Nervous System: Facts, Functions, Diseases. Hygiene of the nervous system Interesting about the human nervous system
We will not join the large camp of scientists working on the mystery - no, let's just remember interesting facts that not very many people know about.
1. The brain is the leader in energy consumption in our body... Indeed, although the percentage of brain mass to total body mass is only 2%, 15% of the heart "works" for it, and the brain itself consumes more than 20% of the oxygen captured by the lungs. That's really really - "you love to ride, love and sled to carry." To deliver oxygen to the brain, three large arteries work, which are exclusively intended for its constant replenishment.
2. The brain is almost fully developed by the age of seven... Scientists confirm that about 95% of brain tissue is finally organized by the age of seven, making up a completely finished organ. By the way, precisely because of the rapid development of the brain, the energy consumption of the nervous system of a two-year-old child is twice the energy consumption of the nervous system of an adult. By the way, men have more brain than women - but this does not mean that men are smarter (let's pay tribute to feminism, this is really true). By the way, an interesting fact is also the difference in the size of different areas in the brain of men and women.
3. Despite the huge number of nerve endings (in fact, the whole brain is one big nerve endings), our brain is not able to feel pain. The thing is that there are no pain receptors in the brain at all: why are they, if the destruction of the brain leads to the death of the organism? Here pain is not needed at all, nature decided correctly. True, pain is felt by the shell in which our brain is enclosed. That is why we so often feel different types of headaches - it all depends on the nature of the shell and on the physiological characteristics of our body.
4. A person uses almost all the resources of his brain... There is one myth of unknown origin, according to which the brain works only 10% - however, this myth appeared at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a couple of inaccurate laboratory experiments. How could scientists at the beginning of the 20th century calculate the number of neurons involved in the work? Of course not. But modern scientists have carried out corresponding experiments many times, which have shown that we almost completely use the resources of the brain.
5. Brain cells regenerate... The opposite statement is the result of another myth that is also more than 100 years old. The nerve cells in the brain do regenerate, albeit not as quickly as the cells in our body. Indeed, if cells did not regenerate, how would people recover from traumatic brain injury? The synapses, which serve as "bridges" between brain cells, do repair - and so do the neurons themselves. Interestingly, alcoholism, contrary to many years of claims, does not kill neurons in the brain - however, synapses do die off. It is clear that with the destruction of the connections of the brain, the thought process begins to "slow down", and then generally barely smolders.
We talked about this with the head of the confocal microscopy department of the Institute. Weizmann (Israel), Professor Eduard Korkotyan.
1. Even babies lose nerve cells.
How many neurons (nerve cells) are there in the human brain? We have about 85 billion of them. For comparison, a jellyfish has only 800, a cockroach has a million, and an octopus has 300 million.
Many believe that nerve cells die only in old age, but most of them are lost by us in childhood, when the process of natural selection takes place in the child's head.
As in the jungle, among the neurons, the most efficient and fit survive.
If a nerve cell is idle without work, its self-destruction mechanism is activated.
Entire networks of neurons in a toddler's brain struggle to survive. They solve the same urgent problems with different speed and different efficiency, answer countless questions, like teams of experts in the game “What, where, when?”.
Having lost in a fair fight, weak teams are eliminated, making room for the winners. This is neither bad nor good, this is normal. Such is the harsh but necessary natural selection process in the brain - neurodarwinism.
2. There are billions of neurons.
There is an opinion that each nerve cell is the simplest element of memory, like one bit of information in the memory of a computer. Simple calculations show that in this case the cortex of our brain would contain only 1-2 gigabits or no more than 250 megabytes of memory, which does not correspond to the volume of words, knowledge, concepts, images and other information that we own. Of course, there are a huge number of neurons, but they certainly won't be enough to accommodate all this. Each neuron is an integrator and carrier, a set of memory elements - synapses.
3. Genius doesn't depend on brain size
The human brain weighs approximately 1200 - 1400 grams. Einstein's brain, for example, is 1,230 grams, not the largest. The elephant's brain is almost four times larger, the largest brain in a sperm whale is 6800 grams. This is not about the mass.
