25 Facts about Your Gray Matter You Should Know

25 Facts about Your Gray Matter You Should Know

Our mind assumes a part in all that we do, from composing a poem to scratching the ear, yet we do not invest much energy in our everyday schedule considering what’s truly going up there. While we generally may not be aware of it, our mind is a bustling organ, putting away recollections, giving us a chance to feel agony and delight and responding with lightning velocity to everlasting jolts, all while keeping the fundamental substantial frameworks running easily. Regardless of the possibility that we are not majoring in the organic sciences, our brain has got some reflex actions that works wonder. The activities or the information about our cerebrum may very well inspire us to give it the regard.

1. The main constituent of brain is the water: Human brain is filled up with a jelly-like substance and liquid all over. The brain is covered by almost 70 percent to 80 percent water. This water comes from the blood which moves through the arteries of the brain after every 4 minutes.
2. The maximum neurons are in the cerebellum: Most of the neurons are found in cerebellum instead of the fact that it occupies only 10 percent of the brain. Maximum of 100 billion neurons are in cerebellum which is due to the tiny granule cells found in this region.
3. The neocortex contributes to the maximum weight of the brain: Cerebellum might have most of the neurons but neocortex consists of 76 percent of brain’s mass. It is responsible for controlling consciousness and language. The structure is much similar to human ancestors.
4. The left hemisphere has more neurons: The brain is not symmetrical when it comes to the distribution of neurons. The right hemisphere contains about 186 million neurons less than the left. The language skills and right-handedness are to the dominant left hemisphere.
5. The brain is filled up with oxygen: The brain is totally an oxygenoholic where oxygen is the main requirement in the body. This oxygen splits up between gray and white matter where gray matter takes up about 94 percent of the total oxygen present in the brain.
6. Most of the energy in a body is used up by the brain: The brain needs the energy to send electrical impulses, cell maintenance, and reflex actions. Our brain uses 20 percent of the total energy and 25 percent of total glucose formed in a body.
7. Brain starts to shrink after an age of 30: The mass of the brain starts to shrink as one reaches in their 30s.
8. A number of cells remain constant irrespective of its size: the brain grows in full size at the age of six. No matter what is the size of the brain, the number of cells stays the same.
9. The fat brain indicates that it is healthy: No one wants extra fat in their body but when it comes to the brain it is good. The fat tissues in the brain play a vital role in insulating neurons and to transmit messages to the brain and the body.
10. No pain in the brain: Despite the pain that we generally suffer an injury the brain itself does not feel the pain because of its pain receptors. Therefore the brain surgery is also possible to perform on people in their consciousness.
11. More than 10 percent of the brains are used by humans: The brain is mainly used to think, function and remember. There are times when we use more than 10 percent when it is functioning.
12. The brain also has super computational power: If our brain were built by electronic circuits then it would have been the best computer. The brain has receptors which process 10-16 operations per second.
13. The capacity of short-term memory is low: The low limit of short-term memory is the reason why people tend to forget so fast.
14. Brain consists of 40 percent gray matter and 60 percent white matter: People often think that the gray matter is more than the white matter but this is not true. White matter is responsible for the infrastructure and contains nerve axons with a layer of fat called myelin for protection where the gray matter is made up of neurons. Scientists have shown that white matter plays an active role and affects how it learns and the dysfunctioning of the brain.
15. Eyeballs are connected to the brain: Eyeballs are an extension of the human brain. If we try removing brain the eyeballs will also come out because the eyes are connected to the brain through the nerve fibers which is responsible for vision. The Structure of Eye consists of optic nerves which are directly associated with our brain.
16. It takes very less time to lose consciousness: Due to the loss of flow to the brain even in 10 seconds people might lose consciousness.
17. The color of gray matter is not gray: Gray matter is pink in color due to the flow of blood while a person is alive. After death, the brain turns into a grayish color.
18. The human brain is not fixed in the skull: The brain always floats in a cerebrospinal fluid which is mainly responsible for the protection and acts as a cushion.
19. The brain does not always interpret right things: It is an amazing organ but it does make mistakes in interpreting visual things. Many times our brain fails to recognize right colors.
20. Brains occupy a large surface area: Instead of the fact that the brain is folded and in a smaller package, the surface area is huge because of its expanding neurons.
21. One cell is connected to 25000 other cells: Each cell in the brain is linked with other cells of range 25000. When there are 100 million cells then there are too many connections.
22. Intelligence does not depend on sizes: The size of the brain is not an indicative of more intelligence. The structure of the brain is important.
23. A Lot of neurons are lost where new ones are also gained: Human brain loses about 100000 neurons each day where hippocampus replaces those old nerve cells with the new ones.
24. The brain works in deep sleep: We often think that when we sleep brain also rests but this is not the case brain recollects the information that we have come across the whole day and restores them for a longer duration. In short, brain stays busy when we sleep.
25. Brain can produce energy to power a 25 watt light bulb: The human brain is a powerful energy resource where enough energy is produced by the brain.

Our brains are one of the complex and probably a fascinating organ on the globe. These amazing facts about the gray matter help us to think that how small organs can do wonders. The NCERT books have the detail of how the brain works which helps the students to gain more knowledge.

About the author:

With a degree in Engineering, Shreyaa Banerjee is a content writer by profession. She is a voracious reader apart from writing and blogging along with part-time teaching. She is presently exploring all about the digital education with Byju’s-the Learning App.

Email_id: shreyaa.banerjee@byjus.com