5 curious questions about the brain and how it works

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-13 00:26

Fragments from the book "The Almighty Brain" by neuroscientist Kaya Nordengen about topographic cretinism, about the reliable skill of memorizing information and about three more useful things.

Why is it not enough to just have a big brain?

Elephants and some whales have even larger brains than ours. The brain of a blue whale weighs as much as eight kilograms. But the whale itself weighs 100 tons. The larger the body, the larger the brain. Then what about gorillas that are two or three times our size - their brains are also bigger than ours?

In fact, the opposite is true. Our brains are two to three times the size of a gorilla's. Only whales and elephants, that is, the largest animals on land and in water, have a larger brain than ours. But in relation to the size of the body, the human brain is still the largest.

A blue whale is not helped in any way by a brain weighing eight kilograms, because IQ is not measured in kilograms. Two brains of the same size do not have the same number of neurons and the same capacity for complex thinking.

The classic example is Albert Einstein. The brain of the author of the theory of relativity and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics was 20% smaller than the average. We know the exact weight of Einstein's brain thanks to the rogue doctor. Einstein himself wanted to be cremated after death and scattered ashes in some quiet place so that there was no idolatry. This will was not fulfilled, as the doctor who performed the autopsy removed the scientist's brain and kidnapped him.

Different animals have different brains. In primates, that is, in humans and monkeys, the size of the nerve cells themselves remains unchanged, regardless of whether the brain weighs 80 or 100 grams. Thus, if there are ten times more nerve cells, then the brain is ten times more, so simple and easy.

In rodents, it is different: the larger the brain, the larger the nerve cells themselves. And for their brains to have ten times the number of cells, it must itself become forty times larger. Therefore, there will always be more nerve cells in the brain of a primate than in the brain of a rodent of the same size. The more (hypothetically) these two brains become identical in size, the greater the difference between them in the number of nerve cells will be.

If a rat brain had the same number of cells as a human brain, it would weigh 35 kilograms.

Thus, our brain is not only the largest in relation to the body. We have a primate brain, in which there are many more nerve cells per gram of brain than in a gram of rodent brain.

Although the brains of primates and rodents are very different, the basic principles of structure are still the same. Cells interact with each other in the same way. Therefore, rats and mice are often used in experiments, studying the functioning of their brains in order to learn more about our own brains.

What's the best way to memorize?

When you understand how memory works, it is easier for you to lure it over to your side. It is important not only to concentrate when you need to remember new information. Getting enough sleep is equally important.

Severe sleep deprivation, as well as stress, severely reduces the ability to remember. If you wind yourself up and are overly anxious before an exam or presentation, you may not have enough concentration reserves to learn something new.

If you are one of those people for whom the performance is a lot of stress, it is especially important for you to prepare for it in advance. If, when immersed in the studied material, you can tie it to perception, then remember it better. The more sense organs are involved in memorization, the better the information is memorized. When you read aloud, information flows through both the visual and auditory systems.

You will remember better even if you read aloud only the most important words or sentences. Then you should repeat the material, practice getting it out of memory at the right moments and correct where you memorized incorrectly.

If you want to remember some important data that you need to be sober, do not get carried away with alcohol. When we have memorized information in a state of intoxication, we most likely will not remember it when sober. And drunk - remember.

It will be better to remember if the circumstances during remembering are the same as they were during memorization. The language in which the question is asked can also play a role. Americans of Russian descent, who know both languages, remember the details of their childhood better when asked a question in Russian. We also remember color images better than black and white. You will be taking the exam in a quiet room, so you should prepare in silence as well.

If you want to remember something firmly, prioritize, read the materials aloud, or even ask someone to listen to you. Test yourself, go through exam questions, or have friends ask you around the text.

Learn to extract knowledge from memory - it is much more effective than repeated reading of the material. It will be useful for your memory to actively work with the material. Remember that not only memorization, but also extraction should be of high quality.

