The 

human brain is the center of the human nervous system. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same
general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical
mammal with an equivalent body size. Most of the expansion comes from the cerebral cortex, a
convoluted layer of neural tissue that covers the surface of the forebrain. Especially expanded are
the frontal lobes, which are associated with executive functions such as self-control, planning, reasoning,
and abstract thought. The portion of the brain devoted to vision is also greatly enlarged in human beings.

Brain evolution, from the earliest shrew like mammals through primates to hominids, is marked by a

steady increase in encephalization, or the ratio of brain to body size. The human brain has been
estimated to contain 50–100 billion  neurons, of which about 10 billion are cortical pyramidal cells. These
cells pass signals to each other via as many as 1000 trillion synaptic connections. However, recent
research has shown that the modern human brain has actually been shrinking over the last 28,000 years.

The brain monitors and regulates the body's actions and reactions. It continuously receives sensory
information, and rapidly analyzes these data and then responds, controlling bodily actions and functions.
The brainstem controls breathing, heart rate, and other autonomic processes that are independent of
conscious brain functions. The neocortex is the center of higher-order thinking, learning, and memory.
The cerebellum is responsible for the body's balance, posture, and the coordination of movement.

In spite of the fact that it is protected by the thick bones of the skull, suspended in cerebrospinal fluid, and
isolated from the bloodstream by the blood-brain barrier, the delicate nature of the human brain makes it
susceptible to many types of damage and disease. The most common forms of physical damage
are closed head injuries such as a blow to the head, a stroke, or poisoning by a wide variety of chemicals
that can act as neurotoxins. Infection of the brain is rare because of the barriers that protect it, but is very
serious when it occurs. The human brain is also susceptible to degenerative disorders, such
as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. A number of psychiatric conditions,
such as schizophrenia and depression, are widely thought to be caused at least partially by brain
dysfunctions, although the nature of such brain anomalies is not well understood.
The adult human brain weighs on average about 1.5 kg with a size (volume) of around 1130 cubic
centimetres (cm3) in women and 1260 cm3 in men, although there is substantial individual variation. Men
with the same body height and body surface area as women have on average 100g heavier
brains, although these differences do not correlate in any simple way with gray matter neuron counts or
with overall measures of cognitive performance. [8] Neanderthals, an extinct subspecies of modern
humans, had larger brains at adulthood than present-day humans. [9] The brain is very soft, having a
consistency similar to soft gelatin or firm tofu. Despite being referred to as "grey matter", the live cortex is
pinkish-beige in color and slightly off-white in the interior. At the age of 20, a man has around 176,000 km
and a woman about 149,000 km of myelinated axons in their brains.

GENERAL FEATURES-
The cerebral hemispheres form the largest part of the human brain and are situated above most other
brain structures. They are covered with a cortical layer with a convoluted topography. Underneath
the cerebrum lies the brainstem, resembling a stalk on which the cerebrum is attached. At the rear of the
brain, beneath the cerebrum and behind the brainstem, is the cerebellum, a structure with a horizontally
furrowed surface that makes it look different from any other brain area. The same structures are present
in other mammals, although the cerebellum is not so large relative to the rest of the brain. As a rule, the
smaller the cerebrum, the less convoluted the cortex. The cortex of a rat or mouse is almost completely
smooth. The cortex of a dolphin or whale, on the other hand, is more convoluted than the cortex of a
human.

The dominant feature of the human brain is corticalization. The cerebral cortex in humans is so large that
it overshadows every other part of the brain. A few subcortical structures show alterations reflecting this
trend. The cerebellum, for example, has a medial zone connected mainly to subcortical motor areas, and
a lateral zone connected primarily to the cortex. In humans the lateral zone takes up a much larger
fraction of the cerebellum than in most other mammalian species. Corticalization is reflected in function as
well as structure. In a rat, surgical removal of the entire cerebral cortex leaves an animal that is still
capable of walking around and interacting with the environment. In a human, comparable cerebral cortex
damage produces a permanent state of coma. The amount of association cortex, relative to the other two
categories, increases dramatically as one goes from simpler mammals, such as the rat and the cat, to
more complex ones, such as the chimpanzee and the human.
The cerebral cortex is essentially a sheet of neural tissue, folded in a way that allows a large surface area
to fit within the confines of the skull. Each cerebral hemisphere, in fact, has a total surface area of about
1.3 square feet. Anatomists call each cortical fold a sulcus, and the smooth area between folds a gyrus

CORTICAL DIVISIONS-FOUR LOBES-

Outwardly, the cerebral cortex is nearly symmetrical, with left and right hemispheres. Anatomists
conventionally divide each hemisphere into four "lobes", the:

Frontal lobe
Parietal lobe
Occipital lobe
Temporal lobe

This categorization does not actually arise from the structure of the cortex itself: the lobes are named after
the bones of the skull that overlie them. There is one exception: the border between the frontal and
parietal lobes is shifted backward to the central sulcus, a deep fold that marks the line where the primary
somatosensory cortex and primary motor cortex come together.

