Interesting Facts

A substance found in red wine can help keep the brain young in a similar way to exercise and a low-calorie diet, scientists have discovered. Resveratrol, which occurs naturally in the skin of fruits including grapes, blueberries and mulberries, can keep muscles supple and help protect connections between neurons in the brain, according to researchers at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute . Tests on elderly mice showed the compound significantly slowed brain ageing by preserving synapses called neuromuscular junctions, which relay movement signals from the brain to the muscles.  Mice who had been given resveratrol from one year of age had more youthful neuromuscular junction synapses at two years old than those who had not. “I believe that we are getting closer to tapping into mechanisms to slow age-induced degeneration of neuronal circuits,” said the study’s primary author, assistant professor Gregorio Valdez.  Source  - Independent

According to research from Japan, people over 40 perform best at work if their working week is restricted to 3 days. (They found that a part-time job keeps the brain stimulated, while avoiding exhaustion and stress. The bad news is that not working also damaged brain function. However, working extremely long hours was more damaging than not working at all.)

Researchers may have discovered the ‘root of all evil’. (Scientists, studying the brains of mice found that a distinct part of the brain fires up before premeditated acts of aggresion are carried out: A distinct part of the hypothalamus - the brain region that controls body temperature, hunger and sleep - is activated shortly before an attack. So really, they have discovered the root of all evil in mice.) Source

According to neuroscientists from the Salk institute, the human brain has 10 x more memory capacity than previously thought. (They measured the storage capacity of each synapse - the connections within the brain that are responsible for storing memories - and discovered that, on average, one synapse can hold about 4.7 bits of information. This means that the human brain has a capacity of one petabyte, or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. One petabyte is about the same as about 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with text or about the same as 13.3 years of HD-TV recordings, or 4.7 billion books.   One big problem here: I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday. It all sounds very exciting, until you realise that Google handles 20 petabytes of data every day. And a mere 50 petabytes can hold the entire written works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages. I think we need to be able to upgrade our brains, or add bits, like...

According to a study conducted at the University of Bonn, in Germany, watching reality TV shows such as Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity makes you nicer. (Allegedly it develops our ability to feel “vicarious embarrassment” for others, activating those parts of the brain that make us more empathic, concluding that people who watch reality TV were able to “put themselves in another person’s shoes” more easily. I wonder if it makes people feel more empathy for the poor insects and critters eaten in I'm a (Z list) celebrity.)

According to researchers at the Emory School of Medicine in Georgia, fear can be transmitted from a father to his offspring through his sperm. (They have shown that if mice are taught to fear a certain smell this triggers chemical changes in their sperm.These changes then alter the makeup of their children and grandchildren's brains, causing them to fear the same smell. This could explain my fear of flying, and is bound to open up the whole nature vs nurture debate again.)

According to research into adolescent health, published in the Lancet, our brains are not fully developed until the age of 24. (In the UK, young people can legally smoke and have sex at 16, drive at 17, drink alcohol, vote and are deemed adults at 18, but the brain is ill-equipped before the age of 24 to deal with the effects of all the drinking they do and less able to assess risk. I wish I had known this when I was a bit younger. I'd have had a good excuse for all the crazy things I did: "Hey, give me a break, my brain isn't fully developed yet.")

Scientists have grown a miniature "human brain". (The artificially grown brain is  the size of a pea, and incapable of growing any larger, or achieving any kind of "thought".   I think I have that brain!) Source

Scientists from Heptares Therapeutics in Hertfordshire, are claiming to have identified the brain's 'misery molecule', which they have linked to stress and anxiety. (The protein - named CRF1, not the misery molecule, could also be linked to depression, and there are hopes that this discovery will lead to new drugs able to block this and control stress, anxiety and depression. I only have one problem with that. What if we have every reason to be stressed, anxious and depressed?)

