Famed anatomist Galen gave the brain credit as commander of movement and speech, but even he brushed aside the white and gray matter, figuring the fluid-filled ventricles inside the brain did most of the work.

Human brains are big...

 The average adult brain weighs just under 3 pounds (between 1.3 and 1.4 kilograms). Some neurosurgeons describe the texture of a living brain as that of toothpaste, but according to neurosurgeon Katrina Firlik, a better analogy can be found in the local health-food store.

 

"[The brain] doesn't spread like toothpaste. It doesn't adhere to your fingers the way toothpaste does,"   "Tofu — the soft variety, if you know tofu — may be a more accurate comparison."

 

If you aren't charmed by that description, consider this: About 80 percent of the contents of your cranium is brain, while equal amounts of blood and cerebrospinal fluid, the clear liquid that buffers neural tissue, make up the rest. If you were to blend up all of that brain, blood and fluid, it would come to about 1.7 liters, or not quite enough to fill a 2-liter soda bottle.

 

...But they're getting smaller

 Don't get too cocky about your soda-bottle-sized brain. Humans 5,000 years ago had brains that were even larger.

 

"We do know from archaeological data that pretty much everywhere we can measure — Europe, China, South Africa, Australia — that brains have shrunk about 9 cubic inches (150 cubic centimeters), from an average of about 82 in3 (1,350 cm3). That's roughly 10 percent," 

Researchers don't know why brains might be shrinking, but some theorize that they're evolving to be more efficient. Others think our skulls are getting smaller because our diets include more easily chewable foods and so large, strong jaws are no longer required.

 

Whatever the reason, brain size doesn't directly correlate with intellect, so there's no evidence that ancient man was brainier than humans of today

Our brains burn through energy

 The modern brain is an energy hog. The organ accounts for about 2 percent of body weight, but it uses about 20 percent of the oxygen in our blood and 25 percent of the glucose (sugars) circulating in our bloodstream

These energy requirements have spurred a debate among anthropologists about what fueled the evolution of big brains in the first place. Many researchers credit meat, citing evidence of hunting in our early ancestors. But meat would have been an unreliable food source, say other scientists. A 2007 study   found that modern-day chimps know how to dig for calorie-rich tubers on the savanna. Perhaps our ancestors did the same, boosting their brainpower with veggies.

 

As for what motivated the brain to balloon in size, there are three major hypotheses: climate change, the demands of ecology, and social competition.

 

The brain starts as a tube

The foundation for the brain is set early. Three weeks after conception, a sheet of embryonic cells called the neural plate folds and fuses into the neural tube. This tissue will become the central nervous system.


The neural tube grows and differentiates throughout the first trimester. (When cells differentiate they specialize into various tissues needed to create body parts.) It isn't until the second trimester that glia and neurons begin to form. The brain doesn't wrinkle up until even later. At 24 weeks, magnetic resonance imaging shows just a few nascent grooves in the otherwise smooth surface of the fetal brain, As the third trimester begins in week 26, the grooves deepen and the brain begins to look more like that of a newborn.

Teen brains aren't fully formed

Parents of stubborn teenagers rejoice, or at least relax: That adolescent attitude stems, in part, from the vagaries of brain development.


The gray matter of the brain peaks just before puberty and is pruned back down throughout adolescence, with some of the most dramatic development happening in the frontal lobes, the seat of judgment and decision-making.

the parts of the brain responsible for multitasking don't fully mature until we're 16 or 17 years old. And research revealed that teens also have a neural excuse for self-centeredness. When considering an action that would affect others, teens were less likely than adults to use the medial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with empathy and guilt. Teens learn empathy by practicing socializing, the researchers

said. So much for grounding them until they're 20.

Brains never stop changing

Scientific wisdom once held that once you hit adulthood, your brain lost all ability to form new neural connections. This ability, called plasticity, was thought to be confined to infancy and childhood.


Wrong. A 2007 study on a stroke patient found that her brain had adapted to the damage to nerves carrying visual information by pulling similar information from other nerves. This followed several studies showing that adult mice could form new neurons. Later studies found more evidence of human neurons making new connections into adulthood; meanwhile, research on meditation showed that intense mental training can change both the structure and function of the brain.

 Brain and Cervical Spinal Cord

I A rear view of the skull reveals the brain and the cervical spinal cord, which function together as the central nervous system. The remarkable apparatus uses motor neurons to control the body's many muscles and enables humans to perform myriad physical activities.

Brain MRI Scan

  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques provide an extremely detailed, 3-D view of a living brain. The technique is critical for identifying abnormalities such as tumors, spotting the warning signs of some brain diseases, and revealing the extent of trauma from strokes.

