The scientific term for brain freeze is “sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.”
100 Mind-Blowing Brain Facts
Brain fibres lose 10% of their total length every decade. They can shrink even more so under acute stress.
There is a correlation between pulling an all-nighter and snapping out of depression. This is because the brain gets more active the longer it goes without sleep.
Animals yawn based on how large their brain is. The bigger the brain, the longer it will yawn.
Your brain uses 20% of the total oxygen in your body.
A study at Florida State University discovered that playing Portal 2 is better for your brain than brain-training games like Lumosity.
Einstein’s brain went missing when he died in 1955 and was lost for 23 years. The doctor who worked on his autopsy stole it and kept it in a hidden cider box.
The same brain cycles that occur when asleep, still happen when you’re awake, but in smaller sections. Meaning that parts of your brain are always “falling asleep.”
Giraffe hearts pump twice as hard as a cow’s heart to get blood to its brain.
Your brain is constantly eating itself. This process is called phagocytosis, where cells envelop and consume smaller cells or molecules to remove them from the system. Don’t worry! Phagocytosis isn’t harmful but helps preserve your grey matter.
Animals can experience time differently from humans. To smaller animals, the world around them moves more slowly compared to humans. Salamanders and lizards, for example, experience time more slowly than cats and dogs. This is because the perception of time depends on how quickly the brain can process incoming information.
A chicken once lived for 18 months without a head. Mike the Chicken’s incredible feat was recorded back in the 1940s in the USA. He survived as his jugular vein and most of his brainstem were left mostly intact, ensuring just enough brain function remained for survival. In the majority of cases, a headless chicken dies in a matter of minutes.
Wearing a tie can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5 per cent. A study in 2018 found that wearing a necktie can reduce the blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5 per cent, which can make you feel dizzy, and nauSEOus, and cause headaches. They can also increase the pressure in your eyes if on too tight and are great at carrying germs.
Bacteria on your skin cause your itches. Specifically, bacteria known as Staphylococcus aureus can release a chemical that activates a protein in our nerves. This sends a signal from our skin to our brains, which our brain perceives as an itch.
You could sweat when you’re anxious to alert others. One theory suggests we’ve evolved to sweat whilst anxious to alert the brains of other people around us so they are primed for whatever it is that’s making us anxious. Brain scans have revealed that when you sniff the sweat of a panic-induced person, regions of the brain that handle emotional and social signals light up. When you’re anxious your sympathetic nervous system releases hormones including adrenaline, which activates your sweat glands.
Your brain burns 400-500 calories a day. That’s about a fifth of your total energy requirements. Most of this is concerned with the largely automatic process of controlling your muscles and processing sensory input, although some studies show solving tricky problems increases your brain’s metabolic requirements too.
Wearing a necktie could reduce blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5 per cent.
Your brain alone burns around 400 to 500 calories each day.
Blue whales eat half a million calories in one mouthful. Just try to wrap your brain around the second part of this animal fact: Those 457,000 calories are more than 240 times the energy the whale uses to scoop those krill into its mouth.
Your brain synapses shrink while you sleep. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Centre for Sleep and Consciousness studied mice to observe what happens to their brains while they sleep. Dr Chiara Cirelli and Dr Giulio Tononi found an 18 per cent decrease in the size of synapses after a few hours of sleep. Don’t worry, though—this nighttime brain shrinkage helps your cognitive abilities.
Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are in New York City. They were given to Henry Abrams and preserved in a safety deposit box. Abrams was Einstein’s eye doctor. He received the eyeballs from Thomas Harvey, the man who performed the autopsy on Einstein and illegally took the scientist’s brain for himself.
Dunce caps used to be signs of intelligence. Thirteenth-century philosopher John Duns Scotus believed that a pointed cap would help spread knowledge from the tip to the brain, and his “Dunsmen” followers wore them as a badge of honour. In the 1500s, though, his ideas became less popular and the meaning of the Duns cap was turned on its head, becoming something of a joke.
The world’s smallest wasp is smaller than an amoeba. The Megaphragma mymaripenne wasp has the same body parts as any other bug (brain, wings, eyes, and more) but is a fifth of a millimetre long, making it smaller than most amoebas, which are made of just one cell.
Researchers once turned a live cat into a telephone. Princeton researchers Ernest Wever and Charles Bray took out a cat’s skull and most of its brain to connect the animal to electricity. When they spoke into the cat’s ear, the sound could be heard through a phone receiver in another room. The twisted experiment paved the way for cochlear implant developments.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. This could be why the birds often run around in circles when trying to escape predators despite their fast running speed.