However, there are people with completely unique memories. There are people whose brains are able to remember the smallest details of a short flight over a city or even a whole phone book. And at the same time, they may not be at all adapted to life. Due to some brain damage, its owners live in their own, exclusive world. Scientists don't know exactly why this is happening, but there are many different theories.

One of them refers to the consequences of a traumatic brain injury or illness affecting the left hemisphere, that is, the place that helps filter out the surrounding information. People who have such superpowers, but at the same time suffer from developmental disabilities, including autism, are called savants.

About 50 savants have been described around the world. One of them learned to read before he could walk. He had a disproportionately large head, the corpus callosum connecting the right and left hemispheres was missing, and there was no cerebellum either. He was diagnosed with mental retardation, but he also had a unique memory. He could read two pages at the same time, each with one eye, and remember everything exactly. Forever and ever. As a result, he could retell 12,000 books. Screenwriter Barry Morrow was so impressed with his ability that he wrote the screenplay for Rain Man. This unique person's real name is Kim Peek.

In the house where I grew up, from the kitchen window, I could see a tree, where birds of different sizes usually roared. This tree helped me learn to distinguish between bullfinch, titmouse, sparrow and jay. I remember the jay especially well because it has beautiful blue feathers on its wings. In addition, the jay is often mentioned when discussing memory. She hides food for the winter in hundreds of places - in branches, under tree roots and in numerous crevices and cracks. This bird does not have a special mind, but observations have shown that it remembers the locations of several hundred of its mini-stocks.

When we were in elementary school, we thought that the smartest in the class are the ones who remember the largest number of capitals in the world. The truth is that you can memorize a lot, but you can never memorize it. Kim Peek could read a thick book in an hour and memorize everything to the letter, but he could not button his shirt.

Can you remember with your nose?

Have you ever noticed how any sound or smell you hear evokes certain memories in you? The region of the cerebral cortex associated with memory and the olfactory cortex are adjacent to each other. They are connected both functionally and anatomically.

A familiar smell prompts us to remember an incident in our life. This relationship is called the Proust phenomenon.

All the information that entered the hippocampus first visited other areas of the cerebral cortex - the areas that associate this information with the available information and interpret it. The smell is different. The smell goes directly to the hippocampus from the cortical centers of smell, without wandering in a roundabout way through the associative zones of the cortex.

Olfactory information does not even enter the thalamus, unlike sensory information received from the rest of the senses. And this is good - because we recognize olfactory information the slowest. The reason is that the processes (axons) of the olfactory neurons do not have an insulating myelin sheath. When an electric current runs through bare wires, the low speed can be compensated for by the large diameter of the wire, but the diameter of the axons in the olfactory neurons is unfortunately small.

Once you smell a familiar smell, old memories are reawakened, and this is not only due to the close neural connections between the cortical centers of smell and the hippocampus. These centers are also closely associated with the amygdala, which is of great importance to our senses.

In almost all cases, when a smell prompts us to a memory, it inevitably entails some kind of feeling. Memories inspired by smells seem so powerful, real and important because they are emotionally charged.

The olfactory nerves are the only bare nerve fibers in our central nervous system. They are located in the mucous membrane of the upper nasal passage. The olfactory nerves pick up many smells that we immediately recognize, even those that are difficult for us to describe in words.

For example, how would you describe the smell of strawberries to a person who has never inhaled it? Could you describe it in such a way that that person can recognize the smell when they first smell strawberries? At least one thing is certain: once stored in memory, the smell will not be forgotten. Olfactory memory is remarkably stable.

Do men find their way easier than women?

No. The results of research in this area vary greatly, so a diametrically opposite answer to this question can be given with the same success. The only thing we can say with confidence is that women and men have different orientation strategies.

Study designs are different, so it is natural to fluctuate in results. In orientation simulators and computer games, according to research, men perform better. This is due to the fact that, on average, men have more experience with computer games than women.