Although the division of the cortex into hemispheres and lobes is very general and perhaps lack the
precision of specifying by brain coordinates (e.g. Talairach space) or through the region of specific brain
cytoarchitecture (e.g. Brodmann areas, or deep brain structures), it is nevertheless useful for discussing
general brain anatomy or the locating of lesions in a general area of the brain.

MAJOR FOLDS-
Although there are enough variations in the shape and placement of gyri and sulci (cortical folds) to make
every brain unique, most human brains show sufficiently consistent patterns of folding that allow them to
be named. Many of the gyri and sulci are named according to the location on the lobes or other major
folds on the cortex. These include:

 Superior, Middle, Inferior frontal gyrus: in reference to the frontal lobe

 Precentral and Postcentral sulcus: in reference to the central sulcus
 Trans-occipital sulcus: in reference to the occipital lobe

Deep folding features in the brain, such as the inter-hemispheric and lateral fissure, which divides the left
and right brain, and the insular cortex, which "splits-off" the temporal lobe, are present in almost all
normal subjects.

FUNCTIONAL DIVISIONS-
Researchers who study the functions of the cortex divide it into three functional categories of regions, or
areas. One consists of the primary sensory areas, which receive signals from the sensory nerves and
tracts by way of relay nuclei in the thalamus. Primary sensory areas include the visual area of the occipital
lobe, the auditory area in parts of the temporal lobe and insular cortex, and the somatosensory area in
the parietal lobe. A second category is the primary motor area, which sends axons down to motor
neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord. This area occupies the rear portion of the frontal lobe, directly
in front of the somatosensory area. The third category consists of the remaining parts of the cortex, which
are called the association areas. These areas receive input from the sensory areas and lower parts of the
brain and are involved in the complex process that we call perception, thought, and decision making.

CYTOARCHITECTURE
Different parts of the cerebral cortex are involved in different cognitive and behavioral functions. The
differences show up in a number of ways: the effects of localized brain damage, regional activity patterns
exposed when the brain is examined using functional imaging techniques, connectivity with subcortical
areas, and regional differences in the cellular architecture of the cortex. Anatomists describe most of the
cortex—the part they callisocortex—as having six layers, but not all layers are apparent in all areas, and
even when a layer is present, its thickness and cellular organization may vary. Several anatomists
haveconstructed maps of cortical areas on the basis of variations in the appearance of the layers as seen
with a microscope. One of the most widely used schemes came from Brodmann, who split the cortex into
51 different areas and assigned each a number (anatomists have since subdivided many of the
Brodmann areas). For example, Brodmann area 1 is the primary somatosensory cortex, Brodmann area
17 is the primary visual cortex, and Brodmann area 25 is the anterior cingulate cortex.

LANGUAGE
In human beings, it is the left hemisphere that usually contains the specialized language areas. While this
holds true for 97% of right-handed people, about 19% of left-handed people have their language areas in
the right hemisphere and as many as 68% of them have some language abilities in both the left and the
right hemisphere. The two hemispheres are thought to contribute to the processing and understanding of
language: the left hemisphere processes the linguistic meaning of prosody (or, the rhythm, stress, and
intonation of connected speech), while the right hemisphere processes the emotions conveyed by
prosody. Studies of children have shown that if a child has damage to the left hemisphere, the child may
develop language in the right hemisphere instead. The younger the child, the better the recovery. So,
although the "natural" tendency is for language to develop on the left, human brains are capable of
adapting to difficult circumstances, if the damage occurs early enough.

The first language area within the left hemisphere to be discovered is Broca's area, named after Paul
Broca, who discovered the area while studying patients with aphasia, a language disorder. Broca's area
doesn't just handle getting language out in a motor sense, though. It seems to be more generally involved
in the ability to process grammar itself, at least the more complex aspects of grammar. For example, it
handles distinguishing a sentence in passive form from a simpler subject-verb-object sentence — the
difference between "The boy was hit by the girl" and "The girl hit the boy."

The second language area to be discovered is called Wernicke's area, after Carl Wernicke, a German
neurologist who discovered the area while studying patients who had similar symptoms to Broca's area
patients but damage to a different part of their brain. Wernicke's aphasia is the term for the disorder
occurring upon damage to a patient's Wernicke's area.

Wernicke's aphasia does not only affect speech comprehension. People with Wernicke's aphasia also
have difficulty recalling the names of objects, often responding with words that sound similar, or the
names of related things, as if they are having a hard time recalling word associations.

