The Human Brain

The Developing Brain

Starting from within the womb, fetal brain development begins the amazing journey that leads to a well-developed brain at birth that continues to grow for 18 more years.

Neurons develop at the rate of 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregnancy.

At birth, your brain was almost the same size as an adult brain and contained most of the brain cells for your whole life.

A newborn baby’s brain grows about three times its size in the first year.

Your brain stopped growing at age 18.

The cerebral cortex grows thicker as you learn to use it.

A stimulating environment for a child can make the difference between a 25% greater ability to learn or 25% less in an environment with little stimulation.

Humans continue to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity. Read aloud. Reading aloud and talking often to a young child promotes brain development.

The capacity for such emotions as joy, happiness, fear, and shyness are already developed at birth. The specific type of nurturing a child receives shapes how these emotions are developed.

The first sense to develop while in utero is the sense of touch. The lips and cheeks can experience touch at about 8 weeks and the rest of the body around 12 weeks.

Bilingual brains. Children who learn two languages before the age of five alters the brain structure and adults have a much denser gray matter.

Studies have shown that child abuse can inhibit development of the brain and can permanently affect brain development.

Brain Function

Your brain uses 20% of the total oxygen in your body. As with oxygen, your brain uses 20% of the blood circulating in your body. If your brain loses blood for 8 to 10 seconds, you will lose consciousness.

Information can be processed as slowly as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec (about 268 miles/hr).

While awake, your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power–or enough energy to power a light bulb.

It is thought that a yawn works to send more oxygen to the brain, therefore working to cool it down and wake it up.

The neocortex makes up about 76% of the human brain and is responsible for language and consciousness. The human neocortex is much larger than in animals.

The old adage of humans only using 10% of their brain is not true. Every part of the brain has a known function.

The next time you get a fever, keep in mind that the highest human body temperature ever recorded was 115.7 degrees–and the man survived.

Excessive stress has shown to "alter brain cells, brain structure and brain function."

A study of one million students in New York showed that students who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14% better on IQ tests than students who ate lunches with these additives. 

In the March 2003 edition of Discover magazine, a report describes how people in a 7-year study who ate seafood at least one time every week had a 30% lower occurrence of dementia.