65 Brain Facts - ctp - corporate training programmes

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Whether brain development, neurons, your brain cells or your brain in business – the. 65 facts are here. Pages 2-7. Ne
leading brains

2012

65 Brain Facts Some interesting things you may, or may not, need to know

A brief journey into the brain Facts, trivia and just some plain interesting things about the brain This is a small present, for New Year, to all my clients, colleagues, business partners, supporters, fans, and plain simply anyone I know. I have compiled a small list of interesting information about the brain split into different areas. You may ask why 65? That is indeed a good question and the answer is simple: no deep philosophical roots or hidden meanings, it is simply the amount of

tips that fitted in! Which means next year I will also be able to fit in another 65. With this I wish you all healthy brains in 2012 but more than that I wish you successful brains, happy brains and with that a fulfilling and enriching year ahead of you.

Andy Habermacher

65 Facts

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Whether brain development, neurons, your brain cells or your brain in business – the 65 facts are here.

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Brain Development 1. The first signs of the nervous system develop around day 21 in the embryo. 2. At times the brain cells are being produced at 250,000 per minute 3. The cells are produced around, the neural tube in the primitive developing brain in the womb. There is then a great neuronal migration whereby all the neurons crawl along glial cells to their final destination. 4. Once neurons have reached their destination they reach out and start connecting. This process broadly under the name of neuroplasticity can continue all your life. 5. The brain has now been genetically mapped. Different regions are differently influenced by your genetic expression.

Neurons: the myterious butterflies of the soul. fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) has, more than any other technique, been responsible for the sheer amount of knowledge that we have of the brain and how it functions – yet many claim we have but scratched the surface.

6. The first few months of life are characterised by cell death, and not growth, as the brain prunes its connections to those that it really needs. Only about half of your brain cells will survive with you till adulthood. 7. The number of connections is also reduced as the brain starts to use only those that are important and slowly prunes way superfluous connections. Babies technically speaking have more connected brains than adults!

Brain Cells (Neurons) 8. There are 100 billion neurons, brain cells, in the brain. 9. Each brain cell has on average 1000 connections, synapses which makes 100 trillion connections (synapses). 10. The amount of possible connections, in theory, in the brain, exceeds the mount of atoms in the universe. 11. The brain has different types of neurons. These are classed according to shape position in the brain, or their reaction to various chemical transmitters. 12. The biggest neurons are in the hippocampus, our memory consolidation units sitting deep in the brain. 13. The grey brain cells are so called because after being conserved the outer layer of the brain, the cerebral cortex, appears grey in colour. In real life it is pink because the 2

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Magical beauty and fathomless complexity Nor less I deem that there are Powers / Which of themselves our minds impress; That we can feed this mind of ours / In a wise passiveness – William Wordsworth Brain Cells (Neurons) continued ... blood is still active. 14. We have a collection of neurons called mirror neurons that mirror other’s actions. i.e. activate in our brain as we watch other people. 15. The brain has an additional 100 billion or more glial cells which are supportive cells for the brain. These can also communicate. 16. Cells themselves can learn independently: they habituate to the same impulses or can become conditioned. 17. The theory of the neuron was developed around 1900. 18. Cajal was the first person to accurately draw neurons around 1900 – his drawings are still compellingly accurate.

19. A nerve cell can fire at up to 200 times a second. 20. Brain cells communicate with minute electrical impulses generated through chemicals. 21. Nerve impulses can travel at up to 360 km/h. 22. The length of all our nerve cells is 780,000 km. 23. The neurons do not actually touch each other. There is a gap at the so-called synapse (a junction). Chemicals are secreted to jump across this gap and dock into another neuron and continue the electrical stimulus.

