Hygiene of the nervous system. Nervous System: Facts, Functions, Diseases The number of dreams depends on IQ

10 automatic actions of the nervous system- everything listed below is absolute facts, so read on.

Nervous system is a gigantic network of signal-transmitting neurons and connections between them. The majority of neurons—100 billion or so—are found in our brains (the spine is second, with about 1 billion neurons). Moreover, the brain contains more than one type of neurons, there are thousands of them, each with its own shape, functions and purposes.

The nervous system consists of two parts, each of which ultimately serves to propagate a signal between neurons:
1) The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord, and is the primary organ that controls messages in and out of the brain;

2) The peripheral nervous system represents the roads, streets and alleys of the main system. It connects the central nervous system to the rest of the body and has two parts: the somatic part (which sends messages back to the central nervous system) and the autonomic part (which controls organ function).

Below we will look at 10 main things that our nervous system processes automatically.
1. Sensory adaptation
Your five senses—touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell—deliver a large amount of sensory data to the brain for processing. The nervous system in this case serves to highlight the sensory information that is most important.

Special cells called mechanoreceptors play a critical role in this. If you touch and hold your finger on the clothes you are currently wearing, it won’t be long before you stop feeling anything. Since it does not cause pain, your nervous system stops reading and sending signals about this action. That is, the central nervous system calmed down, because the sensory receptors sent it a signal that everything was fine. However, by moving your finger to the side, you will again feel that you are wearing clothes, and what is the quality of the fabric from which it is sewn, however, after a few seconds you will again lose sensitivity.

Your nervous system doesn't pay much attention to meaningless, repetitive sounds or noise, such as the hum of a fluorescent light bulb or laptop computer. However, if any new noise appears, it will immediately attract your attention because it will disrupt the usual environment. Or if you come to stay with one of your friends, you will immediately notice the smell characteristic of every house, although he or she will claim that he or she does not smell anything.

2. Heartbeat, pulse and blood pressure
If you measure your heart rate while you sleep and then after you get up and start walking around the room, you will find that your heart rate will increase. But why is this happening?

Your nervous system controls the beat of your heart (about 100,000 beats per day), as well as the speed at which it beats and the force with which blood pumps into the arteries and veins in your body. Moreover, the work of the central nervous system should be appreciated: with every heartbeat, oxygen-enriched blood is delivered to every cell. When you sleep, your cells require less oxygen, so your nervous system knows to conserve those precious heartbeats. Because of this, the speed of beats and the force with which the heart beats slows down.

The nervous system closely monitors how much oxygen the cells receive, and it takes a few fractions of a second to adjust if they are not fully saturated. Although you can change your heart rate by changing your level of physical activity, it's actually your nervous system that makes all the adjustments. You simply “tell” her the need for more or less oxygen.

3. Sexual arousal and orgasm
The part of your brain responsible for emotions, sensations and thoughts plays a huge role in sexual arousal. Once "activated", they typically send a message to the hypothalamus, which then activates the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems then send a variety of signals to your body that increase your heart rate, increasing blood flow to the penis and clitoris. Increased blood flow to the vagina increases pressure on its walls, which provokes the production of lubrication. The nervous system constantly regulates the temperature of the scrotum, by strengthening or weakening its tissues depending on body temperature and the environment.

The sympathetic nervous system controls orgasm by increasing breathing, blood circulation, sweating and muscle contractions. After orgasm, the parasympathetic nervous system restores the normal state of the body.

Interestingly, other things stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, including exercise. One study found that women became more aroused after watching an erotic film if they had done some physical exercise beforehand. Anxiety also contributes to the appearance of arousal in women, but only on a physical level, that is, while the body is ready for sexual intercourse, the mind is less interested in this than usual.

4. Urination
When the nervous system instructs the digestive system to digest food, a waste product called urea remains in the blood after the process is complete. All blood circulates regularly through the kidneys, which separate out urea and other waste products. This waste, along with water, will be redirected to the bladder.

A person produces about 1.4 liters of urine per day. Your bladder can maximally hold less than a third of this amount (about 400 milliliters), although it is usually less, depending on physical size.

Your nervous system controls how full your bladder is during the day. The nerves connected to the spinal cord are “attached” to the detrusor muscles located in the wall of the bladder, as well as to the urethral sphincter muscles. For urination to occur, the detrusor muscles must be tense and the urethral sphincter muscles relaxed.