PATHOLOGY
Clinically, death is defined as an absence of brain activity as measured by EEG. Injuries to the brain tend
to affect large areas of the organ, sometimes causing major deficits in intelligence, memory, personality,
and movement. Head trauma caused, for example, by vehicular or industrial accidents, is a leading cause
of death in youth and middle age. In many cases, more damage is caused by resultant edema than by the
impact itself. Stroke, caused by the blockage or rupturing of blood vessels in the brain, is another major
cause of death from brain damage.
Other problems in the brain can be more accurately classified as diseases than as
injuries.Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone
disease, and Huntington's disease are caused by the gradual death of individual neurons, leading to
diminution in movement control, memory, and cognition.

Mental disorders, such as clinical depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress

disorder may involve particular patterns of neuropsychological functioning related to various aspects of
mental and somatic function. These disorders may be treated by psychotherapy, psychiatric medication or
social intervention and personal recovery work; the underlying issues and associated prognosis vary
significantly between individuals.

Some infectious diseases affecting the brain are caused by viruses and bacteria. Infection of
the meninges, the membrane that covers the brain, can lead to meningitis. Bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (also known as "mad cow disease") is deadly in cattle and humans and is linked
to prions. Kuru is a similar prion-borne degenerative brain disease affecting humans. Both are linked to
the ingestion of neural tissue, and may explain the tendency in human and some non-human species to
avoid cannibalism. Viral or bacterial causes have been reported inmultiple sclerosis and Parkinson's
disease, and are established causes of encephalopathy, and encephalomyelitis.

Many brain disorders are congenital, occurring during development. Tay-Sachs disease, fragile X

syndrome, and Down syndrome are all linked to genetic and chromosomal errors. Many other syndromes,
such as the intrinsic circadian rhythm disorders, are suspected to be congenital as well.
Normal development of the brain can be altered by genetic factors, drug use, nutritional deficiencies,
and infectious diseases during pregnancy.

Certain brain disorders are treated by neurosurgeons, while others are treated
by neurologists and psychiatrists.

Philosophy of mind is a branch of modern analytic philosophy that studies the nature of the mind,mental

events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body,
particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e. the relationship of the mind to the body, is commonly
seen as the central issue in philosophy of mind, although there are other issues concerning the nature of
the mind that do not involve its relation to the physical body.
Dualism and monism are the two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind-body problem.
Dualism can be traced back to Plato, Aristotle and the Sankhya and Yoga schools
of Hindu philosophy, but it was most precisely formulated by René Descartes in the 17th
century.Substance Dualists argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, whereas Property
Dualists maintain that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be
reduced to the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance.

Monism is the position that mind and body are not ontologically distinct kinds of entities. This view was
first advocated in Western philosophy by Parmenides in the 5th century BC and was later espoused by
the 17th century rationalist Baruch Spinoza.[10] Physicalists argue that only the entities postulated by
physical theory exist, and that the mind will eventually be explained in terms of these entities as physical
theory continues to evolve. Idealists maintain that the mind is all that exists and that the external world is
either mental itself, or an illusion created by the mind. Neutral monistsadhere to the position that there is
some other, neutral substance, and that both matter and mind are properties of this unknown substance.
The most common monisms in the 20th and 21st centuries have all been variations of physicalism; these
positions include behaviorism, the type identity theory, anomalous monism and functionalism.

Most modern philosophers of mind adopt either a reductive or non-reductive physicalist position,
maintaining in their different ways that the mind is not something separate from the body. [11] These
approaches have been particularly influential in the sciences, especially in the fields
of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences. Other
philosophers, however, adopt a non-physicalist position which challenges the notion that the mind is a
purely physical construct. Reductive physicalists assert that all mental states and properties will
eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes and states. Non-reductive
physicalists argue that although the brain is all there is to the mind, the predicates and vocabulary used in
mental descriptions and explanations are indispensable, and cannot be reduced to the language and
lower-level explanations of physical science.Continued neuroscientific progress has helped to clarify
some of these issues. However, they are far from having been resolved, and modern philosophers of
mind continue to ask how the subjective qualities and the intentionality (aboutness) of mental states and
properties can be explained in naturalistic terms.

THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM-

The mind-body problem concerns the explanation of the relationship that exists between minds, or mental
processes, and bodily states or processes. The main aim of philosophers working in this area is to
determine the nature of the mind and mental states/processes, and how—or even if—minds are affected
by and can affect the body.

Our perceptual experiences depend on stimuli which arrive at our various sensory organs from the
external world and these stimuli cause changes in our mental states, ultimately causing us to feel a
sensation, which may be pleasant or unpleasant. Someone's desire for a slice of pizza, for example, will
tend to cause that person to move his or her body in a specific manner and in a specific direction to obtain
what he or she wants. The question, then, is how it can be possible for conscious experiences to arise out
of a lump of gray matter endowed with nothing but electrochemical properties. [11]

A related problem is how someone's propositional attitudes (e.g. beliefs and desires) cause that
individual's neurons to fire and his muscles to contract. These comprise some of the puzzles that have
confronted epistemologists and philosophers of mind from at least the time of René Descartes.