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Brain Size & Power 24. The brain weighs on average 1.3 kg. 25. On average 1200 litres of blood pass through the brain each day. 26. On average the brain consumes 80 litres of oxygen a day. 27. The human brain and process 20 trillion steps in a second and uses 20 watts for this. The super computer BlueGene can do 1 trillion but needs 2.2 megawatts. 28. The brain is 2% of body weight but uses 25% of its body resources. 29. The heaviest measured brain so far weighed 2.3 kg. 30. Women’s brains are generally smaller than men’s (by on average 138 g) – this is because of differences in body size. 31. The size of the unfolded outer cortex (the outer wrinkly layer) is about the size of an average dining table. 30. The brain uses glucose as energy. 31. The brain of the pot whale is the biggest in the animal kingdom – a stately 9 kg. 32. Otto von Bismarck had a large brain weighing in at 1.807 kg. 33. If all the neurons in the brain were laid out next to each other they would cover 25,000 m2.

History of brain science 34. Stone age man obviously did primitive brain operations – trepanation: drilling holes in the skull to relieve pressure from brain injury. 35. The Egyptians seem to have had some primitive knowledge of the brain and disorders. 36. Aristotle thought the heart was the seat of consciousness – see box below. 37. In the 19th century knowledge of the brain increased. Based on observations of patients discovered after death to have brain tumours various regions were identified with various functions: Broca’s area in the left hemisphere for language production and Wernicke’s

Aristotle and the brain Aristotle despite his clarity in thinking on many topics believed, as did most others at the time, that the heart was the seat of consciousness and of intelligence. Some had noted the proximity of the sensory organs to the brain but the brain had no obvious function. Aristotle believed that it was merely a mechanism for cooling the

blood. If you had a runny nose this was the “cooling fluid“ dripping out of the brain. As humorous as it sounds it shows how hard it is to fathom intelligence. Recent research has, however, shown that the heart also has its own neural network. Indeed that your heart’s beating can influence your brain wave patterns. So maybe Aristotle wasn’t so far from the truth after all. 4

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Brain regions 45. The top of the spinal cord is a part of the brain (the Pons). 46. Some functions, e.g. running are coordinated in the spinal cord not in the brain.

area, also in the left hemisphere, for the comprehension of language. 38. The case of Phineas Gage, in the middle of the 19th century, has become well reported in popular literature. Gage had a metal rod blasted through his skull in an accident (see picture above) and survived merely losing an eye and various parts of his frontal lobes! 39. In the 19th century the brain as the seat of consciousness was rejected by the Church, as they believed the mind was God given. 40. Mapping of neurons began around 1900 and the theory of the neuron was then first proposed. 41. The electrical signalling in neurons was first formulated in the 1950s.

47. The brain stem at the top of the spinal cord is the oldest part of the brain, evolutionary speaking, and is responsible for primitive reactions and living functions such as controlling heartbeat, body temperature and breathing. 48. The dissected brain has a big chunk of so-called white matter. These are not brain cells but rather the connections between brain cells in the outer cortex and other parts of the brain. It is white because the coating of these axons are covered in what is called a myelin sheath. This accelerates the electrical current. (see diagramm below) 49. The hippocampus is your memory centre in the middle of the brain and is known to be larger in London black cab drivers who need to memorise a vast amount of information to pass the cabbie test. 50. The limbic system sits in the middle of the brain and processes our emotions

42. In the 1970 & 1980s some of the chemical processes between neurons were understood for the first time. 43. With the advent of imaging technology from the 1980s and 1990s the knowledge of the brain also increased exponentially. 44. The human brain was genetically mapped for the first time in 2011.

Artistic representation of a neuron – the sheath around the axon is, in real life, whitish in colour.

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leading brains and controls hormonal release. 51. The emotional centre is essential to decision making. No emotions - no decisions. This means we cannot separate emotions from rationality. 52. Our prefrontal lobes at the front of the brain are the last to develop and what differentiate us from other animals. The frontal lobe is the seat of executive functions and higher cognition. It takes up 35% of the outer cortex. 53. 99.99% of all information is processed unconsciously. 54. Our motor cortex, controlling our movement. Sits like a band over the middle of the brain. It accords different amounts of processing power to different parts of the body (see diagram below). The tongue for example takes up more place than our thighs. 55. We have a part of the brain called the fusimform face area (FFA) that is only used to identify faces.

