The Wonders of the Human Brain

“The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.” Thomas Edison

Twenty-five years ago, President George H.W. Bush issued an official proclamation designating the 1990’s as the “Decade of the Brain.” He did so because it was a time when enormous break-through research was being done. So innovative was this work, that, through the use of imaging techniques, scientists were able to do something never before achieved in all of human history: see inside the brain while it was functioning.

Recently, President Barack Obama followed up on this enterprise by launching his own brain research program: The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The mission of this project, which involves government agencies, academia, and the private sector, is to provide a “dynamic understanding” of brain function in the hope that we can “harness the brain’s power to explore, to understand, and to heal.”

As one author put it, “This three pound organ, enclosed in the skull … produces the signals that keep our bodily machinery working. Without the brain, the heart could not beat, the lungs could not breathe, and the limbs could not move. The brain allows us to perceive, to recognize, and to remember…. It is also home to the mind – the very thing that makes each one of us unique and utterly distinctive….It allows us to think about the fact that we think.”

The brain contains a network of some 100,000 miles of nerve fibers, called white matter, that connect the various components of the mind, “giving rise to everything we think, feel, and perceive.” According to an article in National Geographic Magazine, “So far the researchers have mapped the brains of six people, charting the activity of 20,000 protein-coding genes at 700 sites within each brain….The scientists estimate that 84 percent of all the genes in our DNA  become active somewhere in the adult brain.”   

The ultimate question remains: how does this three-pound organ do such amazing and varied things?

According to this same article, this is “biology’s greatest unsolved mystery: how the brain really works.”

The more we understand the answer to this question, the better prepared we will be as a society to bring relief to those who suffer terribly from the malfunctions of the brain that cause such disorders as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety, and addiction.

In the decades since President Bush’s proclamation, scientists have made significant advances in understanding brain function. Important medications have been developed as a result. Distinct regions of the brain have been pin-pointed. Specific tasks such as language and memory and pleasure/reward have been located.

Scientists are now at the point where they know that the most important development yet to take place is the discovery of specialized cells, the interactions of neurochemicals, and new “neural codes” that appear to represent sensory information and experience.

According to one journal, “In the past few years alone, some of the discoveries have bordered on the incredible. For example, researchers have established a strong link between the gut and brain function. They’ve shown that memories can be passed from one generation to the next. They’ve identified biomarkers that may help us diagnose diseases like Parkinson’s and schizophrenia early enough to significantly slow their progression. They’ve demonstrated that one can operate a robotic prosthetic – and even a fellow human being – by brain signals alone. And that’s just a start.”

Because all of this research is so important, I will be summarizing many of the results in a series of articles over the next few months that will cover the following areas of interest:

The Developing Brain

The Senses and Perception

Learning and Memory

His and Her Brains

Consciousness

The Emotional Brain

Intelligence and Creativity

Diseases and Disorders

The Healthy Brain

Sources:

Wikipedia

The Brain: The Ultimate Guide by Stanley R. Harris

National Geographic Magazine, “The New Science of the Brain”, February 2014

A User’s Guide to the Brain, by John J. Ratey, M.D.