The brain is the fattest organ. The stomach may be our body’s fattest part, but the fattest organ is our brain. The brain is composed of nearly 60% fat.
People don’t sneeze in their sleep. While asleep, humans are more prone to sneezing because the mucous membranes swell when lying down. However, the brain shuts down the neuroreceptors that stimulate our sneezing reflex. That way, only very strong stimuli can wake one to sneeze.
Sleep cleanses your brain. When we sleep, more cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain to wash away the day’s worth of harmful, excess proteins and toxins. Think about that on your next Netflix binge.
The eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain. Its eyes are around the size of a billiard ball. One eye is also smaller than the other. Perhaps this is why they tend to run in circles.
There was a fifth member of the Beatles. Stuart Sutcliffe was a painter and bassist who was an original member before the band came to fame. He soon later died due to a brain haemorrhage.
Losing weight alters brain activity. Some records show that when women lose weight, their memory improves. Research has also linked obesity to poor memory, most especially those with pear-shaped body types.
Frigate birds can sleep while flying. This is possible because they can keep only half of their brain’s hemispheres awake. Theoretically, they could fly forever if they didn’t need food or water.
There is a scientific term for brain freezes. The term is called sphenopalatine ganglion neuralgia. No wonder people stick with brain freeze.
Every decade, brain fibres lose 10% of their strength. At times of acute stress, they shrink even more than the average amount. This decline continues between the ages of 20 to 80.
You can become less depressed if you stay up. Research has found that there is a correlation between those who pull all-nighters and those hazing out of depression. This is because the longer you go without sleep, the more active your brain becomes. However, it is not recommended to go without sleep as it is a necessary need for humans to be able to function normally.
The human brain uses 20% of the oxygen in your body. This is continuous and it does not rest even when we sleep. This is why when people yawn it is believed to be the brain’s way of cooling down.
Humans have five vital organs. Without any of these organs, a human being cannot survive. These organs include the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and the brain.
A surgical procedure that removes fear from your brain exists. This process is called selective amygdalohippocampectomy and is used to treat patients with epilepsy. While this may sound like a process you would want to try, it comes with consequences.
Your brain is active even if you are asleep. As an adult passes into deeper stages of sleep, brain waves begin to slow down and become bigger. As your sleep deepens, the brain activity moves into REM sleep. The muscles then relax and breathing is regulated to help the body recover from the long day.
The human skull remains conscious after decapitation. It remains conscious for a few seconds to a minute after being separated from the body. A full brain shutdown occurs after 48-96 hours.
The human brain is 78% water. Up to 60% of the adult human body is made up of water. Research has indicated that both the human brain and heart are around 73-78% water.
25% of the oxygen we breathe is used by the brain. This oxygen is used to help blood cells circulate in the brain and allow it to function normally. The brain also uses three times as much oxygen as the muscles in the body do.
The human brain is the only brain that shrinks with age. Humans are the only animals that get dumb when they get older. Other animals’ senses would get dull, but they retain the same brain mass.
Your brain uses 12 watts of energy to think and does not feel pain. The brain uses 20% of our resting metabolic calorie rate to keep functioning. It does not feel any pain because there are no pain receptors in the brain itself.
10 gallons of carrot juice can kill a person. The Vitamin A content of that much carrot juice is high enough to make your brain swell and cause other complications leading to death.
An actor’s brain activity is different when in character. Some actors are so good, you forget that they’re acting. However, the actors themselves seem to forget that too. During a study, researchers scanned performers’ brains while the actors answered questions either as themselves or in character. According to the results, the brain activity of participants differed between answering as themselves or as a character – almost as if the character is possessing the actor.
A headless chicken survived for 18 months. Mike The Headless Chicken, also known as Miracle Mike survived for 18 months without his head. According to scientists, his brain stem and jugular remained intact, and a clot prevented him from bleeding to death. His owner would feed him through a dropper and his trachea. Eventually, though, he choked to death.
An ostrich’s brain size is smaller than its eyeball. Talk about a bird’s brain. The average size of an ostrich’s brain is 59.26 x 42.30 mm, meaning the ostrich’s brain is smaller than either of its eyes which are the size of billiard balls.
Junk food is as addictive as drugs. The struggle to quit and the tendency to lose control may sound like a drug problem, but it’s a similar problem for junk food. According to a study, eating junk food has a similar effect on brain activity as narcotics do. This phenomenon is more common with highly processed food such as fast food and instant food. Isn’t that one of the useless facts you wish you didn’t know?