As it fills, the walls of the bladder stretch, which is reported to the brain. Fortunately, our nervous system temporarily limits the spinal cord reflexes that would cause immediate, involuntary urination. Instead, the person receives a signal that he needs to go to the bathroom. As with breathing, a person can control the process for a while, but not for too long. As time passes and your body demands more bladder space, your CNS gradually eases the restrictions on your reflexes.

5. Salivation
Probably, the first date would not have gone well if you and your partner, during dinner, before putting the next piece of food in your mouth, thought about activating the salivary glands.

Salivation is very important for digestion because it helps lubricate your mouth and esophagus, which is necessary for swallowing food. Saliva also initiates the process of breaking down food as soon as it enters the mouth. The production of saliva occurs in the salivary glands, and there are three types of glands that produce saliva of varying consistency (more or less liquid). Your autonomic nervous system controls both the amount and type of saliva you produce.

If you are anxious or scared about something, you may feel dry mouth. Instead of responding to your cries for help, your autonomic nervous system pulls fluid from wherever it can to redistribute it to more pressing needs during times of stress.

The dependence of saliva production on the nervous system was first demonstrated in the famous experiments with Pavlov's dog. It's also worth noting that when you're in a stressful situation, your saliva contains higher amounts of the stress hormone cortisol.

6. Digestion
In order for it to begin, food must be “broken down” into smaller components, which are subsequently used for the needs of the body. This is a surprisingly complex process, especially considering that all we consciously do is chew and swallow. The nervous system takes care of everything else.

The nerves that originate in the brain and spinal cord are called extrinsic nerves, and they are the ones that communicate with the digestive system on behalf of the nervous system. These nerves “call” adrenaline and acetylcholine to work:

Acetylcholine causes your digestive tract to contract, allowing food to move. This chemical also causes the stomach and pancreas to produce more stomach acid;

Adrenaline completes the process, relaxes the muscles of the digestive system, and ends the production of gastric juice. This is very paradoxical, since adrenaline also takes part in stressful situations, as far as we know, it is what makes the body work at increased speed.

Internal nerves are located directly in the tissues of the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine. They respond by stretching and releasing chemicals that regulate the rate of digestion and the release of digestive juices. These intrinsic nerves form their own nervous system, containing a similar number of neurons to the spinal cord.

7. Adrenaline and stress
Although our autonomic nervous system most often does everything right, sometimes unforeseen situations occur, one of them is its reaction in times of stress (adrenaline release, etc.). However, this gives us the opportunity to perform superhuman feats, but at the same time, we can often perceive, for example, public speaking as an existential threat.

When we experience stress or anxiety, we experience heightened anxiety, which can include shaking, dry mouth, sweating, and even distorting our vision. Although we often associate this feeling with a state of fear or vulnerability, in fact, in such moments we are completely ready to take decisive action.

This condition is caused by the action of the adrenal glands, two tiny glands located just above the kidneys. Some neurons located in these glands function as part of the sympathetic nervous system. When a person is faced with an emergency, the nervous system asks the adrenal glands to release some adrenaline into the blood.

This hormone provokes the rapid entry into force of many changes:
- heartbeat becomes faster and stronger, which increases blood pressure;
- blood sugar levels increase;
- a redistribution of resources occurs, which contributes to faster blood clotting;
- the pupils dilate, which allows you to see the threat in full;
- the bronchi expand, as they prepare the body to consume oxygen in the maximum amount.

When the threat is eliminated, the adrenal glands are given a signal to stop releasing adrenaline, and they produce another hormone that neutralizes all the consequences.

8. Breathing and lung function
If you think it's hard to constantly remember to remove a cup of coffee from the dashboard of your car before driving off, then you should be glad that you don't have to remember to breathe every few seconds. so as not to die.

It’s not that your nervous system “considers” you to be completely irresponsible, no, because breathing is one of those things that the central nervous system monitors, however, to a certain extent, sometimes a person can direct this process. However, boredom, which will certainly overcome you if you monitor your breathing regularly, will force you to entrust this task again to the nervous system.

You can try to suppress your breathing, but you will have limited success with this. Your nervous system has posted sentinels to monitor the level of carbon dioxide in your blood. If these specialized cells, known as peripheral chemoreceptors, don't like what they see, they immediately send a signal to the brain. Having received the appropriate signals, the brain instructs the diaphragm and other muscles associated with this process to actively contract. Satisfied that carbon dioxide levels have decreased, the chemoreceptors calm down until the next time.

