For background musc 
Did you know? [Includes some Animal facts]
The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles (274 km) per hour. The thyroid cartilage is more commonly known as the adams apple. The only jointless bone in your body is the hyoid bone in your throat It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Your stomach needs to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it would digest itself. It takes the interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech. The average life of a taste bud is 10 days. The average cough comes out of your mouth at 60 miles (96.5 km) per hour. Relative to size, the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. When you sneeze, all your bodily functions stop even your heart. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age. Children grow faster in the springtime. It takes the stomach an hour to break down cow milk. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people do. There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye; hip; arm; leg; ear; toe; jaw; rib; lip; gum). If you go blind in one eye you only lose about one fifth of your vision but all your sense of depth. The average human head weighs about 8 pounds. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs. The length of the finger dictates how fast the fingernail grows. Therefore, the nail on your middle finger grows the fastest, and on average, your toenails grow twice as slow as your fingernails. The average human blinks their eyes 6,205,000 times each year. The entire length of all the eyelashes shed by a human in their life is over 98 feet (30 m). Your skull is made up of 29 different bones. Your ears and nose continue to grow throughout your entire life. After you die, your body starts to dry out creating the illusion that your hair and nails are still growing after death. Hair is made from the same substance as fingernails. The average surface of the human intestine is 656 square feet (200 m). A healthy adult can draw in about 200 to 300 cubic inches (3.3 to 4.9 liters) of air at a single breath, but at rest only about 5% of this volume is used. The surface of the human skin is 6.5 square feet (2m). 15 million blood cells are destroyed in the human body every second. The pancreas produces Insulin. The most sensitive cluster of nerves is at the base of the spine. The human body is comprised of 80% water. The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime. Every year about 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced. The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet (9 m). You were born with 300 bones. When you get to be an adult, you have 206. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. There are 45 miles (72 km) of nerves in the skin of a human being. The average human heart will beat 3,000 million times in its lifetime and pump 48 million gallons of blood. Each square inch (2.5 cm) of human skin consists of 20 feet (6 m) of blood vessels. During a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times. Human blood travels 60,000 miles (96,540 km) per day on its journey through the body. The Human Brain uses 20% of your body's energy, but it makes up only 2% of your body's weight. Your cerebral cortex is about as thick as a tongue depressor. It grows thicker as you learn and use it. The Human Brain is about 1300-1400 cubic centimeters in volume, about the size of a cantaloupe and wrinkled like a walnut. The brain feels like a ripe avocado and looks pink because of the blood flowing through it. The Human Brain generates 25 watts of power while you're awake---enough to illuminate a light bulb. A newborn baby's brain grows almost 3 times in course of first year Humans have the most complex brain of any animal on earth. The Human Brain is divided into two sides. The left side of The Human Brain controls the right side of your body; and, the right side of The Human Brain controls the left side of your body. Toxins in commonplace items such as carpeting and shower curtains may be contributing to memory loss over time? Overexposure to aluminum compounds—in foil, cookware, deodorants, antacids, toothpaste—can affect brain function Lavender can help you sleep A cooked potato can jump-start The Human Brain when you're feeling foggy. The essential oil of jasmine can quickly restore mental alertness Eating foods rich in vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C may help lower your risk of Alzheimer's disease. Certain prescription and nonprescription drugs may dramatically affect your ability to concentrate. Average Width of the adult brain = 140 mm/5.5 in, Length = 167 mm/6.5 in, Height = 93 mm/3.6 in. At birth our brains weigh and average of 350-400g (about 4/5 lbs), as adults the brain averages 1300-1400g (about 3 lbs). If Stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m(2.5sq.ft), the area of a night table. Total surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft. Composition The composition of the brain = 77-78% water, 10-12% lipids, 8% protein, 1% carbs, 2% soluble organics, 1% inorganic salt. The breakdown of intracranial contents by volume (1,700 ml, 100%): brain = 1,400 ml (80%); blood = 150 ml (10%); cerebrospinal fluid = 150 ml (10%). The cerebellum contains half of all the neurons in the brain but comprises only 10% of the brain. The cerebral cortex is about 85% of the brain. Percentage of total cerebral cortex volume = frontal lobe 41%, temporal lobe 22%, parietal lobe 19%, occipital lobe 18%. There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain, the same number of stars in our galaxy. The left hemisphere of the brain has 186 million more neurons than the right hemisphere. 