Brain Tumor Removal

Skillful surgeons at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, remove a tumor from a woman's brain. Malignant tumors indicate often lethal brain conditions, but even nonmalignant growths can preempt normal brain activity. Any tumor may compress regions of the brain and increase internal pressure, upsetting the organ's delicate functional balance.

Human Brain Analysis - Men vs. Women

 

1. MULTI-TASKING

 Women - Multiple process

 Womens brains designed to concentrate multiple task at a time.

 Women can Watch a TV and Talk over phone and cook.

 Men - Single Process

 Mens brains designed to concentrate only one work at a time. Men can not watch TV and talk over the phone at the same time. they stop the TV while Talking. They can either watch TV or talk over the phone or cook.

 

2. LANGUAGE

 Women can easily learn many languages. But can not find solutions to problems. Men can not easily learn languages, they can easily solve problems. That's why in average a 3 years old girl has three times higher vocabulary than a 3 years old boy.

 

3. ANALYTICAL SKILLS

 Mens brains has a lot of space for handling the analytical process. They can analyze and find the solution for a process and design a map of a building easily. But If a complex map is viewed by women, they can not understand it. Women can not understand the details of a map easily, For them it is just a dump of lines on a paper.

 

4. CAR DRIVING.

 While driving a car, mans analytical spaces are used in his brain. He can drive a car fastly. If he sees an object at long distance, immediately his brain classifies the object (bus or van or car) direction and speed of the object and he drives accordingly. Where woman take a long time to recognize the object direction/ speed. Mans single process mind stops the audio in the car (if any), then concentrates only on driving.

 

5. LYING

 When men lie to women face to face, they get caught easily. Womans super natural brain observes facial expression 70%, body language 20% and words coming from the mouth 10%. Mens brain does not have this. Women easily lie to men face to face.

 So guys, do not lie face to face.

 

6. PROBLEMS SOLVING

 If a man have a lot of problems, his brain clearly classifies the problems and puts them in individual rooms in the brain and then finds the solution one by one. You can see many guys looking at the sky for a long time. If a woman has a lot of problems, her brain can not classify the problems. she wants some one to hear that. After telling everything to a person she goes happily to bed. She does not worry about the problems being solved or not.

 

7. WHAT THEY WANT

 Men want status, success, solutions, big process, etc... But Women want relationship, friends, family, etc...

 

8. UNHAPPINESS

 If women are unhappy with their relations, they can not concentrate on their work. If men are unhappy with their work, they can not concentrate on the relations.

 

9. SPEECH

 Women use indirect language in speech. But Men use direct language.

 

10. HANDLING EMOTION

 Women talk a lot without thinking. Men act a lot without thinking.

Zafonte noted that citicoline patients with the mildest injuries did slightly worse than those who'd been given dummy treatments. Those results could have been due to chance, but he said they only reinforce the conclusion that the supplement should not be used for traumatic brain injuries.


The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.


More than 1 million Americans suffer traumatic brain injuries each year and 53,000 die. Military data show more than 250,000 cases have occurred in service members since 2000, many during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


There is no effective treatment for these injuries.


"The military would have been overjoyed if this had been the one," said Dr. Robert Ruff, co-author of a journal editorial and neurology chief at the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The study results imply that a single drug alone won't be sufficient to help these patients improve, he said.


Citicoline is a naturally occurring brain compound made of choline, a chemical needed to build brain cells. Choline is found in some foods including beef liver, eggs and wheat germ. Commercial versions of choline and citicoline are both sold as diet supplements.


Lab studies in animals had suggested that high doses of citicoline could help speed recovery from brain injuries, with almost no side effects.


Several studies in humans examined citicoline as a possible treatment for strokes but had mixed results. Still, it is widely used in Europe and Japan to treat strokes and brain injuries. The product used in the study is made by the Spanish pharmaceutical company Ferrer Grupo, which makes prescription-grade citicoline.


Dr. Steven Zeisel, a choline scientist and director of the University of North Carolina's Nutrition Research Institute, said it's still possible citicoline would work if used in combination with other potential treatments, but to determine that would require another rigorous and costly study. He was not involved in the research.


The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development helped pay for the study, along with grants from several universities. The government institute has spent nearly $30 million since 2002 to fund a research network seeking treatments for traumatic brain injuries.


The citicoline results were eagerly anticipated in a military-commissioned Institute of Medicine report last year on potential nutritional treatments for traumatic brain injury. Besides citicoline, the report said other nutrients being studied held some promise, including fatty acids and zinc.


Zafonte, the study's lead author, was on the committee that wrote the report.


"It's back to the drawing board," he said. "We all had such hope this would make some difference."