What is the difference between the brain of a genius and an ordinary person? You can never tell by the cover of a book or by the number of pages whether it came from the pen of a master or a graphomaniac. By the way, there are some very smart people among the criminals. For the assessment, completely different units of measurement are needed, which do not yet exist. But in general, the power of the brain depends on the number of synaptic contacts (the brain is by no means composed of neurons, it contains a huge number of auxiliary cells. It is intersected by large and small blood vessels, and in the center of the brain there are four so-called cerebrospinal fluid-filled ventricles. ..).
The main intellectual power of the brain is made up of the neurons of its cortex. The density of synaptic contacts between neurons is especially important, and not physical weight. After all, we will not begin to determine the speed of a computer by weight in kilograms.
According to this indicator, the brain of animals, even of great primates, is significantly smaller than that of a human. We lose to animals in running speed, in strength and endurance, in the ability to climb trees ... Actually, in everything except the mind.
Thinking, consciousness is what distinguishes man from animals. Then the question arises: why shouldn't a person acquire an even more capacious brain?
The limiting factor is the human anatomy itself. The size of our brains is, after all, determined by the size of the birth canal of a woman who cannot give birth to a baby with an oversized head. In a sense, we are prisoners of our own structure. And in this sense, a person cannot become significantly smarter, unless one day he changes himself.
4. Many diseases can be treated by introducing new genes into nerve cells.
Genetics is an incredibly successful science. We have learned not only to study genes, but also create new ones, reprogram them. So far, these are just experiments on animals, and they are more than successful. The time is approaching when many diseases can be cured by introducing new or modified genes into cells. Are not experiments being carried out on a person? Secret laboratories only exist in science fiction films. Such scientific manipulations are feasible only in large scientific centers and require a lot of effort. Concerns about unauthorized hacking of the human genome are groundless today.
5. Does a person use only a fraction of the capabilities of their brain? It is a myth.
For some reason, many believe that a person uses only a small part of the capabilities of his brain (say, 10, 20, and so on percent). It's hard to say where this strange myth came from. You shouldn't believe in him. Experiments show that nerve cells that are not involved in the work of the brain die.
Nature is rational and economical. Nothing is put aside in it just in case, in reserve. It is unprofitable and simply harmful for living beings to contain “idlers” in their brains. We have no extra cells.
6. Nerve cells are restored.
A few years ago, at the age of 83, a very famous patient died, American Henry Mollison. Even in his youth, doctors, in order to save his life, completely removed from the brain the hippocampus (from the Greek - seahorse), which was the source of epilepsy. The result was hard and unexpected. The patient has lost the ability to remember anything. He remained a completely normal person, he could maintain a conversation. But as soon as you walk out the door for just a few minutes, and he perceived you as a complete stranger. Every morning for tens of years, Mollison had to re-learn the world in that part of it, which the world became after the operation (the patient remembered everything that preceded the operation). So, by chance, it was found that the hippocampus is responsible for the formation of new memory. In the hippocampus, the restoration of nerve cells (neurogenesis) occurs relatively intensively. But the importance of neurogenesis should not be overestimated; its contribution is still small.
It's not that the body is maliciously willing to harm itself. The central nervous system is like a complex network of fibers, like a tangled bundle of wires. It would be easy for the body to create a new nerve cell. However, the network itself has long been formed. How can a new cell integrate into it so as not to interfere with it? This could be done if there was an engineer in the brain who would sort out the bundle of "wires". Unfortunately, there is no such position in the brain. Therefore, the restoration of brain cells to replace the lost ones is difficult. The layered structure of the cerebral cortex helps a little, it helps new cells to integrate in the right place. Thanks to this, a small recovery of nerve cells still exists.
