The human brain, this organ of soft nervous tissues does incredible things, acting as the power centre of the body. While we do realize its awesomeness, it does a few things that are not as easily visible, and thus go underappreciated.
While you are sleeping
While we are in REM sleep, the brain processes and performs incredible actions such as enabling us to take effective decisions by thoroughly analysing information. It creates new memories, consolidated old memories and enables us to create link-ups that help us learn better.
Physicians always say a full night’s sleep is essential for good health and weight loss. This is because in sleep the brain clears bodily toxins that protect us from neurodegenerative disorders.
Different aspects to the brain
The brain can be divided into multiple centres with each centre performing a distinct activity. For instance, the working memory is a critical area that helps us learn and take decisions. The brains function of emotional self-regulation helps us to control our emotional reflexes such as anger and frustration.
The incredible thing is that we can continue functioning, albeit with a disorder even if a single centre is affected, like in the case of Mr. Henry Molaison. He had a brain issue for which he had to undergo a radical operation that hasn’t been conducted again since. The doctor removed his temporal lobe to stop his seizure, and he succeeded in stopping his seizure.
However, the patient ended suffering a lifetime of anterograde amnesia. Although Mr. Molaison lived to the ripe old age of 85 years, for the rest of his life after the operation he could not create fresh memories.
Bumping the head
The bump on the head is always treated with caution because the brain is a sensitive organ that can be easily hurt and a bump can spiral off to create memory loss or even death due to haemorrhage.
However, in some strange cases people can acquire skills that they themselves will be unable to explain. In a hypnotic state a fat person can be made to do the perfect cartwheels.
The movie Shallow Hal is about a man who’s been hypnotized to see the inner beauty of those around him, so he sees physically ugly people as drop dead gorgeous or handsome as their personality reflects them to be. In real life, Robin Jenks Vanderlip developed a “foreign accent syndrome” after she fell down the staircase and hit her head. She suddenly started speaking with a Russian accent, an accent she was not even relatively acquainted with.
These are rare accidents, but they give us a glimpse of the immense storehouse the brain is and all that we can achieve if we regularly exercise it and try to keep it agile.