75 Mind-Blowing Human Brain Facts That Everyone Should Know!

The human brain consists of proteins and fats. It also has over 100 billion nerves, interacting in trillions of connections known as synapses.

The brain generates 12-25 watts of electricity, which is adequate to power low-wattage bulbs. An average adult brain weighs three lb or 1.36 kg. It has a firm jelly texture.

The brain of two year old is 80% of the adult brain. The occipital lobe at the posterior of the human brain controls vision.

The human brain receives lots of information and is also a part of the central nervous system. Around 25% of the body's cholesterol resides in the human brain, a vital part of the brain cell.

A fragment of brain tissue is the size of a sand grain with one billion synapses and 100,000 neurons. The human brain reaches full maturity by the age of 25. The cranium or skull shields the brain from harm.

Meninges is the layer of tissue that covers the brain. Keep reading to learn all about the human brain's functions and capabilities.

Brain And Its Major Parts With Functions

The subconscious mind of the human brain makes up 95% of the decisions. The brain activity beyond conscious awareness produces most of our behaviors and actions.

Cerebrum

The cerebrum is also known as the endbrain or telencephalon. It is the most significant part of the human brain, with many subcortical structures like an olfactory bulb, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex. It is the part of the brain responsible for activities like memory, learning, and olfaction. The cerebrum makes up 85% of the human brain's weight.

It controls the voluntary muscles in the body. The medial longitudinal fissure divides the hemispheres of the cerebrum. It forms prenatally from the prosencephalon or forebrain.

• The brain stores both long-term and short-term memory at once.
• The cerebrum's outer layer, the cerebral cortex, is essential to cognitive function and is called 'the hub of thought.'
• The cognitive speed of the human brain starts slowing down when a person is 24.
• The thinking cap has 60% fat. So, brain and body health needs a diet rich in healthy fats, as it stabilizes the brain's cell walls.
• People usually refer to the hemispheres of the cerebrum as the right and left brain. The left hemisphere operates on signals from the right side of the human body, and the right hemisphere operates from the left side.
• Only 2% of dehydration impacts a human's cognitive skills like memory and attention.
• The brain directly downloads information while reading into working memory.
• The lobes of the cerebral cortex are the parietal, occipital, temporal, and frontal lobes.
• The cerebral hemispheres have strong with incomplete bilateral symmetry.

Brainstem

The posterior stalk-like structure called the brainstem connects the spinal cord and cerebrum. It contains the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the midbrain. The brainstem makes up 2.6 % of the total weight of the human brain.

It is responsible for all functions in the human body, like circulating blood, digesting food, and breathing air. This organ keeps the body alive. The brainstem controls the involuntary muscles.

• The human brainstem carries messages to the rest of the human body.
• Due to the brain's capacity to hold a small amount of information, short-term memory can last around 20-30 seconds.
• Sleep deprivation can impact the human brain in several ways.
• The human brain produces half a cup of fluid each day.
• The human body contains almost all brain cells at birth.
• Exercise increases the blood flow to the human brain and the heart rate.
• Blood flows through vertebral arteries and basilar arteries to the brainstem.
• The medulla oblongata controls blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate.
• The area postrema in the medulla is responsible for controlling vomiting.
• Pons is located between the medulla oblongata and midbrain, coordinating activities of the cerebellum. It blends the actions of the cerebellar hemispheres.

Cerebellum

The cerebellum is a Latin word that translates to 'little brain.' It is the central part of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. It is responsible for motor control in human beings. It may control emotional control, language, attention, and other cognitive skills.

It is smaller than the cerebrum. Humans can move around, balance, and stand due to this organ. Cerebellum changes with a person's age, which may differ from those of other parts of the brain. It is also the youngest brain region.