It appears that women, more than men, rely on specific landmarks, such as hills, church spiers, and other prominent landscape features. Men more than women use the directions of the cardinal points.

Therefore, men and women explain the road differently. A typical woman's explanation is: “Turn left at the supermarket and then go straight ahead until the turn.” A man's explanation would more often include east, west, north and south. Since women are more likely to use landmarks, many studies show that it is easier for women than for men to find their way back from an unfamiliar place.

Conclusions from all such studies are based on averaged data. Of course, there are women with much better results than the average man, but also women whose results are much lower than the average for women.

I myself do not live up to the average data. Unfortunately, I can't blame everything on the fact that I was “born this way”. Of course, we have some kind of ability at birth, but, as you know, the human brain is plastic.

Terrain orientation can be improved by training. And if you keep thinking “I will not succeed”, “I will be mistaken”, “I alone cannot come on time,” then you will fall into the trap of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Women tend to trust their sense of direction less. Maybe because the myth about the superiority of men in this regard is so tenacious? Self-confidence is very important for achieving results.

A 2006 study published in the journal Science found that women who were told that men had more ability at math performed worse on math tests than women who were told that men and women had equal ability.

How can you improve your ability to navigate?

Taxi drivers in London have to keep the city map in mind and calculate the shortest route between two points. If they suddenly forgot everything and began to use the navigator, it is unlikely that scientists would find an enlarged hippocampus in them.

When we do not just follow the instructions of the navigator, but use topographic landmarks to determine the route, we create a map in our head, which means that our brain is actively working.

When you go from work the same way as always, your brain is passive, and if you choose a new path, it becomes more active. Neural pathways that are not used are weakened. If, for example, we go exclusively straight for 200 meters, and then turn right, because the GPS asks us to do so, then we do not strengthen the neural connections in the hippocampus.

Using the navigator in an unfamiliar area, we will arrive at our destination without remembering any landmarks along the way. We stared at the smartphone screen and did not notice either the old church or the beautiful park. So, trying to save time, we partially remain outside the geographical and cultural context, which would not have happened if we had used an ordinary paper map or strained the convolutions and orientated ourselves.

Japanese scientists asked three groups of subjects to plot a route in the same area of the city. The task had to be completed on foot. The first group used a mobile phone with a navigator, the second - an ordinary paper map, and the third was simply told in words where to go, but were not allowed to take any improvised means with them.

The results were nothing special. The group that used the navigator was subsequently the worst at reconstructing the trail and drawing a map of the route. Slightly surprising that this group took the longest route and made more stops. The third group, which did not use maps, either electronic or paper, did the best.

In many cases, a GPS navigator can save you time, but remember that you have a built-in navigator, which is not that bad.

If there is no one nearby who could tell you the way, it is better to use a paper or electronic map, rather than a navigator - practice navigating the terrain.

The screen size of the GPS navigator is too small, and it is not always visible at the same time where we are now and where we need to. Neuroscientist Veronica Bobot argues that frequent use of a GPS navigator makes the brain passive, atrophies the ability to create mental maps, and increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia.

The example of taxi drivers proves that as a result of active use, the hippocampus increases in size. Bobot's research suggests that the use of GPS can actually reduce the size of the hippocampus. Alzheimer's disease affects the neurons of the hippocampus at an early stage. A healthy and trained hippocampus is likely to withstand illness longer and delay the onset of severe symptoms.

We should be glad that we are not dependent on the charge level of the mobile and are able to find our way on our own. The GPS system in the brain enables us to navigate the world with an innate sense of direction. It is necessary to plot a route through unfamiliar terrain, and just to find a refrigerator at night. Without a sense of direction, we would wander endlessly in circles, unable to decide which path to take.

The rest of the secrets of the brain work Kaia Nordengen describes in detail in her book "The Almighty Brain". From it you will learn why it is important to be able to forget in which part of the brain the compass is hidden, where false memories come from, where emotions are stored, whether it is possible to influence our mood and even why we eat with our brain.