750-1000ml of blood flow through the brain every minute or about 3 full soda cans. In that minute the brain will consume 46cm3 (1/5 cups) of oxygen from that blood. Of that oxygen consumed, 6% will be used by the brain's white matter and 94% by the grey matter. The brain can stay alive for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen. After that cells begin die. The slowest speed at which information travels between neurons is 416 km/h or 260 mph, thats as "slow" as todays supercar's top speed (the Bugatti EB 16.4 Veyron clocked at 253 mph). 10 seconds is the amount of time until unconsciousness after the loss of blood supply to the brain. Reflex loss after loss of blood supply to the brain, 40-110 seconds. During early pregnancy the rate of neuron growth is 250,000 neurons a minute. Cognitive tests show 30% of 80-year-olds perform as well as young adults. The Human Brain is about 2% of your total body weight but uses 20% of your body's energy. The energy used by the brain is enough to light a 25 watt bulb. More electrical impulses are generated in one day by a single human brain than by all the telephones in the world. 70,000 is the number of thoughts that it is estimated the human brain produces on an average day. After age 30, the brain shrinks a quarter of a percent (0.25%) in mass each year. Albert Einsteins brain weighed 1,230 grams (2.71 lbs), significantly less then the human average of 1,300g to 1,400g (3 lbs). Each year Americans consume 50 billion aspirin tablets or 15.5 million tons. 89.06 is the percentage of people who report normally writing with their right hand, 10.6% with their left and 0.34% with either hand. The adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1,300-1,400 g). The adult human brain is about 2% of the total body weight. The elephant brain weighs about 6,000 g. The cat brain weighs about 30 g. The average human brain is 140 mm wide. The average human brain is 167 mm long. The average human brain is 93 mm high. The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons. The octopus brain has about 300 million neurons. The total surface area of the cerebral cortex is about 2500 sq. cm (~2.5 ft2) The world record for time without sleep is 264 hours (11 days) by Randy Gardner in 1965. In Biopsychology (by J.P.J. Pinel, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000, p. 322), the record for time awake is attributed to Mrs Maureen Weston. She apparently spent 449 hours (18 days, 17 hours) awake in a rocking chair . The Guinness Book of World Records [1990] has the record belonging to Robert McDonald who spent 453 hours, 40 min in a rocking chair. Unconsciousness will occur after 8-10 seconds after loss of blood supply to the brain. Neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons/minute during early pregnancy. The weight of an adult human cerebellum is 150 g. The total volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is 125-150 ml. A total of 400-500 ml of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is produced every day. Cerebrospinal fluid is normally clear and colorless. There are 12 pairs of cranial nerves. There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves. There are about 13,500,00 neurons in the human spinal cord. The human spinal cord is 45 cm long in men and 43 cm long in women. Humans can hear in the range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Rats can hear in the range of 1,000 to 50,000 Hz. The most sensitive range of human hearing is between 1,000-4,000 Hz. Pain occurs when sounds are above 130 db. Hearing damage can occur if people are exposed to sounds above 90 db for an extended period of time. The total number of human taste buds (tongue, palate, cheeks) is about 10,000. The total number of human olfactory receptor cells is about 40 million. The human eyeball is about 24.5 mm long. The octopus does not have a blind spot. The total weight of skin in an average adult human is 6 lb.(2.7 kg). There are 1,000 to 10,000 synapses for a "typical" neuron. The cell bodies of neurons vary in diameter from 4 microns (granule cell) to 100 microns (motor neuron in cord). The resting potential in a squid giant axon is -70 mV. The average spinal cord is 45 cm long in men and 43 cm long in women. The spinal cord weighs approx. 35 grams. The human brain weighs on average three pounds, or 1.5 kg. The human brain is about the size of a cantaloupe. Average human brain width = 140 mm. Average human brain length = 167 mm. Average human brain height = 93 mm. An adults brain requires around 20% of the body's oxygen. Approximately 20% of the blood flowing from the heart is pumped to the brain. The brain needs constant blood flow in order to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of the neurons. The biggest part of the brain is the cerebrum which makes up 85% of the brain's weight. The cerebrum is the thinking part of the brain and it controls your voluntary muscles. Does the brain work at the Speed of Light? No, far from it. Axons, the long output connection from a cell, come in two types: myelinated and unmyelinated. Myelinated axons have an extra layer of "insulation," a fatty substance, which allows the impulse to travel about 10 to 100 meters per second. Unmyelinated axons only transmit at about 1 meter per second. When the signal reaches the end, it has to cross the synapse to influence the next cell, which adds about 5 ms. 10 meters per second = 22.356 mph and 100 meters per second = 223.561 mph. As you can see it is a lot slower than the speed of light in a vacuum which is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second, or 186 000 miles per second, or 670,616,629 mph. The study of the brain and its functions is known as neuroscience. Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Neurophysiology is the study of normal healthy brain activity. Neurology and psychiatry are both medical approaches to the study of the mind and its disorders and pathology or mental illness respectively. The human brain can be divided into three main parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain: 1/ The forebrain includes the several lobes of the cerebral cortex that control higher functions. 