Brain Connections
The human brain is truly amazing. It weighs about three pounds, is about the size of two clinched fists, and has the texture of a ripe avocado. The brain has more connections than there are stars in the universe! If our brains are so amazing, then why do people have difficulty with memorizing and learning new concepts? Why is it so difficult for some people to learn to read? These questions and many more will be raised at this section of our web site. For now, let’s start out with a few fun facts! (Keep returning to this page for updated information)
Brain Fun Facts
The adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1,300-1,400 g).
The adult human brain is about 2% of the total body weight.
The elephant brain weighs about 6,000 g.
The cat brain weighs about 30 g.
The average human brain is 140 mm wide.
The average human brain is 167 mm long.
The average human brain is 93 mm high.
The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons.
The octopus brain has about 300 million neurons.
The total surface area of the cerebral cortex is about 2500 sq. cm (~2.5 ft)
The world record for time without sleep is 264 hours (11 days) by Randy Gardner in 1965.
Note:In Biopsychology (by J.P.J. Pinel, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000, p. 322), the record for time awake is attributed to Mrs. Maureen Weston. She apparently spent 449 hours (18 days, 17 hours) awake in a rocking chair. The Guinness Book of World Records [1990] has the record belonging to Robert McDonald who spent 453 hours, 40 min in a rocking chair.
Unconsciousness will occur after 8-10 seconds after loss of blood supply to the brain.
Neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons/minute during early pregnancy.
The weight of an adult human cerebellum is 150 g.
The total volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is 125-150 ml.
A total of 400-500 ml of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is produced every day.
Cerebrospinal fluid is normally clear and colorless.
There are 12 pairs of cranial nerves. There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves.
There are about 13,500,00 neurons in the human spinal cord.
The human spinal cord is 45 cm long in men and 43 cm long in women.
The total number of human taste buds (tongue, palate, cheeks) is about 10,000.
The total number of human olfactory receptor cells is about 40 million.
The human eyeball is about 24.5 mm long.
The total weight of skin in an average adult human is 6 lb.(2.7 kg).
There are 1,000 to 10,000 synapses for a "typical" neuron.
The cell bodies of neurons vary in diameter from 4 microns (granule cell) to 100 microns (motor neuron in cord).
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Source: Gateway to 21 Century Skills
A Colorful Suggestion
Years ago one of the teachers on my staff was talking about the difficult time that some of her students were having memorizing sight vocabulary. I asked about specific instructional strategies that were being used and the issue of flash cards surfaced. The typical manila rectangular flash cards were being used for review and practice.
Brain Note:
I told the teacher that I recalled reading two different articles on how the human brain processes information. One article referred to the fact that the developing brain recognizes the circle shape first.
Another article discussed how the color yellow registers the fastest on the retina of the human eye. Thus, the color yellow is processed faster via the neuronal connections from the retina to the visual cortex.
Wow! With these facts in mind; how about making flashcards that are round and yellow! The vocabulary words can be printed in bold black on the yellow background.
We have not conducted an official study to test this hypothesis yet; however, a number of teachers have told me that their students remember the vocabulary words better when using the yellow rounded flash cards. Possibly this could work for number facts, too.
It just might be worth a try!
Dr. Jim
Do you allow your students to doodle?
It is a fact that the human brain is a parallel processor. We can attend to multiple tasks...well; not always and it depends on the task, conditions, and the individual.
With all of that said...are there some types of activities that can actually facilitate working memory? How about doodling? Is this activity a bad thing or can it help us to pay attention and recall facts?
Consider the information that is contained in the following article that appeared in a recent issue of Health Day News:
Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.
"If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."
For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people's names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.
When the recording ended, all were asked for the eight names of those attending the party as well as eight place names mentioned in the audio. Those asked to doodle wrote down, on average, 7.5 names and places, while those who didn't doodle listed only 5.8.
"In psychology, tests of memory or attention will often use a second task to selectively block a particular mental process," Andrade said. "If that process is important for the main cognitive task, then performance will be impaired. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade."
In everyday life, Andrade said, doodling "may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."
Source: Health Day News, Feb. 27, 2009
Well; did this article help you to make up your mind about doodling in school?
Maybe you can do some action research on this topic. If you do; let us know what you conclude. Thanks!
Dr Jim
