Brain

Brain

From the Latin cerebrum , the brain is one of the nerve centers that make up the brain . It is located in the upper and anterior part of the cranial cavity and appears in all vertebrate beings .

In humans, the brain weighs between 1.3 and 1.6 kilos. The cerebral cortex (that is, the surface of the brain) houses some 22,000 million neurons, according to what is expressed in the most recognized medical studies.

The cellular metabolism generates the biochemical energy that the brain uses to trigger neuronal reactions . The energy is received by the dendrites and emitted in the axons in the form of molecules of chemical substances that are called neurotransmitters .

The brain is the body in charge of controlling and coordinating all the movements we make and of processing sensory information . On the other hand, it is dedicated to regulate homeostatic functions , such as blood pressure, body temperature and heartbeat.

In short, the brain is responsible for learning , cognition, memory and emotions. Its operation is carried out through the interaction between its different areas.

The brain is divided by a longitudinal fissure that allows to distinguish between two cerebral hemispheres : the right and the left . In turn, each hemisphere presents other fissures, but not so deep, that divide the cerebral cortex in different lobes .

Although both hemispheres are opposite, from a morphological aspect they are not symmetrical. On the other hand, it should be noted that only the human seems to show a difference in competences between the two hemispheres. By the way, the functions and characteristics of each one are detailed below , according to the studies known so far.

The left hemisphere is responsible for the recognition of writing and coherence between the different words that form a sentence, as well as the understanding of speech, numbers and mathematical and logical operations , and even the abstraction necessary to express ideas of oral or gestural form. This region of our brain is considered as the origin of our expressive capacity , and an injury that affects it can generate terrible disorders in its functions, such as speech and mobility of the right half of our body, although the seriousness of the consequences It depends directly on the type of damage suffered.

Although science has not been able to decipher the mechanisms that the brain uses to start from a certain group of ideas , which have been converted into words, relate them to each other and finally build a more complex sentence or idea, it is believed that before assigning a I speak to a concept, the mind tries to understand it independently; That is why we are able to learn different languages, and to look at knowledge from various cultural perspectives. It should be mentioned that intelligence tests focus mainly on the performance of the left hemisphere, since most of its functions are related to consciousness, to analysis and measurement, to accuracy and expressiveness.

The right hemisphere , in a complementary way, has in its power the integration of visual and sound information, to collaborate with orientation in space and to understand the world through feelings and sensations; works in a way almost opposite to the left, trying to combine the concepts in a whole, instead of dividing them into small portions. This hemisphere is considered the most active in people with skills for art in general. A very interesting example explains that if we unexpectedly meet someone we know, it is precisely this region that performs the relevant facial recognition, although it needs the subsequent work of the left hemisphere to find in our memory its name and other personal data.