53 Interesting Facts About The Brain

Last updated on June 20th, 2022

The brain is the most complex part of the human body. It is responsible for intelligence, interpretation of senses, controlling of behavior and initiation of body movements. The brain is enclosed in hard skull with protective fluids. With these interesting facts, let’s learn more about its: size, weight, cholesterol content, number of cells; multi-tasking, attention span, dreams, physical health, decision making, diseases and more.

53 Interesting Facts About The Brain

1. The size of a typical brain is almost 2% of a body’s weight but is uses 20% of the body’s energy and oxygen intake. Now, when you use your brain much, be cautious, you are actually burning a lot of calories, indeed. Even at rest, it is estimated to use one-fifth of a calorie.

2. 73% of the brain is filled with water. If it gets dehydrated by anything more than 2% of it, the person may suffer loss in attention, memory and cognitive skills.

3. The human brain is the fattiest organ in the body. It contains 60% fat out of its total weight of 3 pounds.

4. Did you know that of all the cholesterol present in the human body, 25% is available in the brain? And it is also vital for brains cells.

5. And the number of brains cells is close to 100 billion, according to some estimate.

6. If you starve your brain for oxygen for five minutes, the brain may get damaged.

7. Brain grows rapidly in babies. A two year old baby will have an 80% fully grown brain. Remember, this is the time you need to pay attention to your babies to help them develop good habits and behaviors.

8. As per an estimate, information in the brain moves at a speed of 260 miles per hour.

the human brain
Amazing Facts About The Brain: Image Source

9. Interestingly, the largest brains are those of sperm whales, weighing about 8 kg (18 lb).

10. During the course of evolution of human beings, our brain is getting smaller and has shrunk in size similar to that of a tennis ball. Though, this is estimated to have happened over a period of 10-20,000 years.

About: multi-tasking, human attention span, unlimited storage space, dreams

11. Multi-tasking is bad for performance. Multi-tasking makes you brain toggle back and forth between several tasks. This causes drop in attention span, performance, learning and short-term memory.

12. The attention spans of human brain are getting shorter. We have lost almost four seconds of our attention span in the past 15 years. This means we cannot concentrate on a thing for more than 8 seconds on an average.

13. Your brain also has the ability to eat itself in case of lack of energy. To ward off starvation, brain cells can eat other brain cells.

14. Human brain has amazing potential to store a vast amount of energy. It does not get exhausted like a computer disk or RAM.

15. Brain is used while sleeping also. It is active all the time.

16. Frequent flying causes headaches. Yes, a study reveals that almost 6% of the people who get headaches were affected by flying.

17. When you are laughing, five areas in your brain are active.

18. Interested in seeing a collection of brains, visit Harvard. There are 7000 brains preserved for research purposes.

19. Everyone dreams during the night time. And the average is 4-7 dreams per night.

20. Insulin while regulating blood sugar in the human body is also responsible for better memory.

Facts about: brain’s relation with good physical health, decision making, yawning, negative effects of stress on the brain, benefits of reading aloud and talking to young children

21. It is all about your mental strength. And you can ever stay healthy and fit with a positive attitude and good mental health. Studies have revealed a connection between physical illness and poor mental health.

22. Women take longer to make decision compared to men.

23. Brain also has the ability to read someone’s face. You could read someone’s emotions and feelings just by looking at their face. Your brain is actually supplying your with the information to judge someone else’ mood.

24. When you yawn, you supply more oxygen to the brain. Even reptiles, birds and mammals yawn. Neurotransmitters in the brain control this behavior.

25. Brain development is stimulated by reading aloud and talking to young children.

26. Brain structure and function are altered when an individual is exposed to excessive stress.

27. Talking to babies is helpful in developing their vocabulary, a study reveals.

28. Brain receives approximately 20% of the blood flowing out of the heart. This blood flow is important to support the metabolic activities of neurons.

. . . by clicking on the button below, you may please continue reading on the next page.