7. How one part of the brain saves another
Ischemic cerebral stroke is a serious illness. It is associated with blockage of the blood vessels that supply blood. The brain tissue is extremely sensitive to oxygen starvation and dies off quickly around the clogged vessel. If the affected area is not located in one of the vital centers, the person survives, but at the same time may partially lose mobility or speech. Nevertheless, after a long time (sometimes months, years), the lost function is partially restored. If there are no more neurons, then how is this happening? It is known that the cerebral cortex has a symmetrical structure. All its structures are divided into two halves, left and right, but only one of them is affected. Over time, you can notice a slow germination of neuronal outgrowths from the preserved structure to the damaged one. The processes surprisingly find the right path and partially compensate for the resulting deficiency. The exact mechanisms of this process remain unknown. Learning to manage the recovery process, regulate it, will not only help in the treatment of strokes, but also reveal one of the biggest mysteries of the brain.
8. Once upon a time the left hemisphere defeated the right
The cerebral cortex, as we all know, consists of two hemispheres. They are asymmetrical. As a rule, the left is more important. The brain is designed so that the right side controls the left side of the body, and vice versa. That is why most people are dominated by the right hand, controlled by the left hemisphere. There is a kind of division of labor between the two hemispheres. The left one is responsible for thinking, consciousness and speech. It is it that thinks logically and performs mathematical operations. Speech is not just a communication tool, not just a way to convey a thought. To understand a phenomenon or an object, we absolutely need to name it. For example, by designating a class with the abstract concept "9a" we save ourselves from having to list all the students every time. Abstract thinking is characteristic of man, and only to a small extent - of some animals. It incredibly speeds up and strengthens thinking, therefore speech and thinking are, in a sense, very close concepts.
The right hemisphere is responsible for pattern recognition, emotional perception. It hardly knows how to speak. How is this known? Epilepsy helped. Usually the disease nests only in one hemisphere, but it can spread to the second. In the 60s of the last century, doctors thought about whether it is possible to cut the connections between both hemispheres in order to save the patient's life. Several such operations have been performed. When the natural connection of the left and right hemispheres is interrupted in patients, then the researcher also has the opportunity to "talk" with each of them separately. It was found that the right hemisphere has a very limited vocabulary. It can be expressed in simple phrases, but abstract thinking is not available to the right hemisphere. Tastes and outlooks on life in the two hemispheres can be very different and even come into obvious contradictions.
Animals do not have speech centers, therefore, no obvious asymmetry of the hemispheres was revealed in them.
There is a hypothesis that several thousand years ago, the hemispheres of the human brain were completely equal. Psychologists believe that the "voices" so often referred to in ancient sources were nothing more than the voice of the right hemisphere, and not a metaphor or artistic device.
How did it happen that the left hemisphere began to dominate? With the development of thinking and speech, one of the hemispheres simply had to “win”, and the other “yield”, because dual power within one personality is irrational. For some reason, the victory went to the left hemisphere, but often there are people who, on the contrary, have a dominant right hemisphere.
9. The right hemisphere has a child's vocabulary, but imagination is cooler.
The most important function of the right hemisphere is the perception of visual images.
Imagine a picture hanging on a wall. And now we mentally draw it into squares and begin to gradually paint over them in a random way. The details of the drawing will begin to disappear, but it will take quite a long time before we no longer understand what exactly is depicted in the picture.
Our consciousness has an amazing ability to recreate a picture in separate fragments.
In addition, we see a dynamic, mobile world, almost like in a movie. The film is not drawn to us in the form of separate changing frames, but is perceived in constant motion.
Another amazing ability that we are endowed with is the ability to see the world in three-dimensional, three-dimensional. A perfectly flat picture does not seem flat at all.
With the power of imagination alone, the right hemisphere of our brain gives depth to the picture.
10. The brain begins to "age" after 20 years
The main task of the brain is to assimilate life experience. Unlike inherited traits, which remain unchanged throughout life, the brain is able to learn and remember. However, it is not dimensionless and at some point it may simply overflow, so that there will be no more free space in memory. In this case, the brain will begin to erase the old "files". But this is fraught with the serious danger that something important will be erased for the sake of some nonsense. To prevent this from happening, evolution has found an interesting way out.
