A Neurologist’s Mind View

The essence of who we are lies in those brain pattern- how & what we think...

The human brain is perhaps one of the most mysterious things in the world. The concept of brain emulation has a colorful history, roughly 85 billion individual neurons make up the human brain, each one connected to as many as 10, 000 others via axons and dendrites. It’s the sum of those brain signals that encode information and enable the brain to process, associate and execute commands. And many neuroscientists believe the essence of who we are, the memory, the personality, the emotion, the thinking process, and even the consciousness-lies in those brain patterns.

The fun facts about wondrous and incredible human brain:

-There are somewhere 80-100 billion neurons nerve cells in the human brain. And the left hemisphere packs in almost 200 million more neurons than the right side.
-Weighing in around 3 pounds, a brain makes up just 2% to 3% of the body’s mass, but consumes 20% of the body’s oxygen and between 15% and 20% of its glucose.
-Brains also put out an astonishing amount of energy. The sleeping brain could power a 25-watt light bulb.
-The axons in your brain could span a distance of 100, 000 miles, that’s four times around the earth.
-The brain lacks pain receptors, and the brain’s prefrontal cortex is impressively resilient, in part because there’s a lot of redundancy in the frontal lobe regions.
-Texture matters –a lot. The wrinkles in the brain, called gyri, increase surface area, letting one pack in more memory-storing, thought-producing neurons.
-The brains, even the exhausted one are pretty prolific, the neurologist believe there are 70, 000 thoughts a day or even more. It depends on how you define a thought.
-Information travels through different types of neurons at a different speed, from 1 mile /hour to 270 miles per hour.
-The brain can scan and process complex images in as little as 13 milliseconds.
-The brain is built for navigation. Nobel prize winners discover a complex network of cells that’s been dubbed the brain’s “inner GPS.”

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) and creativity: The functional and anatomical organization of the PFC supports different aspects of behavioral adaptation in humans, suggesting its role in the adaptive aspects of creativity as they are emphasized in its definition (creating something original and appropriate). Functional neuroimaging and experimental studies suggest that the PFC, in particular, the anterior PFC, may also play a critical role in originality aspects of creativity.

The four stages of creativity based on neurologist’s research. Research Abstract (The creative brain--revisiting concepts. --Chakravarty.) Creativity is a complex neuro-psycho-philosophical phenomenon which is difficult to define literally. Fundamentally it involves the ability to understand and express novel orderly relationships. The creative process involves four stages--preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. A high level of general intelligence, domain-specific knowledge, and special skills are necessary pre-requisites. It is possible that in addition, some creative people might have architectural alternations of specific portions of the posterior neocortex. Associated with such pre-requisites, the process of creative innovation (incubation and illumination stages) necessitates the need for an ability of divergent thinking, a novelty-seeking behavior, some degree of suppression of latent inhibition and a subtle degree of frontal dysfunction.

Modern technologies make it easier for neurologists to look inside the brain and understand how it is functioning and growing. It is even in a tipping point where they can actually see interneural connections forming and firing. But for making continuous progress, you have to understand how the system works. What are fundamental principles, does your brain create your thoughts, or how do your thoughts stimulate your brain, The brain isn’t a flawless machinery system, but a living thing which not only manipulates your physical body and behavior consciously but also connects with nature subconsciously; It is still full of mystery.

Posted in: Creativity,Innovation,Mindshift