Your lungs, however, contain another group of sentinels. If these receptors feel like the lungs are being overtaxed, they will ask the brain for approval to help them. But, in truth, all these messages can be nothing more than a game of broken telephone, so this confusion in signals often leads to a disordered form of breathing - hiccups.

9. Pupil dilation
If you've ever stared at a light bulb for a long time before abruptly turning it off, you've undoubtedly experienced a brief period of visual disorientation immediately afterwards while your eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings. After a minute or so, you see much less light, but you see much more clearly. We take many things for granted, and one of them is our ability to see.

In order for a person to see, light must first enter the pupil, which is approximately 3-5 millimeters in diameter. The amount of light that enters the pupil is of great importance for the quality of our vision. For example, too much light on a sunny day will blind us, too little light in a darkened room will cause us to have difficulty seeing certain things.

Our nervous system constantly monitors the amount of light entering our eyes. It also monitors how effective a given amount of light is in helping us see certain objects. When it is dark, our pupils dilate to “let in” more light, perhaps thereby improving our vision of our surroundings; when there is a lot of light, our pupils, on the contrary, constrict to limit light exposure to the eyes.

If you want to clearly see the work of your autonomic nervous system, go to the mirror, close your eyes and open them after a while, so you will see the changes that have occurred in your pupils.

10. Sweating
Nobody thanks the nervous system after they feel like they're sweating profusely. However, if it weren't for your body's ability to take action during extreme heat, each of those hot days could result in a fatal heatstroke.

Without any help from you, your body diligently maintains water balance in every cell and maintains the required temperature. When it needs to release some heat, it does so in the form of sweating through 2.6 million sweat glands. We always sweat, although sweat (a mixture of water, chlorine, sodium and potassium) is often reabsorbed by the sweat glands before it reaches the surface of the skin.

So it is simply water evaporating from the surface of the skin that removes excess heat from the body. But what if this excess heat is not there? The nervous system still prepares your body for possible sudden increases in temperature.

The importance of the state of the nervous system for the normal functioning of the body. The human nervous system functions continuously day and night. The coordinated work of organ systems is carried out under the constant influence of the nervous system. With any reflex, excitation is carried out to the cerebral cortex. Numerous reflexes, unconditioned and conditioned, constantly ensure the interaction of our body with the environment. Distinction between stimuli perceived by different receptors is carried out in the cerebral cortex.
The complex nervous processes occurring in the human brain are the basis of its conscious activity, which manifests itself in all aspects of social life. Any human work - in production, in various fields of science, culture, art, teaching at school and other educational institutions - is associated with manifestations of higher nervous activity, ranging from the simplest conditioned reflexes to complex thought processes. Therefore, with any type of human activity, fatigue develops mainly in the central nervous system.
The normal functioning of the body largely depends on the state of the central nervous system and especially the brain. That is why overwork of the central nervous system leads to disruption of a number of vital functions of the body, leading to a sharp decrease or even loss of ability to work.
The development of fatigue in the central nervous system is largely delayed by the processes of inhibition that constantly occur in it.
The protective role of inhibition. Inhibition is one of the body's defense mechanisms. It prevents the rapid increase in fatigue in the central nervous system.
You already know that the occurrence of strong excitation in any part of the central nervous system causes the development of inhibition in other parts of it. Excitation does not pass through the inhibited areas, and during this time they restore their performance.
But if a person does not follow the rules of hygiene, then inhibition in the central nervous system can cause harm to it. For example, some people talk and read while eating. These extraneous stimuli cause inhibition of unconditioned and conditioned food reflexes.” Then the secretion of digestive juices weakens, the wave-like contractions of the esophagus and intestines become sluggish. All this greatly stimulates the digestive processes.
Physical hygiene. Physical labor usually involves prolonged work of the same muscle groups. Therefore, certain areas of the central nervous system that regulate the activity of these muscles remain in a state of excitation for a long time. Over time, they begin to develop fatigue. To prevent excessive fatigue, it is useful to carry out industrial exercises during breaks in work. During its execution, the main load is transferred to those muscles that are little involved in the work, which leads to the excitation of new areas of the brain. In those parts of it that were excited during work, inhibition develops. During this time they restore their performance.
Nowadays, mechanization and automation of labor-intensive processes are being widely introduced into production, which makes the work of workers easier. In those sectors of the economy where production has not yet been fully mechanized, the rationalization of labor becomes of great importance. As a result of rationalization, unnecessary movements of workers are eliminated and a favorable rhythm of work of various muscle groups is established. This rhythm provides alternate excitement! and inhibition of areas of the brain that regulate muscle function at a pace beneficial to the nervous system. This helps prevent her from becoming overburdened.
Hygiene of mental work. Mental work is associated with the activity of a huge number of cortical cells that participate in complex processes that determine thinking. Prolonged mental work causes an increase in fatigue in the central nervous system. Inhibition in it begins to prevail over excitation. During mental work, inflamed areas of the central nervous system need rest. A good means of such rest is gymnastics or other physical activity during breaks from work. Classes in educational workshops and at the school site not only prepare us for future work, but also prevent the development of fatigue in the central nervous system. In those areas of the brain that were excited during classroom lessons, inhibition develops. Physical education lessons at school and five-minute breaks for gymnastics in institutions have the same importance.
The alternation of physical and mental labor is of paramount importance to protect the human central nervous system from increasing fatigue.

