WANT TO KNOW SOME INTERESTING FACTS RELATED TO BRAIN ????

Hey friends, you all know that brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals - only a few invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, adult sea squirts and starfish do not have a brain,even if diffuse neural tissue is present.This article is about some interesting facts of brains. Here it is.

Babies Lose Half their Neurons at Birth

It is estimated that a baby loses about half their neurons before they are born. This process is sometimes referred to as pruning and may eliminate neurons that do not receive sufficient input from other neurons.

Baby Talk Increase Vocabulary
A study showed that when mothers frequently spoke to their infants, their children learned about 300 more words by age two than did children whose mothers rarely spoke to them.

Birdsong Similar to Human Speech

Birdsong and human speech have similar characteristics. Birds, like humans, learn their complex vocalizations early in life and imitate their adult counterparts to acquire these skills. These two species have evolved a complex hierarchy of specialized forebrain areas where motor and auditory areas interact continuously in order to produce detailed vocalizations.

Blind Spot in Eye

The optic nerve exits the retina as a single bundle. The exit point within the retina has no receptor cells. This location forms a blind spot in each eye. We rarely notice these spots because they do not overlap within the image formed by the two eyes. Your ophthalmologist can only detect your blind spots by having you close the eye not being tested.

Early Brain Growth

During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses, dramatically increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old.

Ears Emit Sound

Did you know that healthy ears actually emit sounds? These sounds are usually very soft, but can occasionally be heard by others. Surprisingly, the sounds are rarely heard by the person whose ear is emitting the sounds! The cause of these sounds is still under debate, but is thought by some to be due to input from the central nervous system.

Even Reptiles Yawn
Yawning is an age-old activity that occurs in reptiles, birds and, of course, mammals. This behaviour is controlled by chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters, such as nitric oxide and dopamine, act in the hypothalamus to induce and control yawning.

The "Little Brain "

The human cerebellum, or "little brain", weighs about 150 grams. Located at the lower back of the brain, the cerebellum is key to maintaining posture, walking, and performing coordinated movements. It is also thought to play a role in olfaction or smell.

Miles and Miles of Neurons

There are one hundred billion neurons in the brain. A stack of one hundred billion pieces of paper would be about 5000 miles high, the distance from San Francisco to London.

No pain in Brain

There is no sense of pain within the brain itself. This fact allows neurosurgeons to probe areas of the brain while the patient is awake. Feedback from the patient during these probes is useful for identifying important regions, such as those for speech, that are spared if possible.

Reading Aloud Stimulates Child Development
Reading aloud to children helps stimulate brain development, yet only 50% of infants and toddlers are routinely read to by their parents.

When Eating is Tearful
The expression "crying crocodile tears" means expressing insincere grief. It arose because crocodiles appear to weep while they are happily munching on prey. A neurological disorder in humans called crocodile tears results from damage to the fifth cranial nerve, which controls the mucous membranes of the face. When the affected person is eating, signals that should stimulate salivation instead stimulate lacrimation-better known as crying.

Why We Scratch an Itch
Scratching an itch is a puzzling biological response, because it seems to hinder rather than help a wound's healing. One theory of why we itch suggests that scratching stimulates the release of endorphins, naturally occurring opiates which block pain sensation. Because scratching injures our skin a little more, we release a flood of endorphins to block the pain of the initial injury more effectively.

Working Memory Stores Seven Digits

It's no accident that telephone numbers in the United States are seven digits long. Our working memory, a very short-term form of memory which stores ideas just long enough for us to understand them, can hold on average a maximum of seven digits. This allows you to look up a phone number and remember it just long enough to dial.