For more than 100 years, scientists have been struggling with the question: how does the human brain work? A lot of discoveries have been made, but the secrets and mysteries from this have not become less. The gray matter resting in the cranium is a unique formation. With a small size and weight, relative to the human body, it consumes 20% of all oxygen that enters the lungs.
The medulla is fully formed at the age of 7 years. At the same time, he needs much more energy than in his mature years. It is absolutely insensitive to pain, as it does not have the appropriate receptors. Thanks to the gray matter, people touch, feel, see, speak, hear. But most importantly, a person is able to think, express emotions and make decisions.
How many neurons are in the human brain?
A neuron is a specific nerve cell that has processes. These processes are in contact with the processes of other neurons. The result is a huge network through which various signals are transmitted. But the channels or nerve pathways along which the signals go are called synapses. All this complex system together is the human brain. How many neurons does it contain?
The number 100 billion has long existed. Allegedly, it is precisely this number that denotes the total number of neurons. But everyone understands that this value is approximate. And indeed, how to count all the microscopic cells without missing a single one? The task is simply impossible.
However, neuroscientists from Denmark have managed to do just that. They took 4 brains of dead people and performed isotropic fractalization with them. In simple terms, they liquefied the brains and turned them into a homogeneous emulsion or "brain soup". After that, samples of the "soup" were studied and the number of neurons in them was counted. Next, the total number of nerve cells in all 4 studied brain samples was calculated mathematically.
As a result, it turned out that the gray matter contains approximately 86 billion neurons. None of the 4 samples scored 100 billion cells. Of course, to an inexperienced person it may seem that the difference of 14 billion is absolutely unprincipled. But it is precisely this number of neurons that makes up the gray matter of a baboon. And a gorilla has 28 billion neurons. So the numbers 100 and 86 represent a pretty significant difference.
Brain size and mental abilities
Sometimes the idea slips through the literature that the larger the volume of gray matter in a person, the larger the mind, respectively. This statement is rather doubtful, but everything is known in comparison. If, for example, we take the medulla of a dolphin and an anteater, then it is immediately clear that the dolphin has a larger volume, and even more intelligence. But do not rush to conclusions.
Let's look at a cow and a monkey. Who is smarter? Of course, a monkey. But cow brains are vastly larger than primate brains. You can compare a man and a whale. The average weight of human gray matter is 1.2 kg, while in a huge mammal this figure is 6.8 kg. However, the intellectual capabilities of people are several orders of magnitude higher. From this we can conclude that the size of the brain has nothing to do with mental abilities.
Does the number of neurons depend on the size of the brain?
This question is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. The size of the thinking organ in different animals varies greatly. At the same time, until recently, the prevailing opinion was that the density of nerve cells (the ratio of number to mass) is a constant value, regardless of the species and classes of living beings.
However, it has now been proven that this is not the case at all. Nowadays it is reliably known that in different mammals absolutely different rules calculation of neurons. That is, in 1 gram of brain tissue there can be a completely different number of cells.
In the brains of the same primates, the number of neurons increases in proportion to the volume of gray matter. But rodents have no proportionality. In these animals, with an increase in the volume of brain tissue, the number of nerve cells decreases. As for insectivores, then there is a combination - rodents + primates. Gray matter increases faster than the number of neurons. But the cerebellum is characterized by a linear growth rate, as in primates.
The conclusion here is the following: it is the brains of primates that are arranged most efficiently, since they use the entire available volume to the maximum. If the number of neurons in primates is increased by 10 times, then this will lead to an 11-fold increase in the volume of the medulla. And in rodents, the volume will increase by 35 times. If we imagine a rodent with 86 billion neurons, then the weight of its gray matter will be 35 kg.
Thoughts and the human brain
The work of the human brain is directly related to mental activity. And here is the most interesting thing. The biological mass that makes up the gray matter cannot produce thoughts. Yes, a huge number of chemical and electrical processes are observed in it. But they are in no way connected with mental activity, and even more so with feelings and experiences. What makes a person the "crown of nature" does not lie under the cranium at all. Where then?
There is an opinion that the cerebral cortex is just a transmitting device. Signals are coming from outside. They are perceived by neurons, and thus thoughts are born. Or maybe everything is controlled by the DNA molecule. It is she who generates certain mental images, and it seems to a person that it is he who thinks and thinks with his head.
In any case, one can only guess and fantasize. The very process of thought formation is a mystery behind seven seals. No one is allowed to know her. It remains only to take this information for granted. At the same time, a logical conclusion suggests itself: if thoughts are not born in our head, then, therefore, they are not ours, and then it’s not worth listening to them? They are strangers and often provoke people to do the wrong things.
So the question is, how does the human brain work? - remains unanswered. We only know that it has a huge number of neurons connected by synapses. Neurons are combined into groups, each of which performs certain functions. This is touch, smell, hearing, vision, coordination and much, much more. But that's what gives rise to thoughts and feelings - there is no answer. But this is the most important thing in the life of people. Everything else is ordinary chemical processes that any person can learn with due diligence and diligence.