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The brain is still the most mysterious organ of the human body, the best minds of humanity have been struggling to unravel the principles of its operation for more than a hundred years. Without a doubt, scientists have managed to reach unprecedented heights of knowledge, but there is still a huge number of disparate facts that can contradict each other, interfering with the formation of a harmonious system.

We will not join the large camp of scientists working on the mystery - no, let's just remember interesting facts that not a very large number of people know about.

1. The brain is the leader in energy consumption in our body. Indeed, although the percentage of brain mass to total body mass is only 2%, 15% of the heart “works” on it, and the brain itself consumes more than 20% of the oxygen captured by the lungs. It’s really true - “if you love to ride, you also love to carry a sled.” To deliver oxygen to the brain, three large arteries work, which are intended exclusively for its constant replenishment.

2. The brain is almost fully developed by the age of seven. Scientists confirm that about 95% of brain tissue is finally organized by the age of seven, forming a completely complete organ. By the way, it is precisely because of the rapid development of the brain that the energy consumption of the nervous system of a two-year-old child is twice as high as the energy consumption of the nervous system of an adult. By the way, men have more brains than women - but this does not mean that men are smarter (let's pay tribute to feminism, this is indeed true). By the way, an interesting fact is also the difference in the size of various areas in the brains of men and women.

3. Despite the huge number of nerve endings (in fact, the entire brain is one large nerve ending), our brain is not able to feel pain. The thing is that there are no pain receptors in the brain at all: why would they be if the destruction of the brain leads to the death of the body? There is no need for pain here, nature decided correctly. True, pain is felt by the membrane in which our brain is enclosed. This is why we so often feel different types of headaches - it all depends on the nature of the membrane and the physiological characteristics of our body.

4. A person uses almost all the resources of his brain. There is one myth of unknown origin, according to which the brain works at only 10% - however, this myth appeared at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a couple of inaccurate laboratory experiments. How could scientists of the early 20th century even count the number of neurons involved in their work? Of course not. But modern scientists have conducted relevant experiments many times, which have shown that we almost completely use the resources of the brain.

5. Brain cells are restored. The opposite statement is the result of another myth, which is also over 100 years old. Nerve cells in the brain do regenerate, although not as quickly as the cells in our body. Indeed, if cells did not regenerate, how would people recover from traumatic brain injuries? The synapses that serve as “bridges” between brain cells are indeed restored—and so are the neurons themselves. Interestingly, alcoholism, contrary to many years of claims, does not kill neurons in the brain - but synapses do die. It is clear that with the destruction of brain connections, the thought process begins to “slow down”, and then generally barely smolders

We will not join the large camp of scientists working on the mystery - no, let's just remember interesting facts that not a very large number of people know about.

1. The brain is the leader in energy consumption in our body. Indeed, although the percentage of brain mass to total body mass is only 2%, 15% of the heart “works” on it, and the brain itself consumes more than 20% of the oxygen captured by the lungs. It’s really true - “if you love to ride, you also love to carry a sled.” To deliver oxygen to the brain, three large arteries work, which are intended exclusively for its constant replenishment.