2/ Midbrain functions include routing, selecting, mapping, and cataloguing information, including information perceived from the environment and information that is remembered and processed throughout the cerebral cortex. 3/ Hindbrain - (rhombencephalon) is a developmental categorization of portions of the central nervous system in vertebrates. A rare disease of the rhombencephalon, "rhombencephalosynapsis" is characterized by a missing vermis resulting in a fused cerebellum. Patients generally present with cerebellar ataxia. A neuron is a nerve cell in the brain. The human brain is made up of approximately 100 billion (100,000,000,000) neurons. The brain is an organ as it controls the functions of the body. It is sometimes referred to as a muscle of thinking as the brain actually tells your muscles what to do. The brain is the most important organ in the body because it controls all of the bodily functions as well as the other organs. Male humans have about a 10% larger brain than females. A study of 46 adults aged 22-49 years found an average brain volume of 1273.6cc for men, ranging from 1052.9 to 1498.5cc, and 1131.1cc for women, ranging from 974.9 to 1398.1cc. However differences in male and female brain weight and size do not mean differences in mental ability. There is evidence of a gradual increase in average brain size over the last centuries, estimated to have been around 0.5% per decade. The brain has a processing capacity of 0.1 quadrillion instructions per second. The fastest super computer in the world, called Roadrunner is capable of handling 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second. However the computational power of the human brain is difficult to ascertain, as the human brain is not easily paralleled to the binary number processing of computers. For while the human brain is calculating a math problem, it is subconsciously processing data from millions of nerve cells that handle the visual input of the paper and surrounding area, the aural input from both ears, and the sensory input of millions of cells throughout the body. The brain is also regulating the heartbeat, monitoring oxygen levels, hunger and thirst requirements, breathing patterns and hundreds of other essential factors throughout the body. It is simultaneously comparing data from the eyes and the sensory cells in the arms and hands to keep track of the position of the pen and paper as the calculation is being performed. A landmark study in late 1998 by researchers from Sweden and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, showed for the first time that some brain cells in mature humans may regenerate under certain circumstances. Contrary to popular belief, humans only use all of their brain not just 10% of the brain. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, and Huntington's disease are caused by the gradual death of individual neurons, leading to decrements in movement control, memory, and cognition. The idea that alcohol kills brain cells has long been promoted. Drinking alcohol does not actually "kill" brain cells. Roberta Pentney, professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University at Buffalo, concludes that alcohol does not kill brain cells but it damages the dendrites, the branched ends of nerve cells that bring messages into the brain cell causing damage to the way the cells in the brain communicate. Luckily the damage is largely reversible and not permanent. However years of alcohol abuse can cause serious neurological damage, including Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Brain tumours are classified depending on the exact site of the tumour, the type of tissue involved, benign or malignant tendencies of the tumour, and other factors. Primary (true) brain tumours are commonly located in the posterior cranial fossa in children and in the anterior two-thirds of the cerebral hemispheres in adults, although they can affect any part of the brain. Consciousness is a constellation of attributes of mind such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one's environment. Unconsciousness is an alteration of mental state that involves complete or near-complete lack of responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli. Being in a comatose state or coma is an illustration of unconsciousness. Fainting due to a drop in blood pressure and a decrease of the oxygen supply to the brain is an illustration of a temporary loss of consciousness. Dreams have fascinated nearly everyone for thousands of years. There are two different schools of thought as to why we dream: the physiological school, and the psychological school. While many theories have been proposed, not single consensus has emerged as to why we dream. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while other believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. One theory for dreaming suggests dreams serve to clean up clutter from the mind. The Hypothalamus part of the brain regulates body temperture much like a thermostat. The hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (about 98.6? Fahrenheit or 37? Celsius), and if your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat. If you're too cold, the hypothalamus makes you start shivering. Shivering and sweating helps get your body's temperature back to normal. Babies are born with around a 100 billion brain cells, but only a small number of neurons are actually connected. By three years of age a childs brain has formed about 1,000 trillion connections, about twice as many as adults have. At around 11 years, the brain begins to prune unused connections. Connections that are used repeatedly in the early years become permanent; those that are not are eliminated. Hence the saying, ?use it or lose it.? We still don't fully understand the importance of sleep however we do know that sleep is the time when the body does most of its repair work; muscle tissue is rebuilt and restored and tissure building growth hormone is secreted during sleep. A good way to understand the role of sleep is to look at what happens when we don't get enough sleep. IQ tests are not very reliable and the scores may vary as much as 15 points from one test to another. The average IQ scores for many populations have been rising at an average rate of three points per decade since the early 20th century with most of the increase in the lower half of the IQ range. Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of blood flow and oxygenation. A brain-dead individual has no clinical evidence of brain function upon physical examination. This includes no response to pain and no cranial nerve reflexes. Reflexes include pupillary response (fixed pupils), oculocephalic reflex, corneal reflex, no response to the caloric reflex test and no spontaneous respirations. The diagnosis of brain death needs to be rigorous to determine whether the condition is irreversible. Legal criteria vary, but it generally requires neurological exams by two independent physicians. The exams must show complete absence of brain function, and may include two isoelectric (flat-line) EEGs 24 hours apart. If tests show brain activity, the patient may be in a coma or vegetative state. A brain dead person doesn't show brain activity. It is important to distinguish between brain death and states that may mimic brain death. Some comatose patients can recover, and some patients with severe irreversible neurologic dysfunction will nonetheless retain some lower brain functions such as spontaneous respiration, despite the losses of both cortex and brainstem functionality. Thus, anencephaly, in which there is no higher brain present, is generally not considered brain death, though it is certainly an irreversible condition in which it may be appropriate to withdraw life support. Today, both the legal and medical communities use "brain death" as a legal definition of death. Using brain-death criteria, the medical community can declare a person legally dead even if life support equipment keeps the body's metabolic processes working. The diameter of an individual brain neuron is just 4 microns thick, you could fit 30,000 neurons on the head of a pin. The Human Brain generates nearly 25 watts of power while you're awake, which is enough to light up a light bulb. Alcohol interferes with brain processes by weakening connections between neurons. Every time you have a new thought, or recall a memory, a new brain connection is made between two or more brain cells. A living brain is so soft you could cut it with a table knife. Loss of oxygen for just 5 to 10 minutes can cause serious brain damage. The brain can stay alive for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen. After that cells begin die. The average adult's brain weighs 3 - 4 lbs. but consumes 20% of the body's oxygen supply. The human brain contains around 400 miles of blood vessels. There is no sense of pain within the brain itself which explains why brain surgeons can probe areas of the brain even when the patient is awake. The left side of The Human Brain (left hemisphere) controls the right side of your body; and, the right side of The Human Brain (right hemisphere) controls the left side of your body. Your cerebral cortex is about as thick as a doctors tongue depressor and it grows thicker as you learn more. You will lose consciousness in 10 seconds after the loss of blood supply to the brain. Of all creatures on earth humans have the most complex brain. Differences in brain weight and size do not equal differences in mental ability. If stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m or 2.5sq.ft. Average surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft. There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain, the same number of stars in our galaxy. Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men in the United States. The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons. From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain. People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain. Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. The cells will never be replaced. It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself. Since The Human Brain knows this, it ignores the resulting sensation. A woman from Berlin Germany has had 3,110 gallstones taken out of her gall bladder. In America, the most common mental illness is Anxiety Disorders. The Human Brain is 80% water. The Human Brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day. At the time of birth, the size of the brain is approximately 400gms and later as one becomes an adult, the size increases to approximately 1400gms. Another interesting fact is the height of an adult brain is 3.6 inches and the length is 6.3 inches. The width is 5.5 inches. The cerebral cortex of the brain consisting of a frontal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe and the parietal lobe occupies 85% of the human brain. The composition of the brain is 10-12% lipids, 8% protein, 77% water, 1% carbs, 2% soluble organics and 1% inorganic salt. Half of the neurons in the brain reside in the cerebellum. But cerebellum occupies only 10% of the human brain. Did you know that number of neurons in the human brain is equivalent to the total number of stars in our galaxy? That is 100 billion. There are 186 million more neurons in the left hemisphere of the brain than the right hemisphere. Are you aware of the fact, approximately 1000ml of blood flows through the human brain every sixty seconds? In a minute the human brain absorbs 46 cubic centimeter of oxygen from the blood. Only 6% of the oxygen is used by the white matter