Eating too many biscuits can put you in a coma. (This became clear when food writer,  Kevin Shalin, tried  to beat a restaurant’s customer record of scoffing hundreds of butter-rich biscuits failed - and he slipped into a coma. He told friends he feltdizzy after he had eaten 412, but he continued with the 413th and fell on the ground convulsing. Doctors believe the butter from the biscuits blocked signals coming from his brain. Yesterday hospital officials said they had already drained approximately two gallons of butter!  Luckily they expect him to make a full recovery. I remember I made myself sick eating peanuts, but I was about 9 at the time.) Source

The very first sip of beer releases a chemical that makes you want another one. (According to a study carried out at Indiana’s Alcohol Research Centre, that first sip releases dopamine into the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to the brain’s pleasure centres. That must be why my photos are always 2 beers .) Source

According to research from Cardiff University in Wales, chewing gum is good for the brain. (Chewing boosts thinking and alertness and reaction times among chewers are up to 10 per cent faster. Volunteers carried out tasks while chewing and not chewing gum as their brains were scanned to see which areas were active. During the 30-minute tests participants pressed a button with their right or left thumb in response to the direction of an arrow on a screen. Men and women who were not chewing took 545 milliseconds to react, compared with 493 milliseconds among the chewers. The brain regions most active during chewing were those involved with movement and attention. The act of chewing leads to the production of higher levels of insulin, which stimulates areas of the brain. That's something to chew on, and it might explain why I used to chew my pen at school.  I was improving my ability to concentrate.) Source

According to research carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge  has found that dehydration can affect the way teenagers' brains function. (School pupils taking exams  could benefit from drinking a glass of water beforehand, as being dehydrated is enough to effect the neural activity in key parts of their brains which, as a result, have to work harder to achieve the same tasks. I fear I might be constantly dehydrated.)

Maths really can make your brain ache. (Researchers from the University of Chicago have discovered that fear of maths can activate regions of the brain linked with the experience of physical pain. In fact, the higher a person’s anxiety the more it increases activity in regions of their brain associated with visceral threat detection, and often the experience of pain itself. If I'm honest, German grammar has the same effect on me.) Source

According to experts from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, squeezing a soft ball or making a fist with your left hand could help combat sporting nerves. (Basically when we practice a particular movement thousands of times, it becomes automatic and requires little conscious thought, by shifting the balance of brain activity away from the left side, which governs conscious movement, and towards the right, which is key to automated behaviour, we can reduce the likelihood of choking under pressure and because each of our arms is connected to the opposite side of the brain, this can be done by clenching the left hand. Now, two thoughts come to mind.  We should test this theory the next time England needs to take a penalty, and I wonder if clenching the right hand can reduce exam nerves.)

According to scientists at the University of Cambridge, abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts. (Experts have always been unsure whether drugs changed the wiring of the brain or if drug addicts' brains were wired differently in the first place and this study has shown the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters. So you really can blame it on  your parents.) Source

There are no pain receptors on the surface of the brain. (According to the Royal College of Nursing web site, some patients undergoing brain surgery have volunteered to have their exposed brain stimulated with electrodes during surgery. When not under general anesthesia, they can even report their sensations to the experimenter.  Volunteered!  I'm feeling queasy again.)

According to a study published in Science Translational Medicine, a patient's belief that a drug will not work can become a self fulfilling prophecy. (Studies showed the benefits of painkillers could be boosted or reduced by manipulating expectations. The power of the brain should never be underestimated.)

The storage capacity of the human brain is around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). (For example, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder there would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the telly running for 300 years to use it all up!  Actually, that would be really good - I've nearly run out of my 80 hours recording time!!) Source - Scientific American

According to scientist Dr David Lewis, when you go shopping and spot a bargain, chemicals that create feelings of well-being - like serotonin and adrenalin are released into the brain. (The brainwaves change and skin moisture levels rise, heart rates speed up, all indications that people get aroused. When I go shopping the only feelings that are aroused in me are annoyance and impatience.)