Chemicals in the brain 56. There are currently 50 chemicals that have been idntified that are active within the brain. 57. The most commen chemical is called GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and is also the molecule responsible for rancid butter. 58. Dopamine is responsible for feelings of elation and is what cocaine also stimulates. It, however, also affects your ability to sustain attention and Ritalin and similar drugs to combat attention deficit disorders also boost dopamine. 59. Serotonin is also a common transmitter in the brain and affects your mood. However, 90% of all your body’s serotonin is produced in the gut. That’s why men get angry when they’re hungry.

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Your Brain in Business 60. Trust is an essential emotion and this also activates the reward centres in the brain – this means that trust in itself is an inherently rewarding experience. 61. Fear does not motivate but it can get you to action. However because fear disrupts brain functioning it will lower your cognitive abilities, lower your ability to deal with complexity, lower your creativity and increase your aggressiveness. 62. Commitment to a decision often comes after making a decision. 63. The brain responds to different rewards. The brain processes the following also as rewards: food, drink, social contact, praise, gratitude, trust, status, information, social bonding. Systems that only use money as a reward will be very limited in their effectiveness. 64. Uncertainty is processed as fear in the brain – hence the need to reduce the feeling of uncertainty in businesses or to leave employees in states of uncertainty. 65. The brain can always change and grow new connections. To build new habits the brain likes rewards – fear will block change processes. Change is not the problem in the brain – fear is. Remove fear and you will likely see wonderful things happen in your business.

NeuroRevolution Short Workshops Brains in Business

Targeted at the brain in business: learn about the fundemental neural processes that drive motivation, change, creativity and decision making. Learn how to truly tap into the power of the brain in business. Starting 23rd January 2012. www.corporate-training.ch

Coaching Unleashing the power of your mind or the minds of your, team or oragnisation. Coaching goes inside to release the power within. The NeuroBusiness Group headed by Dr Srinivasan Pillay is a leading international coaching organisation focused on brain targeted coaching interventions: www.neurobusinessgroup.com

Consulting Use brain science to accelerate your strategy, energise change, boost motivation, remove fear and simply give a neuronal charge to your business.

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Speaking Inspirational insights – a journey into the brain to inspire your audiences. Andy Habermacher, brain leader, uses his love of neuroscience to give powerful and inspirational insights into human behaviour and the workings of business. His British humour combined with his Swiss upbringing give him a warm and open manner possessing the stage with confidence and taking you on a journey through the brain and human decision making. His stage presence will have your audience engaged and he will provide knowledge and insights and tie this to practical applications that will have the audience leaving with more knowledge than they can use. Andy is all about brains in business.

Books

The Fox Factor, Andy Habermacher Order at: amazon / itunes / kindle Leading 100 Billion Neurons, free ebook, Andy Habermacher Download at: itunes / smashwords Your Brain and Business, Srinivasan Pillay Order at: amazon / kindle German: Neuroleadership, Theo Peters, Argang Ghadiri Order at: amazon

ctp, corporate training programmes leading brains Bahnhofstrasse 52 8001, Zurich Switzerland www.corporate-training.ch [email protected] www.facebook.com/LeadingBrains @AndyHab

”The garden of neurology holds out to the investigator captivating spectacles and incomparable artistic emotions. In it, my aesthetic instincts found full satisfaction at last. Like the entomologist in the pursuit of brightly colored butterflies, my attention hunted, in the flower garden of the grey matter, cells with delicate and elegant forms, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, the beating of whose wings may some day – who knows  ? – clarify the secret of mental life.” Santiago Ramón y Cajal, from his autobiography “Recollections of my Life”