of the brain while the gray matter absorbs 94%. A human brain could survive up to 15 minutes without oxygen. The weight of the brain is just 2% of an individuals total body weight. However, it consumes 20% of total energy. It is believed this energy is more than enough to light a 25 watt bulb. Can you imagine human brain processes 70,000 thoughts on an average in a day? The weight of Albert Einstein’s brain was 1,230 grams that is less than an average weight of the human brain. The rate of growth of neuron during pregnancy is 250,000 neurons in a minute. Brain imaging studies show that human feelings originate inside the brain. The human brain structure is almost fully developed by age 11, though some higher self-management brain functions continue to develop into the mid 20’s. The diameter of an individual brain neuron is 4 microns, meaning 30,000 could fit on the head of a pin. The human brain has 10 billion neurons, making it the most powerful learning tool in the world. Each single brain neuron has from 1,000 to 10,000 connections with other neurons, making up to 10 trillion neuron connections possible. Alcohol interferes with brain processes by weakening connections between neurons. The same part of the brain interprets both your physical and emotional pain. Stress over long periods can weaken the brain’s ability to learn and remember. A dog’s brain is 19 times smaller than a human adult brain; an elephant’s brain 4 to 5 times bigger than ours. An adult bottle-nosed dolphin’s brain is about the size of a human adult’s brain. The average adult’s brain weighs 3 to 4 lbs. but consumes 20% of the body’s supply of oxygen. Loss of oxygen for even 5 to 10 minutes can cause serious brain damage. Our brain requires 20% of the entire body’s blood flow. The human brain contains 400 miles of blood vessels. Brain imaging functional MRI equipment measures blood flow and provides a picture of brain activity during actual emotional experiences. There is no sense of pain within the brain itself. This allows neurosurgeons to probe areas of the brain while the patient is awake. .A living brain is so soft you could cut it with a butter knife. Brain messages travel between neurons in just one thousandth of a second. Each time you have a new thought or memory, a new brain connection is made between two or more brain cells. The Human Brain generates up to 25 watts of power while you're awake---enough to illuminate a light bulb. The Human Brain is the most energy-consuming part of your body. The brain represents only 2% of the body weight, but it uses up to 20 percent of the body’s energy production. The energy is used for cell-health maintenance and to fuel electrical impulses that neurons employ to communicate with one another. The Human Brain contains about 100 billion neurons which is about 16 times the number of people on Earth. Each of them links to as many as 10,000 other neurons. This huge number of connections opens the way to massive parallel processing within the brain. The neocortex (a section of the brain involved with language and consciousness) accounts for about 76% of the mass of the human brain. Human neocortex is much larger than any animals. It gives humans unique mental capacities although its brain architecture is similar to that of more primitive species. Humans do not use only 10% or less of their brain. This is a common misconception. Even though many mysteries of brain function persist, every part of the brain has a known function. Neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregnancy. 750ml of blood pumps through The Human Brain every minute which is 15-20% of blood flow from the heart. The human brain is about 75% water. The Human Brain consumes 25 watts of power while you’re awake. This amount of energy is enough to illuminate a lightbulb. It is estimated that the human brain has a raw computational power between 1013 and 1016 operations per second. It is far more that 1 million times the number of people on Earth. The weight of the human brain is about 3 lbs. .Cerebrum. The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and makes up 85% of the brain’s weight. Your skin weighs twice as much as The Human Brain. The brain’s gray matter is made up of neurons, which gather and transmit signals. The white matter is made up of dendrites and axons, which create the network by which neurons send their signals. The Human Brain is 60% white matter and 40% gray matter. The brain is made up of about 75% water. The Human Brain consists of about 100 billion neurons. In one day, a human sheds 10 billion skin flakes. This amounts to approximately two kilograms in a year. Every square inch of the human body has about 19,000,000 skin cells. Approximately 25% of all scald burns to children are from hot tap water and is associated with more deaths than with any other liquid. Forty-one percent of women apply body and hand moisturizer at least three times a day. Every hour one billion cells in the body must be replaced. The world record for the number of body piercing on one individual is 702, which is held by Canadian Brent Moffat. The small intestine in the human body is about 2 inches around, and 22 feet long. The human body makes anywhere from 1 to 3 pints of saliva every 24 hours. The human body has approximately 37,000 miles of capillaries. The aorta, which is largest artery located in the body, is about the diameter of a garden hose. The adult human body requires about 88 pounds of oxygen daily. It is very common for babies in New Zealand to sleep on sheepskins. This is to help them gain weight faster, and retain their body heat. An average woman has 17 square feet of skin. When a woman is in her ninth month of pregnancy she has 18.5 square feet of skin. The width of your armspan stretched out is the length of your whole body. 41% of women apply body or hand moisturizer a minimum three times a day. |