• The cerebellar cortex, a tightly tucked layer of gray matter, covers most of the Cerebellum's volume.
• Myelinated nerve fibers make up the white matter under parts of gray matter.
• Both the human body and the brain require rest to be able to function correctly.
• A high number of brain cells are not neurons. Glial cells are also present in the brain,
• At two years, human beings have more brain cells than at any other time.
• Brain cells die without a constant supply of oxygen, which can lead to brain damage.
• Cerebellar peduncles connect the cerebellum and pons.
• Cerebellum only contributes to accurate timing, precision, and coordination and does not incite movement.
• The four essential principles of the cerebellum are plasticity, modularity, divergence and convergence, and feedforward processing.

Effect Of Music On Brain

Music is architectural, mathematical, and structural. It is a relationship between two notes. The human brain needs to compute a lot to make sense of music. Research shows that listening to music improves memory, mental alertness, mood, and sleep quality.

It also reduces pain, blood pressure, and anxiety. Music releases pain-relieving opioids. It can reduce stress by lowering the level of cortisol. The genre of music one listens to can predict a person's personality.

• Music can heal the human brain through music therapy.
• When two musicians perform together, their brain waves can synchronize. The brain waves would be in sync even if each played different parts.
• Music is considered to provide a human brain with a total workout.
• Different genres can have varying impacts. Jazz music usually soothes the human body.
• Music can influence the better health of stroke and epilepsy patients.
• Listening to music releases the happy neurotransmitter called dopamine.
• The moderate noise level increases high creativity by abstract processing.
• Listening to music causes a steady increase in the cells protecting against bacteria and immunity-boosting antibodies in the human body.
• Learning to lay an instrument increases gray matter volume in particular regions of the human brain.
• Sad or happy music impacts how we see neutral faces.
• Melodic Intonation Therapy is a music-based treatment to aid stroke survivors.
• Classical music enhances brain activity and helps humans execute tasks better.
• Brain networks form anticipations on how music must sound.
• Although the brain only makes up 2% of a human's body weight, it needs about 20% of energy production.
• Advertisers use unique music for a product recall to sell better.
• Music helps the human brain recap the past and produce the future.
• Musicians experience progress in brain functions such as memory, learning, and auditory processing.
• Kids with musical instrument training do better in non-verbal reasoning and vocabulary tests involving studying and understanding visual information.
• Most common zones that geniuses fall into are mechanical, mathematics, art, music, and spatial skills.
• Listening to music increases concentration and memory.
• The rock or pop genre improves physical performance and endurance.
• The rap genre can stimulate processing, motor function, motivation, language, and emotion.
• Heavy metal prompts a skill for community development and a sense of identity.
• New music usually challenges the brain more than old, similar music. This is why we often listen to the same genre of music.
• A study showed that humans who listen to music. At the same time, they fell asleep and saw a boost in slow-wave oscillations occurring in later hours of sleep.
• The inability to comprehend music, called Amusia, may impact people as much as dyslexia. However, it has not yet been thoroughly studied.
• It is unknown whether the listener's background and culture influence the music's usefulness or the interaction between the kind of music.

Brain Freeze

The human brain uses around 20% of the total energy and oxygen in the body, and the blood vessels carry it to the brain. Brain freeze is a sensation for a short period of pain felt in the temporal and frontal regions of the human brain.

Passage of cold gas, liquid, or solid back of the throat or over the palate causes brain freeze. From 1937-1991, people used 'ice-cream headache' to describe brain freeze.

Another theory bout brain freeze is an increase in blood flow to the brain via the anterior cerebral artery. The rise in artery size and blood volume is thought to cause brain freeze.

The pain disappears as soon as the anterior cerebral artery constricts, increasing the blood volume. This process may be a kind of self-defense of the brain.