2. The brain is almost fully developed by the age of seven.. Scientists confirm that about 95% of brain tissue is finally organized by the age of seven, forming a completely complete organ. By the way, it is precisely because of the rapid development of the brain that the energy consumption of the nervous system of a two-year-old child is twice as high as the energy consumption of the nervous system of an adult. By the way, men have more brains than women - but this does not mean that men are smarter (let's pay tribute to feminism, this is indeed true). By the way, an interesting fact is also the difference in the size of various areas in the brains of men and women.

4. A person uses almost all the resources of his brain. There is one myth of unknown origin, according to which the brain works at only 10% - however, this myth appeared at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a couple of inaccurate laboratory experiments. How could scientists of the early 20th century even count the number of neurons involved in their work? Of course not. But modern scientists have conducted relevant experiments many times, which have shown that we almost completely use the resources of the brain.

5. Brain cells are restored. The opposite statement is the result of another myth, which is also over 100 years old. Nerve cells in the brain do regenerate, although not as quickly as the cells in our body. Indeed, if cells did not regenerate, how would people recover from traumatic brain injuries? The synapses that serve as “bridges” between brain cells are indeed restored—and so are the neurons themselves. Interestingly, alcoholism, contrary to many years of claims, does not kill neurons in the brain - but synapses do die. It is clear that with the destruction of brain connections, the thought process begins to “slow down”, and then generally barely smolders.

We talked about this with the head of the confocal microscopy division of the Institute. Weizmann (Israel), Professor Eduard Korkotyan.

1. Even babies lose nerve cells.

How many neurons (nerve cells) are there in the human brain? We have about 85 billion of them. For comparison, a jellyfish has only 800, a cockroach has a million, and an octopus has 300 million.

Many people believe that nerve cells die only in old age, but most of them are lost by us in childhood, when the process of natural selection occurs in the child’s head.

Like in the jungle, the most efficient and fittest survive among the neurons.

If a nerve cell is idle without work, its self-destruction mechanism turns on.

Entire networks of neurons in a baby's brain are fighting for existence. They solve the same pressing problems with different speeds and different efficiency, answer countless questions, like teams of experts in the game “What, where, when?”

Having lost in a fair fight, weak teams are eliminated, making room for the winners. It's neither good nor bad, it's normal. This is the harsh but necessary process of natural selection in the brain - neuroDarwinism.

2. There are billions of neurons.

There is an opinion that each nerve cell is the simplest element of memory, like one bit of information in a computer’s memory. Simple calculations show that in this case, the cortex of our brain would contain only 1-2 gigabits or no more than 250 megabytes of memory, which in no way corresponds to the volume of words, knowledge, concepts, images and other information that we possess. Of course, there are a huge number of neurons, but there are certainly not enough of them to accommodate it all. Each neuron is an integrator and carrier of many memory elements - synapses.

3. Genius is not dependent on brain size

The human brain weighs approximately 1200 - 1400 grams. Einstein's brain, for example, at 1,230 g, is not the largest. The brain of an elephant is almost four times larger, the largest brain of a sperm whale is 6800 grams. It's not a matter of mass.

What is the difference between the brain of a genius and an ordinary person? You can never tell by the cover of a book or by the number of pages whether it came from the pen of a master or a graphomaniac. By the way, there are some very smart people among criminals. For assessment, completely different units of measurement are needed, which do not yet exist. But in general, the power of the brain depends on the number of synaptic contacts (the brain does not consist of neurons alone, it contains a huge number of auxiliary cells. It is crossed by large and small blood vessels, and in the center of the brain there are four so-called cerebral ventricles filled with cerebrospinal fluid. ..).

The main intellectual power of the brain is the neurons of its cortex. The density of synaptic contacts between neurons is especially important, and not physical weight. After all, we won’t determine the speed of a computer by its weight in kilograms.

According to this indicator, the brains of animals, even higher primates, are significantly smaller than humans. We lose to animals in running speed, in strength and endurance, in the ability to climb trees... Actually, in everything except intelligence.

Thinking, consciousness is what distinguishes humans from animals. Then the question arises: why shouldn’t a person acquire an even more capacious brain?

The limiting factor is human anatomy itself. The size of our brain is, after all, determined by the size of a woman's birth canal, who will not be able to give birth to a child with a head that is too large. In a sense, we are prisoners of our own construction. And in this sense, a person cannot become significantly smarter unless one day he changes himself.