Dmitry Shestakov
There is a borderline opinion that the human brain itself does not generate anything, but only relays something that is outside of it. But when it comes to the human brain, even such a fantastic idea can turn out to be true. For example, science, represented by cholinguist Tatyana Chernigovskaya, puts forward an equally amazing thesis: in the work of the human brain, the main brain, and not the person.
Yes, the body is a direct participant in the process. With its help, the brain receives knowledge about tastes, colors, smells. This is how humans differ from computers. But the brain is more important, because:
- it is more powerful and more diverse than the human conscious part of the thought process,
- he makes a decision on his own without the participation of consciousness, and we do not always understand how he does it,
- he with a slight delay informs the consciousness of a person about decision, but by deceit he tries to calm the "owner", creating conditions under which it seems to the person that he made the decision in the course of serious deliberation.
The Brain: 10 Surprising Facts
How the brain works
The peculiarity of the work of the human brain is such that the norm within the framework of this topic should be discussed with great care. The line between genius and pathology is so thin that it is almost invisible. Mental and nervous disorders are already recorded so often that they have begun to outstrip in number cardiovascular diseases and oncology. Nevertheless, there are normative indicators for the work of brain waves, various deviations in the registration of which make it possible to establish developmental pathologies.
brain waves
"Brain waves" are low-intensity electromagnetic wave vibrations emitted by the brain with a frequency range of 1 to 40 hertz. Normally, they have the following indicators:
- The alpha level of the brain with a frequency of 8-13 Hz in 95% of healthy people is recorded in a state of relaxed wakefulness, mainly in the areas of the back of the head and crown.
- Beta rhythm. The frequency of the brain is 14-40 Hz. Normally, it has mild fluctuations with an amplitude of up to 3-7 μV in the regions of the anterior and central gyri. Occurs when awake during observation or when concentrating on solving problems.
- The gamma wave occurs when solving tasks that require maximum concentration. Fluctuations from 30-100 Hz in the parietal, temporal, frontal and precentral regions.
- Delta rhythm with fluctuations of 1-4 Hz is associated with slow recovery processes and low activity.
- Theta rhythm. Its frequency is 4-8 Hz with registration in the hippocampus and frontal zones. Occurs during the transition of relaxed wakefulness into drowsiness.
The principle of reflex work
The basic principle of the nervous system is reflex.
A reflex is a reaction of the body to irritation of receptors (sensitive formations), the implementation of which occurs with the participation of the nervous system.
Rene Descartes in the 17th century discovered the reflex principle of nervous activity in general. And the assumption about the reflex activity of the higher parts of the brain, that is, the principle of the reflex work of the brain, was discovered by I. Sechenov already in the 19th century. I. Pavlov developed ways of experimental objective study of the functions of the cortex and a method for developing conditioned reflexes to unconditioned ones. Developing these ideas, P. Anokhin created the concept of a functional system, which states that at each moment of time a complex system is formed - a temporary association of sensory receptors, nerve elements of brain structures with executive organs.
Man is not a computer
In general, the principles of the brain work differ from the principles of the computer, and they can only be compared with numerous reservations. So, for example, a person, unlike a computer, does not have a single energy-intensive passive memory localization. However, the neurons responsible for the state of memory are still concentrated more or less grouped in the neocortox, which contains about 11 billion. neurons and even more glia. (This type of brain cell becomes the habitat of neurons, and their metabolism is associated with the metabolism of neurons.)
Right and left hemispheres: responsibility and synergy
In almost every online test for determining the proportion of activity of the left and right hemisphere, a "computer" female silhouette in motion appears in front of the viewer's eyes, which can spin either clockwise or counterclockwise. This is an illusory impression that the scientists and computer scientists who created it specifically sought. But, depending on how the spinning silhouette moves for the observer, one can say which of the hemispheres in a person dominates at the current moment: along the arrow - the left hemisphere, counterclockwise - the right one.
In tests that test the hemispheres of the brain for performance, there are often other “tests”, but all of them aim to establish:
- A model of consciousness, where the left hemisphere is responsible for the logical, consistent, symbolic, and the right hemisphere is responsible for the intuitive, chaotic, concrete.
- Goal type.
- Type of activity (Here, the left half of the brain is “engaged” in time orientation, motor activity and feeling of the body, and the right half is “engaged” in spatial orientation and control over the movement of objects).
- The nature of intelligence is verbal theoretical with control of the left half and non-verbal practical with control of the right.
- Memory model - for numbers and formulas for the left hemisphere and for visual images of emotional nature - for the right.
- Type of information processing - slow conceptual or fast figurative.
In the work of the hemispheres of the brain, there is always a functional division of duties, but the task of training is to harmonize the work of the hemispheres of the brain, combining their capabilities.