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND SCIENCE-

Humans are corporeal beings and, as such, they are subject to examination and description by the
natural sciences. Since mental processes are intimately related to bodily processes, the descriptions that
the natural sciences furnish of human beings play an important role in the philosophy of mind. There are
many scientific disciplines that study processes related to the mental. The list of such sciences
includes: biology, computer science, cognitive science, cybernetics, linguistics, medicine, pharmacology,
and psychology.

Rehabilitation of brain functions involves two

essential processes: 
 Restoration of functions that can be restored and

 Learning how to do things differently when functions cannot be restored to pre-injury level.

The direction and methods of brain rehabilitation typically is defined by the neuropsychological symptoms
identified following brain injury. 

While practice in various cognitive tasks--doing arithmetic problems, solving logic puzzles,practicing
concentration skills, or reading--may help brain rehabilitation, this is usually not enough. 
Brain injury rehabilitation must be designed taking into account a broad range of neurofunctional
strengths and weaknesses. Basic skills must be strengthened before more complex skills are added. Only
through comprehensive neuropsychological analysis can the many possible effects of brain injury be
sorted out. This pattern of functional strengths and weaknesses becomes the foundation for designing a
program of brain rehabilitation.

Brain recovery follows patterns of brain development. Gross or large-scale systems must develop (or be
retrained) before fine systems. Attention, focus, and perceptual skills develop (or are retrained) before
complex intellectual activity can be successful.

Genetic Brain Disorders

A genetic disorder is a disease caused by a different form of a gene, called a variation, or a change in a
gene, called a mutation. Genetic brain disorders specifically affect the development and function of the
brain.

Some genetic brain disorders are due to random gene mutations or mutations caused by environmental
exposure, such as cigarette smoke. Other disorders are inherited, which means that a mutated gene or
group of genes is passed down through a family. Still other disorders are due to a combination of genetic
changes and other outside factors. Some examples of genetic brain disorders
include leukodystrophies,phenylketonuria, Tay-Sachs disease, and Wilson disease.

Many people with genetic brain disorders fail to produce enough of certain proteins that influence brain
development and function. These brain disorders can cause serious problems that affect the nervous
system. Some are life-threatening.

LEUKODYSTROPHIES-
The leukodystrophies are rare diseases that affect the cells of the brain. Specifically, the diseases affect
the myelin sheath, the material that surrounds and protects nerve cells. Damage to this sheath slows
down or blocks messages between the brain and the rest of the body. This leads to problems with

 Movement
 Speaking
 Vision
 Hearing
 Mental and physical development

Questions we would all like answered:

How does memory work in the brain?

How is memory stored and then recalled at a later date, even decades later?
Why do we dream?
What causes the dreams we have and what is the purpose of dreams?
A. While dreaming brain tends to make up the time needed for repairs, thus creating virtual experiences.
While dreaming brain also refreshes stored memories, deciding which ones to keep and which not.

Why do we sleep?
Why do we need to sleep and how does the brain enter and maintain the sleep stage?
A. We sleep in order to regenerate damaged parts of body and to dream (which is hard to do, and not
recommended while awake and to avoid injury to one self if dreams are intense)

How do we think?
How do we make decisions, come to conclusions, and charter our course through life?

What makes us who we are?

How do we each have our own individual personalities and traits?

How can a memory be stored in a living cell or group of cells?

Is any work being done to create a computer using living cells for information storage and retrieval,
possibly duplicating a
brain.

BRAIN
ENERGY
CONSUMPTION
Although the human brain represents only 2% of the body weight, it receives 15% of the cardiac output,
20% of total body oxygen consumption, and 25% of total body glucose utilization The need to limit body
weight in order, for example, to fly, has led to selection for a reduction of brain size in some species, such
as bats The brain mostly utilizes glucose for energy, and deprivation of glucose, as can happen
in hypoglycemia, can result in loss of consciousness. The energy consumption of the brain does not vary
greatly over time, but active regions of the cortex consume somewhat more energy than inactive regions:
this fact forms the basis for the functional brain imaging methods PET and fMRI. These are nuclear
medicine imaging techniques which produce a three-dimensional image of metabolic activity.

BRAIN AND MIND-

Understanding the relationship between the brain and the mind is a challenging problem both
philosophically and scientifically. The most straightforward scientific evidence that there is a strong
relationship between the physical brain matter and the mind is the impact physical alterations to the brain
have on the mind, such as with traumatic brain injury and psychoactive drug use.

