You must read this; 12 Amazing Facts about the Human Brain

 

12 Amazing Shocking Facts about the Human Brain 

 Hey everyone and welcome to Buminfo today  we're going to learn about 12 shocking facts   about the human brain now let's begin 

1.  Intellectual Peaks:  your brain stops growing when you're 25 but that doesn't mean you've reached your intellectual peak cognitive change is a   lifelong process some skills like memory and processing speed max out in your mid-20s you'll excel at facial recognition and problem-solving in your 30s and then gain emotional control and empathy in your 40s and 50s a select few skills like vocabulary take even longer peaking in your   60s and 70s now your brain may have matured but your mind has plenty of room to grow that's why you should never stop learning no matter how old you get.

 2. Audible sites have you ever heard that missing one of your senses amplifies the others going blind or losing your hearing won't make you a superhero but it can give you a  few different neurological advantages a 2011 study found that people who are born blind sometimes develop a new way to process the world around them they essentially begin seeing through their ears hmm the human brain excels at adapting to difficult situations this kind of reorganization is called neuroplasticity so when someone can't see the brain automatically searches for an  innovative solution it will often rewire itself   to process auditory information over visual  information it isn't quite the same as normal   vision but this workaround can yield some pretty  amazing results.

 3. Hogging blood the average   person's brain weighs about 3 pounds now for  someone who weighs 150 pounds total that's only   2% of their body weights that's barely anything  when you think about how important the brain is to   your body but without it you couldn't do anything  you think you couldn't speak no you couldn't even   move so how does such a small organ manage so  many executive functions the real difference   between the brain and the rest of the body isn't  in its size it's the amount of oxygen and blood   that your brain needs to work like it's supposed  to so even though it's only 2% of your weights   it requires about 20 % of your body's supply of  oxygen that's more than all of your other skeletal   muscles combined so if you've ever wondered  how blood is distributed inside your body now   you know the brain is taking a significant chunk  yeah it's a blood hog 

4. Miles of blood   vessels since it needs so much blood an intricate  network of vessels is working around the clock to   bring oxygen to every part of the brain because if  one section isn't getting enough blood you start   losing basic functions some people experience  blindness or fatigue others lose all feeling   in one or more parts of their body almost like  you're paralyzed so how many blood vessels does   it take to keep your brain up and running well  to know for sure you'd have to untangle a web   of veins arteries and capillaries you'd see that  the average person has hundreds of miles of blood   vessels inside their head yeah I know that doesn't  seem possible does it your blood vessels are just   so thin and tightly woven together that they fit  inside a much smaller space now researchers are   still working on counting the number of blood  vessels in your brain we do however know that   the entire body measures up to 100,000 miles what  that's like driving around the widest part of the   earth four times and those are the blood vessels  of just one average-sized person imagine how much   distance the entire human race could cover.

 5. Brain starvation so what happens when your   brain doesn't get any oxygen at all how long can  it last before something goes wrong the answer is   not very long after five to six minutes without  oxygen you're risking significant brain damage   that's because your brain can't actually store any  oxygen on its own it relies on the body to send   a constant supply all day every day and if that  stops happening your brain only has a few minutes   left to live.

 6.  Neural speed way every  action in the brain starts with an electrical   signal some are sluggish and slow others race  across the brain clocking in at over 230 miles per   hour Wow the speed of a signal depends primarily  on what kind of signal it is when you touch a hot   surface for example that sensation speeds through  your body it starts at the sensory receptors on   your hand passes through your spinal cord and then  enters your cerebral cortex there you perceive and   process how hot the surface is which sends a new  electrical signal rushing through your brain and   your body so if you've ever wondered why it takes  a second to realize how hot something is you found   your answer.

7.  Thousands of thoughts  you spend the majority of the day thinking you   wonder if anyone has noticed the stain on your  shirt you think about whether or not you locked   your car so many random thoughts pop into your  head all day long but has anyone ever tried to   count them researchers go back and forth on the  exact number but most agree the average person has   about 50,000 thoughts every single day that's at  least 2,100 thoughts per hour the most are small   and repetitive but it just goes to show your brain  never stops working.

8. shrinking brains   who do you think has a larger brain modern humans  or our early ancestors this discovery surprised   researchers around the world it turns out our ten  thousand year old ancestors had larger brains than   we do about ten percent larger to be exact but  it's not because they were necessarily smarter   than us several neuroscientists have explained  this change in brain size our brains are getting   smaller because our bodies are too so that means  we have a smaller nervous system so we can afford   to carry a lighter more efficient brain than our  ancestors there are plenty of times when smaller   brains outperform larger ones instant computations  are a great example we may not have as much room   to store information but our processing speed  is through the roof when you think about it our   brains have gotten smaller to adapt to our modern  lives if we really needed bigger brains well we'd  still have them

 

9. The fattiest organ  your brain is actually the fattiest organ in   your entire body right fat head think. about  the construction of the human brain are you   picturing the hundreds of millions of neurons the  complicated network of blood vessels the dozens   of glands secreting all kinds of hormones but did  you know that 60% of your brain is just plain old   fat despite being one of the largest organs in the  body the brain doesn't have any muscle it controls   muscles and a whole lot of them but it's made of  fatty tissue here's the problem your body makes a  

(08:01) a lot of different things but fat isn't one of them so all the fat your brain uses for performance and repair has to come from the food you eat this is why so many dietitians push people to consume large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids now those important fats facilitate brain development stave off disease and preserve your mental health so do your brain a favor and work a little more fish   into your diet.

10. Synchronized brains  countless studies have shown the extraordinary   ways that music interacts with the human brain  it evokes emotions recalls memories improves   creativity and problem-solving but a German study  discovered that music could actually synchronize   brain functions to test this out they scan the  brains of two musicians while they played music   together and sure enough the music slowly but  surely synchronize their brainwaves it's very   possible that the best bands sound so good  together because their brains are working in   tandem.

11. first brain surgeries if  you had to guess when would you say the first   brain surgery was ever conducted the surgical  world made its first real bit of progress in the   late 18th century yeah you'd think the first brain  surgery happened somewhere around then right after   all brain surgery is one of the most complicated  and volatile kinds of surgery there is just one   little slip-up could completely ruin your patients  life a tiny cut could steal away their speech or   change their entire personality well surprisingly  the first brain surgery happened during the Stone   Age yeah over 5,000 years ago early humans were  doing something called trepanation it's when you   remove a bone from someone's skull archeologists  have already found dozens of examples of this   ancient surgical technique chances are it wasn't  all that safe or effective but these people were   still performing surgery before things like math  or written language ever existed.

12.   Five-year-olds brain the brain develops in a  pretty strange way when you're born it's about   1/4 of the size of an adult brain that's pretty  big considering how small an infant actually is   but as we all know there's a lot of things a baby  can't quite get their heads around that's because   their quarter-sized brain is primarily focused on  keeping them alive it handles automatic processes   like making your heart beats and helping your  lungs breathe now you'd expect your brain to   keep growing at a steady pace right that way by  the time you get to turn say 25 it would be full   grown but that isn't how your brain works it  actually doubles in size during the first year   of life and by 3 years old your brain is almost  80% of an adult brain that number jumps up the   90% by the age of 5 during those crucial years  your brain is forming millions of new synapses   every single second it's learning everything  from symbol recognition to behavioral habits   which are important functions that you'll need  later in life so the next time you're talking   to a five-year-old try to remember that their  brain is almost as big as yours hey thank you   for watching Top think and be sure to subscribe  because more incredible content is on the way.