4. Many diseases can be treated by introducing new genes into nerve cells.

Genetics is an incredibly successful science. We have learned not only to study genes, but also to create new ones and reprogram them. So far these are only experiments on animals, and they are going more than successfully. The time is approaching when many diseases can be cured by introducing new or modified genes into cells. Are experiments being carried out on humans? Secret laboratories only exist in science fiction films. Such scientific manipulations are only feasible in large scientific centers and require a lot of effort. Concerns about unauthorized hacking of the human genome are currently unfounded.

5. Does a person use only a fraction of the capabilities of his brain? It is a myth.

For some reason, many people believe that a person uses only a small part of the capabilities of his brain (say, 10, 20, and so on percent). It's hard to say where this strange myth came from. You shouldn't believe in him. Experiments show that nerve cells that are not involved in brain function die.

Nature is rational and economical. Nothing is put aside in it just in case, in reserve. It is unprofitable and simply harmful for living beings to keep “idlers” in their brains. We don't have any extra cells.

6. Nerve cells are restored.

A few years ago, a very famous patient died at the age of 83, American Henry Mollison. Even in his youth, doctors, in order to save his life, completely removed the hippocampus (from the Greek - seahorse), which was the source of epilepsy, from the brain. The result was difficult and unexpected. The patient lost the ability to remember anything. He remained a completely normal person and could carry on a conversation. But as soon as you walked out the door for just a few minutes, he perceived you as a complete stranger. Every morning for decades, Mollison had to re-learn the world in that part of it, what the world became after the operation (the patient remembered everything that preceded the operation). So, by chance, it was found that the hippocampus is responsible for the formation of new memory. In the hippocampus, the restoration of nerve cells (neurogenesis) occurs relatively intensively. But the importance of neurogenesis should not be overestimated; its contribution is still small.

The point is not that the body maliciously wants to harm itself. The central nervous system is like a complex network of fibers, like an intertwined ball of wires. It would not be difficult for the body to create a new nerve cell. However, the network itself has long been formed. How can a new cell integrate into it without creating interference? This could be done if there was an engineer in the brain who could sort out the tangle of “wires”. Unfortunately, there is no such position in the brain. Therefore, it is difficult to restore brain cells to replace lost ones. The layered structure of the cerebral cortex helps a little; it helps new cells integrate into the right place. Thanks to this, a slight restoration of nerve cells still exists.

7. How one part of the brain saves another

Ischemic stroke of the brain is a serious disease. It is associated with blockage of the blood vessels supplying blood. Brain tissue is extremely sensitive to oxygen starvation and quickly dies around the clogged vessel. If the affected area is not in one of the vital centers, the person survives, but may partially lose mobility or speech. However, after a long time (sometimes months, years), the lost function is partially restored. If there are no more neurons, then why is this happening? It is known that the cerebral cortex has a symmetrical structure. All its structures are divided into two halves, left and right, but only one of them is affected. Over time, one can notice the slow growth of neuron processes from the preserved structure into the damaged one. The shoots miraculously find the right path and partially compensate for the resulting deficiency. The exact mechanisms of this process remain unknown. If we learn to manage and regulate the recovery process, this will not only help in the treatment of strokes, but will also reveal one of the biggest mysteries of the brain.

8. Once upon a time the left hemisphere won over the right

The cerebral cortex, as we all know, consists of two hemispheres. They are asymmetrical. As a rule, the left is more important. The brain is designed so that the right side controls the left side of the body, and vice versa. That is why most people have a dominant right hand, controlled by the left hemisphere. There is a peculiar division of labor between the two hemispheres. The left is responsible for thinking, consciousness and speech. It is what thinks logically and performs mathematical operations. Speech is not just a tool of communication, not only a way to convey thoughts. To understand a phenomenon or object, we absolutely need to name it. For example, by designating a class with the abstract concept “9a,” we save ourselves from the need to list all the students every time. Abstract thinking is characteristic of humans, and only to a small extent - of some animals. It incredibly speeds up and enhances thinking, so speech and thinking are in some sense very close concepts.

The right hemisphere is responsible for pattern recognition and emotional perception. It can hardly speak. How is this known? Epilepsy “helped”. Usually the disease nests in only one hemisphere, but can spread to the second. In the 60s of the last century, doctors thought about whether it was possible to cut the connections between both hemispheres in order to save the patient’s life. Several such operations were carried out. When the natural connection between the left and right hemispheres is interrupted in patients, the researcher has the opportunity to “talk” with each of them separately. It was found that the right hemisphere has a very limited vocabulary. It can be expressed in simple phrases, but abstract thinking is inaccessible to the right hemisphere. The tastes and views on life of the two hemispheres can differ greatly and even enter into obvious contradictions.