• People who also experience usually tend to experience migraines.
• A person may experience brain freeze when they eat something cold too fast.
• The risk of brain freeze is low when kids and parents have no history of headaches.
• Brain freeze is also known as sphenopalatine ganglion neuralgia, cold stimulus headache, and ice cream headache.
• Nerve cells need a high amount of energy. Insufficiency of energy and oxygen to the central nervous system impacts neurological factors and poor brain functions.
• You can usually cure brain freeze by warming the roof of the mouth by pressing the tongue firmly on the roof.
• Brain freeze in humans may be heritable from parents.
• One can completely avoid brain freeze by consuming smaller bites and eating slowly.
• Brain freeze can be experienced between 20 seconds to two minutes, depending on the severity.
• Ice cream headache is a common headache experienced by a human being.
• Brain freeze hurts because of the trigeminal nerve, blood vessels in the mouth, and throat.
• Only around 30% of people who eat ice cream experience brain freeze.
• If the human brain does not get oxygen for five minutes, brain cells die, leading to severe brain damage.
• A person can experience the pain of brain freeze in their behind the eyes, forehead, and temples.
• Although the brain is covered with layers of blood vessels with pain receptors, the brain has no receptors.
• Experts have not yet clarified the exact mechanisms of brain freeze.
• Many believe that brain freeze occurs due to the quick contraction of blood vessels present in the roof of the mouth.
• Excessive stress alters brain functions, brain structure, and brain cells.
• Men are less likely to experience brain freeze compared to women.
• Animals like cats also react similarly to humans when they eat something cold.
• Brain freeze can also be experienced by suddenly exposing the head to cold temperatures, like diving into cold water.
• Brain freeze differs from dental pain that occurs under similar conditions, known as dentin hypersensitivity.

Part Of Brain That Controls Emotion

The average human brain generates around 48.6 thoughts every minute. The prefrontal cortex and amygdala are parts of the emotion network. Emotions can change the chemistry of the brain. The limbic system is responsible for human emotions.

It controls fornicating, freezing up, fear, feeding, fleeing, and fighting. The limbic system produces feelings to enable people to communicate and survive psychological and physical upsets. Hippocampus and amygdala are two large limbic system structures. The thalamus and hypothalamus are situated in the diencephalon.

• Different kinds of neurons travel at different speeds like pain signals move slower than others.
• Emotions prioritize memories. But, it means a lot of memories are involuntary flawed fiction.
• In many cases of depression, the amygdala may also shut down.
• The brain does not feel pain, but the pain is processed it. The organ itself will not feel pain.
• Amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus all control recovery, extinction, and acquisition of fears to concepts and cues.
• The limbic system is found under the cerebrum in the middle brain.
• Feelings stir chemical reactions in the human brain, which can be seen in gray matter studies and brain scans.
• The amygdala analyses the emotional patterns of the past to create the present.
• The cingulate gyrus is responsible for regulating behavior and emotional processing.
• Talking and reading aloud to a young kid promotes brain development.
• The limbic system's hypothalamus regulates tensing of muscles, heart rate, and blood pressure.
• Hypothalamus works with the endocrine gland that processes hormones called the pituitary gland.
• As memories form in the mother's womb, it is a crucial period for brain development.
• The thalamus processes information concerning anxious reactions and thoughts.
• The amygdala impacts emotional memory and fear conditioning.
• Precuneus in the brain's limbic system controls happiness in human beings.
• The part of the brain that controls memories and emotions
• Any damage to the limbic system - hippocampus and amygdala - may cause an inability to form fresh memories.
• The amygdala is capable of taking over other processes of the human brain.
• Happier people have more gray matter volume in the right precuneus.
• Happiness is made of cognitive and emotional components, and genetics strongly influence it.
• The brain cannot form a memory when a person is intoxicated.
• Rather than associating it with a specific area in the brain, memory is considered a process or an activity.
• Depression and chronic stress can result in brain shrinkage.
• The parietal lobe controls a human's language, attention, and senses.
• By applying memory techniques, a person can build the skill of wonderful memory.
• The limbic system also consists of the diencephalon. It is located under the cerebral hemispheres.
• Diencephalon's back portion or posterior part is called the epithalamus. It is thought to be responsible for body rhythms.