6) Exercise your mind


Just as physical exercise is essential for a strong body, mental exercise is equally essential for a sharp and agile mind. Have you noticed that children have far superior brainpower than an adult does? Children have playful minds. A playful mind exhibits superior memory power. Engage in some of the activities that require your mind to remain active and playful.


Play scrabble or crossword puzzle, Volunteer, Interact with others, Start a new hobby such as blogging, reading, painting, bird watching, Learn new skill or a language


7) Practice Yoga or Meditation


Yoga or Meditation relives stress. Stress is a known memory buster. With less stress, lower blood pressure, slower respiration, slower metabolism, and released muscle tension follows. All of these factors contribute significantly towards increases in our brainpower.


8 ) Eat whole wheat


The whole wheat germs contain lecithin. Lecithin helps ease the problem of thehardening of the arteries, which often impairs brain functioning.


9) Develop imagination


Greeks mastered the principle of imagination and association to memorize everything. This technique requires one to develop a vivid and colorful imagination that can be linked to a known object. If you involve all your senses – touching, feeling, smelling, hearing and seeing in the imagination process, youcan remember greater details of the event.


10 ) Control your temper


Bleached food, excess of starch or excess of white bread can lead to nerve grating effect. This results in a violent and some time depressive behavior. Eat fresh vegetables. Drink lots of water and meditate or practice yoga to relieve these toxic emotions of temper and violent mood swings.

Memory

Easy and Safe Way To Improve Your Memory

 

Music is part of the oldest art, along with fine arts. According to Aristotle’s music has the ability to reconcile a troubled heart, have a recreational therapy and foster patriotism.

 

So far, we often hear the music just as entertainment, fill empty time, while studying or accompany friends while jogging etc. But, do you know? By listening to certain types of music, you can improve your memory.

 

According to a study conducted on a group of teenagers, a boy who should have training in music (piano) for several months to complete the puzzle more quickly than in teenagers who are not given training. like game piano by Mozart, Beethoven, etc.. Or at least, the music is not lyrical. Why? Because of information received by the brain collide. Moreover, if a foreign-language lyrics, you’d think to translate it as much as your abilities. So there is a trigger thoughts in digesting the music and brain stimulation occurred that resulted in our thinking of the road.

 

Many ways used by people to perform activities or how to add memory as follows:

 

Relaxation on a regular basis

One of the most effective way to improve memory is trying to relax muscle tension throughout the body before learning something new. According to experts, muscle relaxation can reduce the anxiety that often one feels when trying to learn something new.

 

Listen to classical music

According to Drs. Ranscher and Dr Frances. Gordon Show, researchers from the University of California, USA, people who often listen to classical music would have increased the ability of reasoning. According to the author of The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell, listening to classical music will also help memory and learning.

 

Organizing your mind

Establish the sequence information (classified information) will make things easier to remember. It will also facilitate the brain to recall what they have learned and known.

 

Keep your health

Certainly, health problems can disrupt memory. A study showed that in a period of 25 years, men with hypertension will lose their cognitive abilities up to twice the normal blood pressure than men. Research also shows that at the age of 70s, the person will not be easy to decreased cognitive abilities if they remain physically active.

 

Challenge yourself

The brain produces a chemical neurotransmitter that carries messages between cells involved in memory. The availability of this neurotransmitter increases when the brain is often used to solve the challenges that require troubleshooting.

 

Enough sleep

 

Lack of sleep can reduce a person’s ability to remember complex information. Research at the University de Lille, France, indicates that the brain needs sleep to maintain the ability to remember complex information.

 

Eat in moderation, less fat, drink

Choose foods low in fat and low in calories, and increase drinking water. White water to aid digestion and breathing, increase the bearing capacity of oxygen in the blood, and maintain cell health.

 

Involve your emotions

Because the increase in the memory of an event closely associated with increased emotion. And the experience of involving the emotions will be easier to remember than ordinary experience.

 

Develop sensory acuity

Try to practice observation skills and learn to pay attention to something by using all our senses. If you want to remember something, stop for a moment, watch and record what we want to see.

 

Develop a positive mental attitude

 

Replace any negative mental attitude or self-criticism into a positive attitude, because it will generate the confidence that positive effect on memory.

 

Regular exercise

In addition to improving physical strength, exercise can also help us to ensure the memory functions of oxygen and blood supply to the brain. Exercise also stimulates endorphins, the neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure, which can increase the fun and becomes the trigger for learning and memory.

 

Rest enough

No less important is rest enough. So that brain function can be maximized, the brain needs to rest to precipitate and consolidate memories. Rest of the brain required varies, depending on the complexity and newness of information, and experiences of people concerned. A good way is give the brain a rest period of 3 to 10 minutes after brain activity for 10 to 50 minutes.