Myths around the brain
Fact or fiction?
We only use 10% of our brain.
Fiction - we always use nearly all of our brain areas that the same time.
What organ was seen as the location of reasoning, decision making, and body control up to the middle ages (1400s)
Heart
Where in the brain do you find neurons that interpret sensory info (touch, temperature, pain, taste), spatial awareness, attention, and are involved in reading/math.
Parietal lobe
What is tremor?
Uncontrolled shaking of arms and legs.
What is the number of thoughts you generate per day?
Depends on who is doing the study: between 6200 and 62000 thoughts per day. In all cases: the vast majority of these thoughts are exactly the same thoughts you had yesterday.
Fact or fiction?
You are born with all your brain cells.
Fiction.
If you went to medical school in 1100 (or 1200, 1300) - what would you have learned as the main two functions of the brain.
a) Cooling organ for the heart.
b) Causing muscle contractions by hydraulicly pumping CSF through the nerves into the muscles, so that those swell.
Where in the brain do you find neurons that connect cerebrum to spinal cord; that control automatic functions like breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep.
Brain stem.
What is encephalitis
Inflammation of the brain.
The average adult brain weighs 1.4 to 1.6 kg, roughly 3 pounds. What percentage of that is fat?
60%
Fact or fiction?
Multitasking makes you efficient.
What was the year when for the first time someone suggested electrical events involved in brain function.
Galvani in 1791. He could show that electrical stimulation of nerves leads to muscle contraction and suggested a role of electricity in brain function.
Which part of the brain is responsible for coordination, balance, posture, and fine motor skills (like playing music).
Cerebellum
What is agnosia?
Inability to recognize and identify (usualy well known) objects or persons.
What is the number of (cell bodies of) neurons and synapses in a piece of brain (cerebrum), the size of one single grain of sand?
More than 100000 neurons, and several billion synapses.
Facto or fiction?
Classical music makes babies smarter (Mozart Effect)
Fiction. No study could show that listening to classical (or any other muscie) boosts IQ.
When was the term "neuron" invented and used to describe the central basic cell of our nervous system?
Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz, a German anatomist in 1891. The Nobel prize (1906) for the discovery of neurons in 1888 however went to Mr. Golgi and Mr. Cajal - they just called them differently.
Which part of the brain controls hunger, thirst, body temperature, sleep patterns, and hormone release.
Hypothalamus
Many of us experienced that already:
Orthostatic Hypotension
Drop in blood pressure when you suddenly stand up. You may pass out.
How long does short term memory last?
20 to 30 seconds - and is purely an increase of action potential frequency in the neurons that remember.
Fact or fiction?
Half of all Americans have an IQ of 100 or below.
The IQ of 100 is defined as the average IQ. Therefore, always half of all persons have and IQ of 100 and below and the other half an IQ of 100 and above.
When was the first time a menchanism described that explained the formation of long term memory.
Timothy Bliss & Terje Lømo (1973): Published their landmark paper on Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus, showing that repeated high-frequency stimulation strengthens synaptic connections, a cellular mechanism for memory.
Which part of the brain causes emotions (fear, stress, joy, happiness) and forms emotional memories.
Amygdala
It may have happened last summer to you. What is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia in every day English?
Brain freeze. It happens when you gulp down something ice cold too quickly.
You work hard to study. If you remember today what you learned yesterday, it is in long term memory. What is the average number of things we forget again, every day?
Zero. Long term memory is based on structural changes in the brain. Your brain easily has the capacity to store 1000 years of HD video, with sound, smell, taste, and touch. Forgetting is similar to misplacing a book in a large library - the info is there, but hard to find.