The mind-body problem is one of the central issues in the history of philosophy, which asks us to consider
if the brain and the mind are identical, partially distinct, or related in some unknown way. There are three
major schools of thought concerning the answer: dualism, materialism, and idealism. Dualism holds that
the mind exists independently of the brain; materialism holds that mental phenomena are identical to
neuronal phenomena; and idealism holds that only mental phenomena exist. In addition to the
philosophical questions, the relationship between mind and brain involves a high number of scientific
questions, including understanding the relationship between mental activity and brain activity, the exact
mechanisms by which drugs influence cognition, and theneural correlates of consciousness.

Through most of history many philosophers found it inconceivable that cognition could be implemented by
a physical substance such as brain tissue (that is neurons and synapses)  Philosophers such as Patricia
Churchland posit that the drug-mind interaction is indicative of an intimate connection between the brain
and the mind, not that the two are the same entity. Descartes, who thought extensively about mind-brain
relationships, found it possible to explain reflexes and other simple behaviors in mechanistic terms,
although he did not believe that complex thought, and language in particular, could be explained by
reference to the physical brain alone.

FACTS AND FIGURES

30) Our brain often fools us. It often perceives things differently from the reality. Look at those pictures. Square A and B
are actually the same  shade of gray. 1) There are no pain receptors in the brain, so the brain can feel no
pain.
2) The human brain is the fattest organ in the body and may consists of at least 60% fat.

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

4) Humans continue to make new neurons throughout life in response to mental activity.

5) Alcohol interferes with brain processes by weakening connections between neurons.

6) Altitude makes the brain see strange visions – Many religions involve special visions that occurred
at great heights. For example, Moses encountered a voice emanating from a burning bush on Mount
Sinai and Muhammad was visited by an angel on Mount Hira. Similar phenomena are reported by
mountain climbers, but they don’t think it’s very mystical. Many of the effects are attributable to
the reduced supply of oxygen to the brain. At 8,000ft or higher, some mountaineers report
perceiving unseen companions, seeing light emanating from themselves or others, seeing a second
body like their own, and suddenly feeling emotions such as fear. Oxygen deprivation is likely to
interfere with brain regions active in visual and face processing, and in emotional events.

7) Reading aloud and talking often to a young child promotes brain development.

8 ) Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons. Not all neurons are
the same. There are a few different types within the body and transmission along these different
kinds can be as slow as 0.5 meters/sec or as fast as 120 meters/sec.

9) 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.

10) The left side of your brain (left hemisphere) controls the right side of your body; and, the right
side of your brain (right hemisphere) controls the left side of your body.

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

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

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

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

15) A study of one million students in New York showed thatstudents 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.

16) For years, scientists believed that tinnitus was due to a function within the mechanics of the
ear, but newer evidence shows that it is actually a function of the brain.

17) Every time you recall a memory or have a new thought, you are creating a new connection in your
brain.
18) Memories triggered by scent have a stronger emotional connection, therefore appear more
intense than other memory triggers.

19) Each time we blink, our brain kicks in and keeps things illuminated so the whole world doesn’t go
dark each time we blink (about 20,000 times a day).

20) Laughing at a joke is no simple task as it requires activity in five different areas of the brain.

21) The average number of thoughts that humans are believed to experience each day is 70,000.

22) There are two different schools of thought as to why we dream: the physiological school, and
the psychological school. While many theories have been proposed, not single consensus has
emerged as to why we dream. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while
other believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. One theory for
dreaming suggests dreams serve to clean up clutter from the mind.

23) The Hypothalamus part of the brain regulates body temperature much like a thermostat. The
hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (about 98.6 Fahrenheit or 37 Celsius),
and if your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat. If you’re too cold, the hypothalamus
makes you start shivering. Shivering and sweating helps get your body’s temperature back to
normal.

24) Approximately 85,000 neocortical neurons are lost each day in your brain. Fortunately, his goes
unnoticed due to the built-in redundancies and the fact that even after three years this loss adds
up to less than 1% of the total.

25) Differences in brain weight and size do not equal differences in mental ability. The weight of
Albert Einstein’s brain was 1,230 grams that is less than an average weight of the human brain.

26) A living brain is so soft you could cut it with a table knife.

27) There are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain.

28) London taxi drivers ,famous for knowing all the London streets by heart, have a larger than
normal hippocampus, especially the drivers who have been on the job longest. The study suggests
that as people memorize more and more information, this part of their brain continues to grow.

29) The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it begins to die. No oxygen for 5
to 10 minutes will result in permanent brain damage.

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY
Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced by the
firing of neurons within the brain.[2] In clinical contexts, EEG refers to the recording of the brain's
spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time, usually 20–40 minutes, as recorded from
multiple electrodes placed on the scalp. In neurology, the main diagnostic application of EEG is in the
case of epilepsy, as epileptic activity can create clear abnormalities on a standard EEG study. [3] A
secondary clinical use of EEG is in the diagnosis of coma, encephalopathies, and brain death. EEG used
to be a first-line method for the diagnosis of tumors, stroke and other focal brain disorders, but this use
has decreased with the advent of anatomical imaging techniques such as MRI and CT.

