesn’t know about his or her noggin. Here are some strangely interesting facts about your gray matter.
1. The brain itself can’t feel pain
Ever wonder how brain surgeons are able to perform surgeries on patients while they’re awake?
Beth McQuiston, MD, a neurologist and the medical director of the diagnostics division at the health-care company Abbott, explains that even though the brain has layers of coverings and blood vessels that contain pain receptors, the brain itself has zero. When a person has a headache, for example, it’s often thought of as pain stemming from the brain, but this is actually not the case. The muscles and skin surrounding the brain, however, can feel pain.
2. Your brain is greedy
Your brain might account for only about 3 percent of your body weight, but it receives about 30 percent of the blood being pumped by your heart. This shows how much attention and support it requires in comparison to the other seemingly important areas of your body. “The brain is like a spoiled and demanding child, but yet it is extremely smart and efficient,” explains
Bennet Omalu, MD, a forensic pathologist, neuropathologist, epidemiologist, clinical professor at the University of California, Davis, and author of
Truth Doesn’t Have a Side. “It takes the brain about 1/10,000th of a second to respond to something and generate an action.”
3. You actually do use most of your brain, most of the time
Though the film Limitless with Bradley Cooper may lead people to think that they use only a tiny portion of their brain, this is actually not true. “This misconception came about because the brain is so adaptable that sometimes minor damage causes only subtle problems,” explains
Brett Wingeier, PhD, engineer, neuroscientist, and co-founder of
Halo Neuroscience. “The fact is, most of your brain is constantly working—to sense, process, think, move, and even dream.” Even when you head to sleep at night, your brain is still hard at work.
4. Brain waves are even more active while you’re dreaming
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When you’re fast asleep, you might think that your brain is “shut off,” but it’s actually doing a whole lot more than when you’re walking, talking, eating, and thinking. “When awake, people utilize alpha and beta waves, which gives us day wakefulness,” explains
Brandon Brock, a certified family nurse practitioner and staff clinician at Foundation Physicians Group. “Sleep, however, especially in the initial stages, uses Theta activity, which is greater in amplitude than Beta.”
5. Adult brains still make new neurons
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While most of our neurons have been with us since birth, and age does take a toll, your brain still makes new neurons. “This process, known as neurogenesis, occurs in a special region called the dentate gyrus,” explains Wingeier. “These neurons are thought to be important for learning, memory, and responding to stress.” These brain facts have been highly debated, but new research published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2019, which studied the brain tissue of 58 recently deceased people, found that the adult brain can indeed generate new neurons. How can you boost neurogenesis in your own brain? Wingeier says through healthy living—things like sleep, exercise, and a balanced diet.
6. Almost half of a child’s energy goes to fuel his brain
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In order for the brain to stay running at top-notch, it requires significant amounts of energy. And this is even more true for young children who are still learning, processing, and developing at a fast rate. “Scientists at Northwestern University discovered recently that in the preschool years, when a child’s brain development is faster, physical growth is slower, possibly to save more energy for the developing brain,” explains Wingeier. “Conversely, during puberty, when physical growth is faster, brain development is slower—which may come as no surprise to parents of teenagers.”
7. The majority of brain cells aren’t neurons
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Did you know that for all the neurons in the brain, there are at least as many glial cells that support and protect these neurons? “These microscopic unsung heroes make sure neurons have a constant supply of nutrients and oxygen, insulate neurons from each other, and even help clean up after neural damage,” says Wingeier. “They even help optimize communication between neurons.”
8. Exercise is just as good for your brain as it is for your body
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Professional athletes know how important fueling their brain is to ensure they’re able to put maximum effort and energy into their workouts. “This is because of the mental stimulation that comes with exercise, but also because a healthy cardiovascular system means better plumbing for the brain,” says Wingeier. Especially when you try a new fitness class or regimen for the first time, your brain is working hard at learning the motions and controlling your muscles.
9. You can “see” through your ears
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Neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to reorganize and change itself throughout a person’s lifetime, is a truly remarkable thing. One study by the University of Montreal, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, compared the
brain activity of individuals who were born blind and those who had normal vision. They found that the part of the brain that’s normally wired to work with our eyes can instead rewire itself to process sound information instead of visual perception. Pretty cool, right?
10. The visual areas of the brain are in the very back
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These brain facts might sound counterintuitive, considering your eyes are in the very front of your head, but the part of your brain responsible for vision, the occipital lobe, is located in the very back. “Bang someone on the back of the head and they will see stars, not sounds,” says Henry Soper, PhD, a former clinical psychology faculty member in the School of Psychology at
Fielding Graduate University. Similarly, the left side of your brain controls the vision on your right side and vice versa. The same goes for how our brain processes sound—on opposite sides of the head. “Although evolutionary theories have been proposed, the bottom line is we really do not know why,” Soper says.
11. Brain scans can “light up” when a person is in love
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Some may think that being “in love” is only an idea or merely a term people use, but brain scans reveal otherwise. “For people who are romantically in love, functional MRI brain scans can show activity where dopamine, the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter, is present,” says Dr. McQuiston. “Other areas in the brain associated with pleasure and reward can also show greater activity for people who have fallen in love.”
12. Your brain activity is as unique as your fingerprints
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Research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience suggests that a person’s
brain activity may be as unique as his or her own fingerprints. To reach their conclusion, scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to create “connectivity profiles,” which allowed researchers to identify the brain activity of more than 100 individuals. “Learning about individual brain connections offered scientists specific insights about an individual’s intelligence or personality,” explains Dr. McQuiston. “This could have implications for how scanning brains might be used in the future to one day help individualize care for each unique person.”
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