"Mr.Brain" series- Part 1- The ultimate bio computer

I always say

"Mind is everything. You conquer your mind, you will conquer the world."

I recently found that it is indeed true. I started reading about the brain and I found some astonishing facts that put me in a state of bewilderment.

I thought for a while and it was really true. People have spent nearly their lifetime to analyze how the brain really works. It is true that if the brain can know about itself, about its potential, it can do wonders. At last after about three-and-a-half million year history of human intelligence that very intelligence has realized that it can understand, analyze and nurture itself. It can develop powerful and far more flexible modes of thoughts currently in use throughout the world.

Let's find out what the structure of our brain looks like and then we will understand about the processing of information.
Research tells us everything about the brain. I'll enumerate the amazing facts about the structure.What parts does the brain have? What makes us think?

• In each human brain there are an estimated one million, million,(1000,000,000,000) brain cells.
• Each brain cell(neuron) contains a vast electrochemical complex and a powerful micro-data processing and transmitting system.
  
• Each of these brain cells looks like a super octopus, with a central body and tens, hundreds, or thousands of tentacles.
• Magnifying further, the tentacles looks like a branch of a tree. Radiating from the cell centre. These are called dendrites. One particularly large branch is called axon.
  
• Each dendrite or axon may range from a millimeter to 1.5 meters in length and all throughout the length there are protuberances called dendritic spines or synaptic buttons.
  
• Each of those contain bundles of chemicals. Major message carriers. One button will link to the other. When an electrical impulse travels through the brain cell, chemicals are transferred across the minute, liquid filled space between the two cells. This space is called the synaptic gap.

The image of a brain cell

This is the structure of our brain. This is what it is made up of. There are further more facts about its processing. How much of information that the brain can process? You'll get the answer in the following paragraph.

Processing of information:

The chemical slot into the receiving surface, creating an impulse that travels through the receiving braincell from where it is then directed to an adjoining brain cell. A brain cell may receive incoming pulses from hundreds of thousands of connecting points every second.

When the brain cell is passed on with a message or thought or a re-lived memory, a biochemical electromagnetic pathway is established. These neuronal pathways are called as "memory traces". These memory traces or mental maps are one of the most exciting areas of modern brain research.

So what is unique about these memory traces anyway?

Every time we have a thought, the biochemical/electromagnetic resistance along the pathway carrying that thought is reduced. It is like trying to clear the path through a forest. The first time is a struggle because we have to fight our way through the undergrowth. The second time we travel it will be easier because of the clearing we did on our first journey. The more times we travel that path, the less resistance there will be, until, after many repetitions, we have a wide smooth track which requires little or no clearing. A similar function occurs in our brain: the more we repeat patterns or maps of thought, the less resistance there is to them. So the repeated use keeps the track clear, thus encouraging further 'traffic'. The more tracks and pathways we can create and use, the 'clearer', faster and more efficient our thinking will become.
This is why people say

"Practice makes a man absolutely perfect"

Professor Pyotr Kouzmich Anokhin of Moscow University made his last public statement on the results of his 60-year investigation into the nature of our brain cells in the winter of 1973. The conclusion in his paper 'The Forming of Natural and Artificial Intelligence' was as follows:

"We can show that each of the ten billion neurons in the human brain has a possibility of connections of one with twenty-eight noughts (zeroes) after it! If a single neuron has this quality of potential, we can hardly imagine what the whole brain can do. What it means is that the total number of possible combinations/permutations in the brain, if written out, would be 1 followed by 10.5 million kilometers of noughts(zeroes)!
No human yet exists who can use all the potential of his brain. This is why we don't accept any pessimistic estimates of the limits of the human brain. It is unlimited!"

The messy mesh of the brain cells

It is accomplished by the biggest 'embrace' the known universe - your brain cells embracing your brain cells. Each individual brain cell is capable of contacting and embracing as many as 10,000 or more proximate brain cells in the same instant.
There are two cerebral hemispheres namely the right and the left. The research by Professor Roger Sperry of California, who was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for his research, indicated that two sides or hemispheres, of the cortex tend to divide the major intellectual functions between them. The right hemisphere appeared to be dominant in the following intellectual areas: rhythm, spatial awareness, gestalt(wholeness), imagination, daydreaming, colour and dimension. The left appeared to be dominant in a different but equally powerful range of mental skills: words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analysis, and lists.

Although each hemisphere is dominant in certain activities, they are both basically skilled in all areas. This was further proved by Ornstein, Zaidel, Bloch in their research of confirming the findings of Roger Sperry.

Michael Bloch stated:

'If we call ourselves "right brain" or " left brain" people, we are limiting our ability to develop new strategies.'

It is wrong to say that 'Iam bad at or do not possess mental skill X'. It is both an untruth and misunderstanding. If one is weak at something the correct statement must be 'I have yet to develop mental skill X'. The only barrier to the expression and application is all our mental skills is our knowledge of how to access them.

Dr.Mark Rosenweig in Paris announced the results of his work and told that
"Even if your brain is fed 10 items of data(each item being a simple word or image) every second for 100 years, it would still have used less than one-tenth of its storage capacity."

There are a few techniques through which the efficient thinking can be done. There are note making/ taking techniques that will enhance the way we write and remember them. Many of us think that the more neat the notes are the more easy they are to understand. But there are cases in which when a student started writing notes in a neat manner, the IQ level started decreasing. I'll discuss about Radiant Thinking, Mind Mapping, and the problems in conventional note making/taking in detail in the subsequent posts. At the end of the series you'll be able to apply the Radiant Thinking and Mind mapping techniques to real life and make wonder with your mind and brain. The easiest way to remember and store a lot of information in your brain.

-SATZ