Derivatives of the EEG technique include evoked potentials (EP), which involves averaging the EEG
activity time-locked to the presentation of a stimulus of some sort (visual, somatosensory, or auditory).
Event-related potentials (ERPs) refer to averaged EEG responses that are time-locked to more complex
processing of stimuli; this technique is used in cognitive science, cognitive psychology, and
psychophysiological research.

CLINICAL USE
A routine clinical EEG recording typically lasts 20–30 minutes (plus preparation time) and usually involves
recording from scalp electrodes. Routine EEG is typically used in the following clinical circumstances:

 to distinguish epileptic seizures from other types of spells, such as psychogenic non-epileptic
seizures, syncope (fainting), sub-cortical movement disorders and migraine variants.
 to differentiate "organic" encephalopathy or delirium from primary psychiatric syndromes such as
catatonia
 to serve as an adjunct test of brain death
 to prognosticate, in certain instances, in patients with coma
 to determine whether to wean anti-epileptic medications

At times, a routine EEG is not sufficient, particularly when it is necessary to record a patient while he/she
is having a seizure. In this case, the patient may be admitted to the hospital for days or even weeks, while
EEG is constantly being recorded (along with time-synchronized video and audio recording). A recording
of an actual seizure (i.e., an ictal recording, rather than an inter-ictal recording of a possibly epileptic
patient at some period between seizures) can give significantly better information about whether or not a
spell is an epileptic seizure and the focus in the brain from which the seizure activity emanates.

Epilepsy monitoring is typically done:

 to distinguish epileptic seizures from other types of spells, such as psychogenic non-epileptic
seizures, syncope (fainting), sub-cortical movement disorders and migraine variants.
 to characterize seizures for the purposes of treatment
 to localize the region of brain from which a seizure originates for work-up of possible seizure
surgery

Additionally, EEG may be used to monitor certain procedures:

 to monitor the depth of anesthesia

 as an indirect indicator of cerebral perfusion in carotid endarterectomy
 to monitor amobarbital effect during the Wada test

EEG can also be used in intensive care units for brain function monitoring:

 to monitor for non-convulsive seizures/non-convulsive status epilepticus

 to monitor the effect of sedative/anesthesia in patients in medically induced coma (for treatment
of refractory seizures or increased intracranial pressure)
 to monitor for secondary brain damage in conditions such as subarachnoid hemorrhage (currently
a research method)
If a patient with epilepsy is being considered for resective surgery, it is often necessary to localize the
focus (source) of the epileptic brain activity with a resolution greater than what is provided by scalp EEG.
This is because the cerebrospinal fluid, skull and scalp smear the electrical potentials recorded by scalp
EEG. In these cases, neurosurgeons typically implant strips and grids of electrodes (or penetrating depth
electrodes) under the dura mater, through either a craniotomy or a burr hole. The recording of these
signals is referred to as electrocorticography (ECoG), subdural EEG (sdEEG) or intracranial EEG
(icEEG)--all terms for the same thing. The signal recorded from ECoG is on a different scale of activity
than the brain activity recorded from scalp EEG. Low voltage, high frequency components that cannot be
seen easily (or at all) in scalp EEG can be seen clearly in ECoG. Further, smaller electrodes (which cover
a smaller parcel of brain surface) allow even lower voltage, faster components of brain activity to be seen.
Some clinical sites record from penetrating microelectrodes.

EEG has several limitations. Most important is its poor spatial resolution. EEG is most sensitive to a
particular set of post-synaptic potentials: those generated in superficial layers of the cortex, on the crests
of gyri directly abutting the skull and radial to the skull. Dendrites, which are deeper in the cortex, inside
sulci, in midline or deep structures (such as the cingulate gyrus or hippocampus), or producing currents
that are tangential to the skull, have far less contribution to the EEG signal.

The meninges, cerebrospinal fluid and skull "smear" the EEG signal, obscuring its intracranial source.

It is mathematically impossible to reconstruct a unique intracranial current source for a given EEG signal,
[2]
as some currents produce potentials that cancel each other out. This is referred to as the inverse
problem. However, much work has been done to produce remarkably good estimates of, at least, a
localized electric dipole that represents the recorded currents

WILSON DISEASE-

Wilson disease is a rare inherited disorder that causes your body to retain copper. Normally, your liver
releases copper it doesn't need into bile, a digestive fluid. With Wilson disease, this does not happen.
Copper builds up in your liver and injures liver tissue. Over time, the damage causes your liver to release
the copper directly into your bloodstream. The blood carries copper all over your body. Too much copper
can damage your kidneys, liver, brain and eyes.
Usually the build-up of copper starts after birth. Symptoms usually start between ages 6 and 20, but can
begin as late as age 40. The most characteristic sign is a rusty brown ring around the cornea of the eye.