Animals do not have speech centers, and therefore no obvious asymmetry of their hemispheres has been identified.

There is a hypothesis that several thousand years ago the hemispheres of the human brain were quite equal. Psychologists believe that the "voices" so often mentioned in ancient sources were nothing more than the voice of the right hemisphere, and not a metaphor or artistic device.

How did it happen that the left hemisphere became dominant? With the development of thinking and speech, one of the hemispheres simply had to “win” and the other “give in”, because dual power within one person is irrational. For some reason, the victory went to the left hemisphere, but there are often people who, on the contrary, are dominant in the right hemisphere.

9. The right hemisphere has the vocabulary of a child, but the imagination is cooler

The most important function of the right hemisphere is the perception of visual images.

Let's imagine a picture hanging on the wall. Now let’s mentally draw it into squares and begin to gradually paint them randomly. The details of the picture will begin to disappear, but quite a lot of time will pass before we cease to understand what exactly is depicted in the picture.

Our consciousness has an amazing ability to recreate a picture from individual fragments.

In addition, we see a dynamic, moving world, almost like in a movie. The film is not presented to us in the form of separate changing frames, but is perceived in constant motion.

Another amazing ability that we are endowed with is the ability to see the world in three dimensions. A completely flat picture does not seem flat at all.

Through the power of imagination alone, the right hemisphere of our brain gives depth to a picture.

10. The brain begins to “age” after 20 years

The main task of the brain is to assimilate life experiences. Unlike hereditary traits, which remain unchanged throughout life, the brain is capable of learning and remembering. However, it is not dimensionless and at some point it may simply become full, so that there will be no more free space in memory. In this case, the brain will begin to erase old “files”. But this runs the serious danger of erasing something important for the sake of some nonsense. To prevent this from happening, evolution has found a curious way out.

Until the age of 18-20, the brain actively and indiscriminately absorbs any information. Having successfully reached these years, which in the past were considered a respectable age, the brain gradually changes its strategy from memorizing to preserving what has been learned, so as not to expose the accumulated knowledge to the danger of accidental erasure. This process occurs slowly and systematically throughout the life of each of us. The brain becomes more and more conservative. Therefore, over the years it becomes more and more difficult for him to master new things, but the acquired knowledge is reliably consolidated.

This process is not a disease; it is difficult and even almost impossible to fight. And this is another argument in favor of how important it is to study at a young age, when learning is easy. But there is good news for older people too. Not all brain properties weaken over the years. Vocabulary, the number of abstract images, the ability to think rationally and sensibly are not lost and even continue to grow.

Where a young, inexperienced mind gets confused trying to think through different options, an older brain will quickly find an effective solution thanks to a better thinking strategy. By the way, the more educated a person is, the more he trains his brain, the less likely he is to have brain diseases.

11. The brain cannot be hurt

The brain is devoid of any sensitive nerve endings, so it is neither hot nor cold, nor ticklish, nor painful. This is understandable, given that it is protected better than any other organ from the influences of the external environment: it is not easy to get to. The brain every second receives accurate and varied information about the state of the most remote corners of its body, knows about any needs, and is endowed with the right to satisfy them or postpone them for later. But the brain does not feel itself in any way: when we have a headache, it is only a signal from the pain receptors of the meninges.

12. Healthy food for the brain

Like all organs of the body, the brain needs energy sources and building materials. It is sometimes said that the brain is powered exclusively by glucose. Indeed, about 20% of all glucose is consumed by the brain, but it, like any other organ, needs a full range of nutrients. Whole proteins never enter the brain; before doing so, they are broken down into individual amino acids. The same goes for complex lipids, which are digested into fatty acids such as omega-3 or omega-6. Some vitamins, such as C, penetrate the brain independently, while others such as B6 or B12 are carried by conductors.

You should be careful when eating foods rich in zinc, such as oysters, peanuts, and watermelon seeds. There is a hypothesis that zinc accumulates in the brain and over time can lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Many nutrients especially important for the brain, such as vitamins D3, B12, creatine, carnosine, omega-3, are found only in meat, fish and eggs. Therefore, it is difficult to call vegetarianism, which is now fashionable, beneficial for brain cells.

Hygiene of the nervous system. Nervous System: Facts, Functions, Diseases The number of dreams depends on IQ

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