Until the age of 18-20, the brain actively and indistinctly absorbs any information. Having successfully lived up to these years, which in the past were considered a solid age, the brain gradually changes its strategy from memorizing to preserving what has been learned, so as not to expose the accumulated knowledge to the danger of accidental erasure. This process occurs slowly and systematically throughout the life of each of us. The brain is becoming more and more conservative. Therefore, over the years it becomes more and more difficult for him to master new, but the acquired knowledge is reliably fixed.
This process is not a disease, it is difficult and even almost impossible to fight it. And this is another argument in favor of how important it is to study at a young age, when learning is easy. But there is good news for older people too. Not all of the properties of the brain weaken over the years. Vocabulary, the number of abstract images, the ability to rationally and soundly think are not lost and even continue to grow.
Where a young, inexperienced mind gets confused, sorting through various options, the older brain will find an effective solution faster thanks to a better thinking strategy. By the way, the more educated a person is, the more he trains his brain, the less the likelihood of brain diseases.
11. The brain cannot be hurt
The brain is devoid of any sensitive nerve endings, so it is neither hot nor cold, nor ticklish, nor painful. This is understandable if we consider that it is better than any other organ protected from the effects of the external environment: it is not easy to get to it. Every second, the brain receives accurate and varied information about the state of the most remote corners of its body, knows about any needs, and is entitled to satisfy them or put them off for later. But the brain does not feel itself in any way: when we have a headache, it is only a signal from the pain receptors of the meninges.
12. Healthy Brain Food
Like all organs in the body, the brain needs energy sources and building materials. It is sometimes said that the brain feeds exclusively on glucose. Indeed, about 20% of all glucose is consumed by the brain, but it, like any other organ, needs the whole complex of nutrients. Whole proteins never enter the brain; before that, they are broken down into individual amino acids. The same goes for complex lipids, which are digested to fatty acids such as omega-3 or omega-6. Some vitamins, for example C, enter the brain on their own, and such as B6 or B12 are carried by conductors.
Be careful with zinc-rich foods such as oysters, peanuts, and watermelon seeds. There is a hypothesis that zinc accumulates in the brain and, over time, can lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Many nutrients, especially important for the brain, such as vitamins D3, B12, creatine, carnosine, omega-3 are found only in meat, fish and eggs. Therefore, the now fashionable vegetarianism can hardly be called beneficial for brain cells.
1. In the early stages of the human embryo, 250,000 neurons are formed per minute.
2. The most rapid development of the brain occurs between the ages of 2 and 11 years.
3. The more educated a person is, the less the likelihood of brain disease. Intellectual activity causes the production of additional tissue to compensate for the patient.
4. Engaging in unfamiliar activities and interacting with those who surpass you in intelligence are excellent means of brain development.
5. Signals in the human nervous system reach a speed of 288 km / h. By old age, the speed decreases by 15%.
6. All people have approximately the same number of nerve cells, both in childhood and in adulthood, but these cells grow, reaching their maximum size at six years. A newborn's brain triples in the first year of life (no wonder babies have such big heads!).
7. The Japanese have the highest IQ in the world - 111. 10% of the Japanese have an indicator above 130.
8. The brain does not feel pain - there are no pain receptors in the brain.
9. Yawning is often associated with lack of sleep and boredom, but it actually helps a person wake up. When yawning, the windpipe expands, which allows the lungs to receive more oxygen, which flows to the brain through the blood, making us more alert.
10. Prayer and meditation have a beneficial effect on the activity of the brain, reduce the frequency of breathing. The perception of information during prayer or meditation goes by bypassing thought processes and analysis, i.e. a person leaves reality. In this condition, delta waves appear in the brain, which are usually recorded in babies in the first six months of life. The wave oscillations of the brain are normalized and contribute to the body's self-healing process. Believers go to the doctor 36% less often than non-believers.
11. For the full functioning of the brain, you need to drink a sufficient amount of fluids. The brain, like our entire body, is approximately 75% water. Those who are trying to lose weight with the help of pills and tea, expelling water from the body, should be prepared for the fact that, simultaneously with losing weight, they will also lose brain performance.