If you have Wilson disease, you will have to take medicine and follow a low-copper diet for the rest of your
life. With early detection and proper treatment, a person with Wilson disease can enjoy normal health.

QUESTION BANK
How long the spinal cord is and how much does it weigh?
The average spinal cord is 45 cm long in men and 43 cm long in women. The spinal cord
weighs approx. 35 grams.

How much does the brain weigh?

The human brain weighs on average three pounds, or 1.5 kg.

What size is an adult humans brain?

The human brain is about the size of a cantaloupe.
Average brain width = 140 mm
Average brain length = 167 mm
Average brain height = 93 mm

How much oxygen does the brain need to stay "conscious"?

An adult’s brain requires around 20% of the body's oxygen.

How much blood is needed by the brain?

Approximately 20% of the blood flowing from the heart is pumped to the brain. The brain needs
constant blood flow in order to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of the neurons.

What is the largest part of the brain?

The biggest part of the brain is the cerebrum which makes up 85% of the brain's weight. The
cerebrum is the thinking part of the brain and it controls your voluntary muscles.

Does the brain work at the Speed of Light?

No, far from it. Axons, the long output connection from a cell, come in two types: myelinated and
unmyelinated. Myelinated axons have an extra layer of "insulation," a fatty substance,  which
allows the impulse to travel about 10 to 100 meters per second. Unmyelinated axons only
transmit at about 1 meter per second. When the signal reaches the end, it has to cross the
synapse to influence the next cell, which adds about 5 ms. 10 meters per second = 22.356 mph
and 100 meters per second = 223.561 mph. As you can see it is a lot slower than the speed of
light in a vacuum which is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second, or 186 000 miles per second,
or 670,616,629 mph.

What are studies of the brain called?

The study of the brain and its functions is known as neuroscience.
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior.
Neurophysiology is the study of normal healthy brain activity.
Neurology and psychiatry are both medical approaches to the study of the mind and its disorders
and pathology or mental illness respectively.

How many main parts to the brain are there?

 The human brain can be divided into three main parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain:
1) The forebrain includes the several lobes of the cerebral cortex that control higher functions.
2) Midbrain functions include routing, selecting, mapping, and cataloguing information, including
information perceived from the environment and information that is remembered and processed
throughout the cerebral cortex.
3) Hindbrain - (rhombencephalon) is a developmental categorization of portions of the central
nervous system in vertebrates. A rare disease of the rhombencephalon,
"rhombencephalosynapsis" is characterized by a missing vermis resulting in a fused cerebellum.
Patients generally present with cerebellar ataxia.

What is a neuron?
A neuron is a nerve cell in the brain. The human brain is made up of approximately 100 billion
(100,000,000,000) neurons.

Is the brain an organ?

The brain is an organ as it controls the functions of the body. It is sometimes referred to as a
muscle of thinking as the brain actually tells your muscles what to do. The brain is the most
important organ in the body because it controls all of the bodily functions as well as the other
organs.

Do men have a larger brain than women?

Male humans have about a 10% larger brain than females. A study of 46 adults aged 22-49
years found an average brain volume of 1273.6cc for men, ranging from 1052.9 to 1498.5cc, and
1131.1cc for women, ranging from 974.9 to 1398.1cc. However differences in male and female
brain weight and size do not mean differences in mental ability. There is evidence of a gradual
increase in average brain size over the last centuries, estimated to have been around 0.5% per
decade.

Is a computer smarter than a human brain?

The brain has a processing capacity of 0.1 quadrillion instructions per second. The fastest super
computer in the world, called Roadrunner is capable of handling 1.026 quadrillion calculations per
second. However the computational power of the human brain is difficult to ascertain, as the
human brain is not easily paralleled to the binary number processing of computers. For while the
human brain is calculating a math problem, it is subconsciously processing data from millions of
nerve cells that handle the visual input of the paper and surrounding area, the aural input from
both ears, and the sensory input of millions of cells throughout the body. The brain is also
regulating the heartbeat, monitoring oxygen levels, hunger and thirst requirements, breathing
patterns and hundreds of other essential factors throughout the body. It is simultaneously
comparing data from the eyes and the sensory cells in the arms and hands to keep track of the
position of the pen and paper as the calculation is being performed.

Can an adult grow more brain cells?

A landmark study in late 1998 by researchers from Sweden and the Salk Institute in La Jolla,
California, showed for the first time that some brain cells in mature humans may regenerate
under certain circumstances.

Do humans only use 10% of the brain?

No, we use all of our brain.

What are Neurodegenerative diseases?

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone
disease, and Huntington's disease are caused by the gradual death of individual neurons, leading
to decrements in movement control, memory, and cognition.

Does alcohol kill brain cells every time you drink?