Brain waves can be used to power an electric train.
The Neanderthal’s brain was bigger than yours.
Canadian researchers have found that Einstein’s brain was 15% wider than normal.
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. Yes, if you block the pressure of the sneeze, it can cause a rupture of the eardrums, irritation of the throat and in worst cases, rupture of blood vessels in your brain or eyes.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its whole brain.
Left-handed people may especially use their brains. They sometimes share the work between both sides of their brain more evenly.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. Their little brains are genuinely smaller than one of their eyeballs.
Your brain is constantly eating itself. Called phagocytosis, this process allows cells to envelop and consume smaller cells or molecules to remove them from the system. It might sound a little scary, but it’s a good thing since it helps our brains preserve grey matter!
Wearing a tie can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5%. According to a 2018 study, in addition to increasing eye pressure and carrying germs, wearing a tie too tightly can make you feel nauSEOus and dizzy, as well as cause headaches.
The smaller the animal is, the slower they can process time. How animals perceive time can depend on how quickly the brain processes new information. Animals like mice or lizards will experience time differently than horses or dogs.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
The human brain is eating itself. Phagocytosis is where cells consume smaller cells or molecules to ultimately remove them from the system. This is not a harmful process but a necessary one to preserve grey matter in the brain.
The bacteria on your skin cause itching on your skin. Staphylococcus aureus releases a chemical that activates a protein in our nerves and tells our brain that there is an itch.
If you wear a tie, it can reduce the blood flow to your brain by 7.5 per cent. Wearing a tie too tight can cause dizziness and headaches, including more pressure on your eyes.
A human brain operates on about 15 watts.
Starfish do not have a brain.
The human brain cannot feel pain.
Only half of the dolphin’s brain goes to sleep when asleep and the other half stays awake.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
The average brain weighs about three pounds. A newborn brain weighs about 3/4 of a pound.
Dolphins only shut half their brain off when sleeping. The other half stays at a low level of alertness to protect against predators, obstacles, or other animals.
About 75% of your brain is made of water.
The human brain will triple its size in the first year of life.
The brain is not capable of multitasking. While we may think we’re doing two things at the same time, we’re just quickly switching back and forth between different tasks.
Newborn babies are incredibly different from what they will grow up to be. At birth, a baby’s head is approximately one-quarter of its body weight. The baby’s brain will also double in size in one year. Babies also have 300 bones while adults have 206.
If you are analytical, someone may have called you left-brained. Someone might call your more emotional friends right-brained. However, this theory is not based on fact. Both sides of your brain work together to create your personality.
Octopus skin contains the same light-sensitive proteins as octopus eyes. This means its skin can “see” and respond to light without information from the eyes or brain.
Koalas may be cute, but they’re incredibly dumb. No, they have one of the smallest brains out of all mammals, and that’s in proportion to their body weight too! Their restrictive diet of non-nutritious eucalyptus leaves may be the cause, as this diet couldn’t possibly sustain a larger brain. To give you an idea of how clueless they are, when a koala is presented with a branch with leaves and a pile of leaves on a plate, they will eat the leaves on the branch as they cannot recognise those on the plate as food.
Reading rewires your brain for higher intelligence and empathy.
Knitting acts as a natural antidepressant and can help ease anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. It can also protect the brain from ageing.
Just 30 minutes of daily complaining can physically damage your brain. Listening to someone constantly complain also negatively affects brain function.
General Motors made the first self-driving car model. Elon Musk wasn’t the brain behind autonomous cars. In 1939, General Motors was able to create a model for a self-driving car that relies on electromagnetic fields and magnetized spikes on the roads.
The first computer virus was harmless. In 1971, the first ever computer virus was developed. Named Creeper, it was made as an experiment just to see how it spread between computers. The virus simply displayed the message: “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” The first virus ever released into the wild was called Brain, which also wasn’t harmful. However, it was the very first IBM PC virus.
The brain is our fattiest organ and is composed of nearly 60% fat.
Individual people can experience time differently, too. You’ve probably noticed how time seems to speed up when you’re racing against a deadline or having fun, and how it tends to drag when you’re bored. This is because when you’re focused on something, like a big work project or a party, your brain pays less attention to how time passes. But when you’re bored, or your brain is less stimulated, you become more aware of the passing of time, making it feel slower. One study proposed that dopamine—the neurotransmitter and hormone that helps us feel happy—may be an additional culprit. It showed that increased dopamine production, which happens when you’re enjoying something, may slow down your body’s internal clock, making time feel like it’s flying by.