How a Human Brain Works in Saving New Words
HOW HUMAN BRAIN WORKS IN SAVING NEW WORDS
By: Mitsalina Ardini
1. Introduction We are learning about the brain at an unprecedented rate. Jeri Janowsky, a top learning and memory neuroscientist at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, says, “Anything you learned two years ago is already old information. . . . . Neuroscience is exploding”. In the coming years, we can expect new and more accurate technologies to further illuminate the brain’s mysteries. For now, the following are the “workhorses” of neuroscience. The adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1300-1400 grams). By comparison, a sperm whale brain weighs about 7800 grams, which is only about 6prcent of your own brain’s weight. Human have large brains relative to body weight. Close to the size of a large grapefruit or cantaloupe, it’s mostly water (78 percent), fat (10 percent), and protein (8 percent). A living brain is so soft it can be cut with a butter knife. From the outside, the brain’s most distinguishing features are its convolutions, or folds. These wrinkles are part of the cerebral cortex (Latin for “bark” or “rind”). The cerebral cortex is the orange-peel thick outer covering to maximize surface area (more cells per square inch). In fact, if it were laid out, the cortex would be about the size of an unfolded single page from a daily newspaper. Yet it is only a grapefruit-sized organ. Its importance can be attributed to the fact that it makes up critical portions of the nervous system, and its nerve cells are connected by nearly 1 million miles of nerve fibers. The human brain has the largest area of uncommitted cortex (no specific function identified so far) of any species on earth (Howard 1994). This gives humans extraordinary flexibility for learning. We have two cerebral hemispheres, the left and the right. They are connected by bundles of nerve fibers, the largest known as the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum has about 250 million nerve fibers. Patients in whom it
By: Mitsalina Ardini
1. Introduction We are learning about the brain at an unprecedented rate. Jeri Janowsky, a top learning and memory neuroscientist at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, says, “Anything you learned two years ago is already old information. . . . . Neuroscience is exploding”. In the coming years, we can expect new and more accurate technologies to further illuminate the brain’s mysteries. For now, the following are the “workhorses” of neuroscience. The adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1300-1400 grams). By comparison, a sperm whale brain weighs about 7800 grams, which is only about 6prcent of your own brain’s weight. Human have large brains relative to body weight. Close to the size of a large grapefruit or cantaloupe, it’s mostly water (78 percent), fat (10 percent), and protein (8 percent). A living brain is so soft it can be cut with a butter knife. From the outside, the brain’s most distinguishing features are its convolutions, or folds. These wrinkles are part of the cerebral cortex (Latin for “bark” or “rind”). The cerebral cortex is the orange-peel thick outer covering to maximize surface area (more cells per square inch). In fact, if it were laid out, the cortex would be about the size of an unfolded single page from a daily newspaper. Yet it is only a grapefruit-sized organ. Its importance can be attributed to the fact that it makes up critical portions of the nervous system, and its nerve cells are connected by nearly 1 million miles of nerve fibers. The human brain has the largest area of uncommitted cortex (no specific function identified so far) of any species on earth (Howard 1994). This gives humans extraordinary flexibility for learning. We have two cerebral hemispheres, the left and the right. They are connected by bundles of nerve fibers, the largest known as the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum has about 250 million nerve fibers. Patients in whom it