Physical features:
• Our skin weighs twice as much as our brains; the average adult brain weighs 3 lbs
• The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, making up 85 percent of its total weight
• The human brain is the fattest organ of the body and is at least 60 percent fat
It feels like a ripe avocado and looks pink because of the blood flowing through the 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain. This is the equivalent of 3 full soda cans of blood flow through the brain each minute.
• It is comprised of two parts: gray matter (40 percent) and white matter (60 percent)
• There are no pain receptors in the brain. Since the brain feels no pain, brain surgery is performed with the patient fully conscious.
• The neocortex makes up about 76 percent of the human brain and is responsible for language and consciousness. The human neocortex is much larger than that of animals.

How it works:
• Operates on electricity with water as the conductor: the brain is 75 percent water
While awake, the brain generates between 10 to 23 watts of power, which is enough power to light a 25 watt bulb
• The amount of electrical impulses generated in one day in the brain is more than by all the telephones in the world.
• The gray matter is made up of about 100 billion neurons, which gathers and transmits signals via synapses. There are about 1,000 to 10,000 synapses for each neuron.
• The white matter is made up of dendrites and axons, which create the network, or “highway” for the neurons to send the signals
• There are 186 million more neurons in the left hemisphere than the right hemisphere.
• Although there are 100 trillion connections made, not a single neuron physically touches another.
• The brain is the cleanest organ in the body: dead cells and the brain’s waste are consumed by special glial cells.
• The brain uses 20 percent of the total oxygen in the body and 20 percent of the total blood circulating in the body. In total, the brain uses 20 percent of the body’s energy.
• Information is processed anywhere from .5 meters/second to 120 meters/second, or 268 miles per hour
• 8 to 10 seconds without blood in the brain results in unconsciousness
• The brain can survive for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, but will suffer permanent brain damage with 5 to 10 minutes of no oxygen.
• The mind-body connection is so strong that 50 to 70 percent of all doctor visits for physical ailments are attributed to psychological factors.
• Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought you are creating a new connection in your brain.
• Estrogen and insulin promote better memory function.
• Each time we blink – about 20,000 times a day - the brain kicks in to keep things illuminated so the whole world doesn’t go dark.
• Laughing at a joke requires activity in 5 different areas of the brain.
• The average number of thoughts a day is believed to be 70,000
• The brain is more active and thinks more at night than during the day.
• When you sleep, you’re virtually paralyzed because your brain creates a hormone to prevent you from acting out your dreams.
• Approximately 85,000 neocortical neurons are lost each day in the brain. This isn’t noticed because of built-in redundancies, and that after 3 years this loss adds up to less than 1 percent of the total.

How it develops:
• Neurons develop at a rate of 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregnancy
• The first sense to develop while in utero is touch. The lips and cheeks can experience touch at about 8 weeks, and the rest of the body around 12 weeks.
• At birth, the brain is almost the same size as an adult brain with most of the brain cells needed for life
• A newborn baby’s brain grows about three times its size in the first year
• Brains stop growing at age 18
• The cerebral cortex grows thicker as you learn to use it
• The capacity for all emotions is developed at birth. The specific type of nurturing a child receives shapes how these emotions develop.
• A stimulating environment for a child creates a 25 percent increase in learning ability, and a 25 percent decrease with non-stimulating environments. Reading aloud and talking to children promotes brain development.
• Child abuse can inhibit development of the brain and can permanently affect brain development
• Mental activity stimulates the creation of new neurons throughout life.
• Children who learn two languages before age 5 have altered brain structure, and bilingual adults have a much denser gray matter.
• After the age 30 the brain shrinks a quarter of a percent (.25) in mass each year.
• After age 35, 7,000 brain cells are lost a day.
• The brain is firm when we are young and gets squishy as we age.

Interesting facts:
• Although an elephant’s brain is physically larger than a human brain, it is only .15 percent of its total body weight, whereas a human’s is 2 percent. Yet the ant has the largest brain in proportion to body size, humans aren’t even close.
• Yawns actually “reboot” the brain by providing more oxygen, which cools it down. • Yawning expands the pharynx and larynx, allowing large amounts of air to pass into the lungs, oxygen then enters our blood, making us more alert.  Yawns are believed to be warning communication in all vertebrates to be ready for action, and conversely, it’s been observed that dog owners can calm their dogs with a yawn.
• Salami contains 3 times as much PEA – the mood-lifting chemical produced by the brain when you fall in love – than does chocolate.
• The highest human body temperature recorded was 115.7, and the man survived
• Excessive stress has shown to alter brain cells, brain structure and brain function