12. The brain wakes up longer than the body. The intellectual abilities of a person immediately after waking up are lower than after a sleepless night or in a state of moderate intoxication. It is very useful, in addition to the morning jogging and breakfast, which enhance metabolic processes, to do a little workout for the brain. This means that you should not turn on the TV in the morning, but rather read a little or solve a crossword puzzle.
13. It is easier for the brain to understand the speech of men than women. Male and female voices affect different parts of the brain. Female voices are more musical, sound at higher frequencies, while the frequency range is wider than that of male voices. The human brain has to “decipher” the meaning of what a woman says, using additional resources.By the way, people suffering from auditory hallucinations often hear male speech.
14. The brain consumes more energy than all other organs. It accounts for only 2% of the total body weight, but takes up about 20% of the energy produced by the body. This amount of energy is enough to operate a 25 watt light bulb. Energy supports normal brain function and is transmitted by neurons to create nerve impulses.
15. The brain contains approximately 100 billion neurons (cells that generate and transmit nerve impulses), as many as there are stars in our galaxy and about 16 times more than people on Earth. Each neuron is connected to 10,000 other neurons. The left hemisphere contains 186 million more neurons than the right. By transmitting nerve impulses, neurons provide continuous work of the brain.
16. The talk that people use only 10% of their brains is a myth. Although not all the secrets and capabilities of the brain are revealed, each part of the brain constantly performs a certain function, the brain always uses as many resources as it needs at the moment.
17. Every minute 750-1000 ml of blood passes through the brain, which is 15-20% of all blood in the human body.
18. The brain produces 70,000 thoughts a day.
19. After 30 years, brain mass decreases by a quarter percent every year.
20. In 30% of eighty-year-old people, the brain functions no worse than that of young people.
The brain is still the most mysterious organ of the human body, the best minds of mankind have been struggling to unravel the principles of its operation for more than a hundred years. Undoubtedly, scientists have managed to reach hitherto unseen heights of knowledge, but there is still a huge amount of scattered facts that can contradict each other, interfering with the addition of a harmonious system.
We will not join the large camp of scientists working on the mystery - no, let's just remember interesting facts that not very many people know about.
1. The brain is the leader in energy consumption in our body. Indeed, although the percentage of brain mass to total body mass is only 2%, 15% of the heart "works" for it, and the brain itself consumes more than 20% of the oxygen captured by the lungs. That's really really - "you love to ride, love and sled to carry." To deliver oxygen to the brain, three large arteries work, which are exclusively intended for its constant replenishment.
2. The brain is almost fully developed by the age of seven. Scientists confirm that about 95% of brain tissue is finally organized by the age of seven, making up a completely finished organ. By the way, precisely because of the rapid development of the brain, the energy consumption of the nervous system of a two-year-old child is twice the energy consumption of the nervous system of an adult. By the way, men have more brain than women - but this does not mean that men are smarter (let's pay tribute to feminism, this is really true). By the way, an interesting fact is also the difference in the size of different areas in the brain of men and women.
3. Despite the huge number of nerve endings (in fact, the whole brain is one big nerve endings), our brain is not able to feel pain. The thing is that there are no pain receptors in the brain at all: why are they, if the destruction of the brain leads to the death of the organism? Here pain is not needed at all, nature decided correctly. True, pain is felt by the shell in which our brain is enclosed. That is why we so often feel different types of headaches - it all depends on the nature of the shell and on the physiological characteristics of our body.
4. A person uses almost all the resources of his brain. There is one myth of unknown origin, according to which the brain works only 10% - however, this myth appeared at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a couple of inaccurate laboratory experiments. How could scientists at the beginning of the 20th century calculate the number of neurons involved in the work? Of course not. But modern scientists have carried out corresponding experiments many times, which have shown that we almost completely use the resources of the brain.
