| What part of you is only 1% to 3% of your | | | | Albert Einstein's brain may have been smaller |
| body's mass, yet uses 20% of all the oxygen | | | | than yours, because he was smaller than |
| you breathe? Your brain! Here are ten more | | | | average. There is a general correlation |
| brain facts. | | | | between body size and the size of our brains. |
| | | | |
| - Your brain needs a continuous supply of | | | | - An elephant's brain is huge - about six |
| oxygen. A 10 minute loss of oxygen will | | | | times as large as a human brain. However, in |
| usually cause significant neural damage. Cold | | | | relation to body size, humans have the |
| can lengthen this time, which is why | | | | largest brain of all the animals, averaging |
| cold-water drowning victims have been revived | | | | about 2% of body weight. A cat's brain? It |
| after as nuch as 40 minutes - without brain | | | | weighs about one ounce, a little over 1% of |
| damage. | | | | body weight. |
| | | | |
| - Your brain uses a fifth of all your blood. | | | | - There are about 100,000 miles of blood |
| It needs it to keep up with the heavy | | | | vessels in the brain. If they were stretched |
| metabolic demands of its neurons. It needs | | | | out (there's a nice thought!) they would |
| not only the glucose that is delivered, but | | | | circle the earth more than four times. |
| of course, the oxygen. | | | | |
| | | | - If you have an average sized brain, you |
| - Your brain feels no pain. There are no | | | | have about 100 billion neurons up there. |
| nerves that register pain within the brain | | | | You'll be happy about that after reading the |
| itself. Because of this, neurosurgeons can | | | | next item. |
| probe the brain while a patient is conscious | | | | |
| (what fun!). By doing this, they can use | | | | - Approximately 85,000 neocortical neurons |
| feedback from the patient to identify | | | | are lost each day in your brain. Fortunately, |
| important regions, such as those used for | | | | his goes unnoticed due to the built-in |
| speech, or visualization. | | | | redundancies and the fact that even after |
| | | | three years this loss adds up to less than 1% |
| - The cerebellum is sometimes called the | | | | of the total. Oh, and look at the next item. |
| "little brain," and weighs about 150 grams (a | | | | |
| little over five ounces). Found at the lower | | | | - Recent research proves that your brain |
| back side of your brain, you need your | | | | continues to produce new neurons throughout |
| cerebellum to maintain posture, to walk, and | | | | your life. It also proves that it does so in |
| to perform any coordinated movements. It may | | | | response to stimulation (do those brainpower |
| also play a role in your sense of smell. | | | | exercises). Scientists refer to this as brain |
| | | | plasticity or neuro-plasticity. You may find |
| - The human brain weighs an average of a | | | | this one the most encouraging of these brain |
| little over three pounds, or 1.4 kilograms. | | | | facts. |