BRAINS
This organ, weighing around three pounds, serves as the control center of your body.
What is the brain?
In Inside Out, this emotion wears a dress and controls memories.
Who is Sadness?
True or False: Your brain’s left hemisphere is purely “logical” and your right hemisphere is purely “creative.”
What is False?
The sense of smell is also known by this fancy name.
What is olfaction?
This wrinkly outer layer of the brain is where thinking and planning happen.
What is the cerebral cortex?
These nerve cells, shaped like tiny trees, are the main communicators of the nervous system.
What are neurons?
In Finding Nemo, this fish suffers from short-term memory loss.
Who is Dory?
True or False: New neurons can grow in adulthood.
What is true?
These photoreceptor cells help you see colors.
What are cones?
This “little brain” helps you stay balanced while walking a tightrope.
What is the cerebellum?
This wrinkly outer layer of the brain is responsible for higher thinking and decision-making.
What is the cerebral cortex?
In Limitless, Eddie Morra’s super-drug NZT-48 is said to unlock “100%” of this mental resource, a claim neuroscientists love to debunk.
What is his brain’s potential (the 10% myth)?
This animal has the largest brain-to-body ratio.
What is a human?
Taste buds detect this many main tastes.
What is five? (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami)
This small, almond-shaped structure deep in the brain helps process fear and emotional memories.
What is the amygdala?
This structure connects the brain’s left and right hemispheres, allowing them to “talk” to each other.
What is the corpus callosum?
In Lucy, Scarlett Johansson’s character becomes hyper-aware of her own heartbeat, digestion, and body chemistry — functions controlled by this brain region.
What is the hypothalamus?
The brain burns about this percent of your body’s energy.
What is ~20%?
The “blind spot” in your vision is caused by this.
What is the optic disc?
This relay station sits in the center of the brain, directing sensory information (except smell) to the right areas.
What is the thalamus?
This deep brain structure helps form new memories and is named after a seahorse.
What is the hippocampus?
In Memento, Leonard Shelby has this type of amnesia, preventing him from forming new memories.
What is anterograde amnesia?
Your brain feels pain.
What is false?
The sense that tells you where your body is in space.
What is proprioception?
This part of the brainstem controls breathing and heartbeat. Damage here can be fatal.
What is the medulla oblongata?