5. The cells of the brain are restored. The opposite statement is the result of another myth that is also more than 100 years old. The nerve cells in the brain do regenerate, albeit not as quickly as the cells in our body. Indeed, if cells did not regenerate, how would people recover from traumatic brain injury? The synapses, which serve as "bridges" between brain cells, do repair - and so do the neurons themselves. Interestingly, alcoholism, contrary to many years of claims, does not kill neurons in the brain - however, synapses do die off. It is clear that with the destruction of brain connections, the thought process begins to "slow down", and then generally barely smolders
The human nervous system is a well-thought-out and complex system, thanks to which a person is able to think, perceive the world with the help of feelings, interact with other people and be a reasonable person, a person. In order for the nervous system to be healthy, it is necessary to take care of it, because if its functions are impaired, a person, even a physically healthy person, cannot live a full life. the site will tell you what needs to be done to maintain the health of the nervous system, and what is best to avoid.
What benefits the human nervous system
In order not to frighten either yourself or others with nervous breakdowns, it is necessary to pamper the nervous system with the following:
- Fresh air
The human central nervous system is very fond of fresh air. Remember that the brain absorbs a quarter of the oxygen and other nutrients. Accordingly, the lack of these substances, as well as the B vitamins and niacin, which are necessary for the proper functioning of neurons, is detrimental to the nervous system. Therefore, in addition to regular walks in the fresh air, "feed" the brain with the following foods:
- legumes;
- fish;
- whole grain bread;
- cereals (buckwheat, oatmeal);
- meat;
- offal.
- Sleep and water treatments
Even if you regularly eat the most beneficial foods for the human nervous system, without good sleep it will not work properly. Despite the fact that the brain practically never sleeps, being engaged in the control of vital processes, the time of your sleep is necessary for it to structure and memorize information, as well as to recover.
As for water procedures, they also have a beneficial effect on the nervous system, and a contrast shower also helps to improve the condition of the skin and prolong its youth.
- Alternating activities
The brain does not like to constantly engage in one type of activity, therefore, experts emphasize the need for both mental and physical labor for each person. The intensity of this activity can vary depending on your preferences and physical abilities.
- Movement
Mobility, an active lifestyle help to strengthen not only muscles and ligaments, but also the human nervous system. The brain reacts to physical activity by releasing endorphins, so active people often have a much stronger nervous system than those who spend the day in a sitting position.
- Joy
Joy is good for the nervous system. At the same time, you do not have to rejoice yourself - cheer, make you laugh, console your neighbor - and you will be less susceptible to disturbances from the nervous system.
What the human nervous system needs to be protected from
The human nervous system is vulnerable to various kinds of factors, from which it must be protected as much as possible, these are:
- Infectious and other diseases
Any pathogenic microorganisms attack the cells of the nervous system, as a result of which we feel weak and painful. Therefore, an infection (viral or bacterial origin - it does not matter) should be treated by a specialist in order to avoid complications from the nervous system. Diseases of the ears, sinuses, infectious and inflammatory processes in the oral cavity (teeth, gums, etc.) in advanced cases can reach the meninges and harm the nervous system.
- Tick bites
No one is immune from ticks that carry the encephalitis virus. Therefore, getting out into nature, you must take all precautions that allow you to be protected from the bites of these insidious insects.
- Trauma
The most dangerous for the human nervous system are head injuries, fraught with impaired blood supply at the site of injury, cerebral hemorrhages, which lead to mental disorders, motor functions and death. In case of a head injury, be sure to check with a specialist, and also remember that an unsuccessful fall on the tailbone can also cause a concussion.
- Stress
Constant stress hits not only the human nervous system, but throughout the body. There are many techniques for protecting or relieving stress, look for the one that works for you and don't let chronic stress overpower you.
This problem is well known to the inhabitants of megalopolises, when, it seems, the city never sleeps. Many harm themselves by leaving the TV or other sources of noise on overnight. A person accustomed to sleeping in such conditions does not even suspect that the nervous system does not like it. Try to sleep in complete silence at night so you don't wake up irritable and tired in the morning.
If you dream of nerves as strong as ropes, make sure that your nervous system receives maximum nutrients, fresh air and enough rest. Do not forget to monitor your health, as all body systems are connected!
