You've Got a Brain, But What is It?

 

This is the beginning of Brain Awareness Week.  Let’s learn a little about this incredible organ.  I am going to publish three blogs this week highlighting what the brain is, how a child’s brain functions and what you can do to improve the brain function of your children and grandchildren.  These blogs are retooled excerpts from my book Beating the Bell Curve which is a book for parents on how to maximize your child’s learning experience. 

 

If you asked most people to describe the brain, they would probably describe the wrinkled surface called the cerebral cortex.  This is the thinking part of the brain.  The cortex is wrinkled instead of smooth to fit more surface area into a small space.  The cerebral cortex is about as thick as an orange peel and if you pressed it out flat it would be as big as an unfolded sheet of newspaper.  Your brain is the size of a large grapefruit.  It is three-quarters water.  The remainder of it is mostly fat and protein.  It is soft enough to be cut with a butter knife and is protected by the skull. 

Most of what you think of as “brain” is the cerebrum.  This is the thinking, knowing, learning part of the brain.  Not surprisingly, the cerebrum is much larger in proportion to the rest of the brain in human beings than in other animals.  It has an outer surface that is divided down the middle from front to back into two hemispheres.  These hemispheres are connected by bundles of tough, thick nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.  Deep inside the brain is a region called the mid-brain, or limbic system, which is generally believed to be the seat of fundamental human responses like sleep, emotion, and sexuality.  Toward the lower back part of the brain is the cerebellum (little brain).  The cerebellum works with our muscles.  It coordinates balance, movement and some types of recognition and long-term memory.  At the very base of the brain and trailing down the spinal cord is the medulla oblongata which controls the most basic of life functions: heart rate, breathing, and wakefulness.

Nearly a million miles of nerve fibers lie within this 3-pound organ.  Our eyes collect light, but the brain is where we see.  Our ears collect sound, but the brain is where we hear.   Your heart beats and your lungs breathe because of signals from the brain.  The brain is where we think, learn, judge, choose, succeed or fail. 

To understand how we learn you must understand how the brain works and coordinates the constant, complicated system of communication that allows it to function in a useful manner.  What follows is a simplification of this intricate task.  Place your hands on the sides of your head above your ears.  You are touching the part of your brain that hears, remembers, and gives meaning to words and language (the temporal lobe).  Move your hands around to the back of your head just above the, “shelf” where your skull curves inward toward the spine (the occipital lobe).  Now you are touching the part of the brain responsible for vision.  Lay your hand against your forehead.  Here (the frontal lobe) is the spot where you do the creative processes of forming judgement, problem solving and planning. Slide your hand up to the crown of your head (the parietal lobe).  Here you are processing higher language functions, like forming words, though speech itself occurs in a region called, Broca’s Area, near the front of your brain.

You are using your whole brain for a task as simple as reading a single paragraph. This halo of electronic activity is happening almost (but not quite) at the same time.  The brain is sending information back and forth across its cerebral cortex changing sight to understanding, understanding to thought, and thought to action with such speed and efficiency we are unconscious of this miracle which occurs over and over again in microseconds.

Hydrate your brain and keep the faith.