 The idea that alcohol kills brain cells has long been promoted. Drinking alcohol does not
actually "kill" brain cells. Roberta Pentney, professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University
at Buffalo, concludes that alcohol does not kill brain cells but it damages the dendrites, the
branched ends of nerve cells that bring messages into the brain cell causing damage to the way
the cells in the brain communicate. Luckily the damage is largely reversible and not permanent.
However years of alcohol abuse can cause serious neurological damage, including Wernicke-
Korsakoff syndrome.

In what part of the brain do you get brain tumors?

Brain tumors are classified depending on the exact site of the tumor, the type of tissue involved,
benign or malignant tendencies of the tumor, and other factors. Primary (true) brain tumors are
commonly located in the posterior cranial fossa in children and in the anterior two-thirds of the
cerebral hemispheres in adults, although they can affect any part of the brain.

How are memories stored and retrieved?

Unfortunately we don't yet comprehend exactly how this happens or how memories are recalled
years later for retrieval.

What makes up the human brain?

See our Definitions of Human Brain Components

Define Consciousness:
A constellation of attributes of mind such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the
ability to perceive a relationship between oneself and one's environment.

Define Unconsciousness:
An alteration of mental state that involves complete or near-complete lack of responsiveness to
people and other environmental stimuli. Being in a comatose state or coma is an illustration of
unconsciousness. Fainting due to a drop in blood pressure and a decrease of the oxygen supply
to the brain is an illustration of a temporary loss of consciousness.

How and why do we dream?

Dreams have fascinated nearly everyone for thousands of years. There are two different
schools of thought as to why we dream: the physiological school, and the psychological school.
While many theories have been proposed, not single consensus has emerged as to why we
dream. Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while other believe that
dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. One theory for dreaming
suggests dreams serve to clean up clutter from the mind.

How does the brain control body temperature?

The Hypothalamus part of the brain regulates body temperture much like a thermostat. The
hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (about 98.6 Fahrenheit or 37
Celsius), and if your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat. If you're too cold, the
hypothalamus makes you start shivering. Shivering and sweating helps get your body's
temperature back to normal.

Are humans born with all their brain cells?

Babies are born with around a 100 billion brain cells, but only a small number of neurons are
actually connected. By three years of age a childs brain has formed about 1,000 trillion
connections, about twice as many as adults have. At around 11 years, the brain begins to prune
unused connections. Connections that are used repeatedly in the early years become permanent;
those that are not are eliminated. Hence the saying, "use it or lose it."
How and why do we sleep?
We still don't fully understand the importance of sleep however we do know that sleep is the
time when the body does most of its repair work; muscle tissue is rebuilt and restored and tissure
building growth hormone is secreted during sleep. A good way to understand the role of sleep is
to look at what happens when we don't get enough sleep.

Are IQ tests accurate measures of intelligence?

First you need to define intelligence, a very hard task, think about it. Intelligence is an
encompassing term. "We cannot measure intelligence when we have not defined it" said
journalist Walter Lippmann in the early 1920's. According to most current definitions intelligence is
made up of the skills of logical reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking, and adaptation.
IQ tests are not very reliable and the scores may vary as much as 15 points from one test to
another. The average IQ scores for many populations have been rising at an average rate of
three points per decade since the early 20th century with most of the increase in the lower half of
the IQ range.

When is the brain considered dead?

Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to
sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of blood flow and
oxygenation. A brain-dead individual has no clinical evidence of brain function upon physical
examination. This includes no response to pain and no cranial nerve reflexes. Reflexes include
pupillary response (fixed pupils), oculocephalic reflex, corneal reflex, no response to the caloric
reflex test and no spontaneous respirations. The diagnosis of brain death needs to be rigorous to
determine whether the condition is irreversible. Legal criteria vary, but it generally requires
neurological exams by two independent physicians. The exams must show complete absence of
brain function, and may include two isoelectric (flat-line) EEGs 24 hours apart.
If tests show brain activity, the patient may be in a coma or vegetative state. A brain dead
person doesn't show brain activity. It is important to distinguish between brain death and states
that may mimic brain death. Some comatose patients can recover, and some patients with severe
irreversible neurologic dysfunction will nonetheless retain some lower brain functions such as
spontaneous respiration, despite the losses of both cortex and brainstem functionality. Thus,
anencephaly, in which there is no higher brain present, is generally not considered brain death,
though it is certainly an irreversible condition in which it may be appropriate to withdraw life
support.
Today, both the legal and medical communities use "brain death" as a legal definition of death.
Using brain-death criteria, the medical community can declare a person legally dead even if life
support equipment keeps the body's metabolic processes working.

Do brain supplements work in enhancing memory and brain power?

As we age our brain is more susceptible to memory loss and diseases such as Alzheimer's
disease. The functionality of the human brain can also be affected due to problems in nervous
system or inadequate blood supply to the brain. Here are few brain supplements said to assist the
brain.