Brain test: intelligence test
Some "advanced" bosses use an IQ test when hiring, trying to determine the intellectual abilities of a future employee. This is convenient and understandable, because this criterion is considered to be well-established and illustrative. However, in reality, an IQ test demonstrates only one type of human intellectual capabilities, preventing the applicant from demonstrating even a tenth of the entire spectrum of his abilities. Hence the conclusion: it is more expedient for the boss to conduct a highly specialized test with potential employees that is directly related to the upcoming work - a test for: 
- logical thinking,
- spatial memory,
- attention and concentration
- decision-making speed, etc.
However, the belief in the infallibility of the IQ test is not the only misconception that exists in popular culture. The same beliefs include the idea that intellectual abilities are 100 percent dependent on the number of so-called. "gray matter" (although not everyone knows what gray matter is). Or the fact that there is a special female logic, and men are smarter than women.
Correction for the male and female mind is sometimes justified. Girls, for example, from the first minutes after birth are more sensitive to touch, and women better than men pick up emotional undertones in speech and are generally more receptive to words. However, it does not follow from what has been said that male logic exists separately from female logic, and the male mind is more perfect than the female one.
Here is one of the many illustrations. In April 2015, the statistics of the most effective programmers was "raised" on the basis of 4 million questionnaires. It turned out that customers are more satisfied with the work done by women, but only until they find out about the gender of the author. After that - in one case out of seven, gender biases turn on among customers.
Research on how the brain works is ongoing. Based on the book by Dick Swaab, We are our brains. From Womb to Alzheimer's, Chris Frith's Brain and Soul, Theo Compernolle's Brain Unchained, David Rock's Brain. Instructions for use ”and many other publications, you can follow new discoveries in this topic and compare popular theories.
Any concept is revealed through a number of principles (from the Latin principium - foundation), including the concept of the relationship between the brain and the psyche. In the works of A.R. Luria, E.D. Khomskoy, O.S. Adrianov, L.S. Tsvetkova, N.P. Bekhtereva and others summarize the basic principles of the structure and operation of the brain. Thanks to these researchers, in the brain organization it is possible to identify both general principles of structure and functioning, characteristic of all macrosystems, and dynamically changing individual characteristics these systems.
A.R. Luria identifies the following principles of evolution and structure of the brain as an organ of the psyche:
- - the principle of evolutionary development, which consists in the fact that at various stages of evolution, the relationship of the organism with the environment and its behavior were regulated by various apparatuses of the nervous system and, therefore, the human brain is a product of a long evolutionary development;
- - the principle of the preservation of ancient structures, suggesting that the old apparatuses of the brain are preserved, giving way to new formations and acquiring a new role. They are increasingly becoming apparatuses that provide the background for behavior;
- - the principle of the vertical structure of the functional systems of the brain, which means that each form of behavior is ensured by the joint work of different levels of the nervous apparatus, interconnected by both ascending and descending connections, turning the brain into a self-regulating system;
- - the principle of hierarchical interaction of different brain systems, according to which the excitation that occurs in the peripheral sensory organs first comes to the primary (projection) zones, then spreads to the secondary zones of the cortex, which play an integrating role, combining somatotopic projections of excitations that have arisen on the periphery into complex functional systems . This principle, in fact, ensures the integrative activity of the brain;
- - the principle of the somatotopic organization of the primary zones of the cerebral cortex, according to which strictly defined points of the cerebral cortex correspond to each part of the body (point to point).
- - the principle of the functional organization of the cortex, reflecting the relationship between the role of a function and its projection in the cerebral cortex: the more important this or that functional system is, the greater the area occupied by its projection in the primary sections of the cerebral cortex. An illustration of this principle are the well-known Penfield schemes; brain psyche neuroanatomical
- - the principle of progressive corticolization, the essence of which is that the higher an animal is on the evolutionary ladder, the more its behavior is regulated by the cortex and the more the differentiated nature of these regulations increases.
In addition, A.R. Luria pointed out that the formation of human mental activity goes from simple to more complex, mediated forms.
O.S. Adrianov, supplementing and developing the science of the brain, formulated two principles:
- - the principle of multilevel interaction of vertically organized pathways for conducting excitation, which makes it possible for various types of processing of afferent signals;
- - the principle of hierarchical subordination various systems brain, thanks to which the number of degrees of freedom of each system decreases and it becomes possible to control one level of the hierarchy by another.
E.D. Chomskaya, based on modern ideas about the basic principles of the organization of the brain as a substratum of the psyche, substantiates two basic principles of the theory of localization of higher mental functions:
- - the principle of systemic localization of functions (each mental function relies on complex interconnected structural and functional systems of the brain);
- - the principle of dynamic localization of functions (each mental function has a dynamic, changeable brain organization, which is different for different people and at different ages of their lives).
The main principles of the structural and functional organization of the brain outlined above are formulated on the basis of an analysis of neuroanatomical data.
