tag: neuroscience
8 proofs
Critical periods of heightened cortical plasticity close permanently after early development, rendering the adult brain largely incapable of experience-dependent reorganization comparable to juvenile levels.
Sources: Pizzorusso et al. 2002, Science 298:1248-1251, Hensch & Bilimoria 2012, Cerebrum, Gervain et al. 2013, Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience +3 more
Adult neurogenesis occurs in the human neocortex.
Sources: Bhardwaj et al. 2006 — Neocortical neurogenesis in humans is restricted to development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103(33):12564-12568 (PubMed abstract), Kornack & Rakic 2001 — Cell Proliferation Without Neurogenesis in Adult Primate Neocortex. Science 294:2127-2130 (PubMed abstract), Rakic 2002 — Neurogenesis in adult primate neocortex: an evaluation of the evidence. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3:65-71 (PubMed abstract)
Humans use only 10% of their brain at any one time.
Sources: MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Scientific American
Over 80% of the brain's neurons are located in the cerebellum.
Sources: Herculano-Houzel S (2009) The human brain in numbers: a linearly scaled-up primate brain. Front Hum Neurosci 3:31. PMC2776484, von Bartheld CS, Bahney J, Herculano-Houzel S (2016) The search for true numbers of neurons and glial cells in the human brain. J Comp Neurol 524(18):3865-3895. PMC5063692, Herculano-Houzel S, Catania K, Manger PR, Kaas JH (2010) Coordinated scaling of cortical and cerebellar numbers of neurons. Front Neuroanat 4:12
The adult human brain has approximately 86 billion neurons and an average of 7,000 synapses per neuron, resulting in a total synaptic count exceeding 6 × 10^14.
Sources: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Herculano-Houzel 2009 (PubMed Central), UCLA Brain Research Institute, Brain Facts, BioNumbers BNID 112055, Harvard Medical School (citing Drachman 2005, Neurology)
The correlation between human brain volume and intelligence is r = 0.4
Sources: Pietschnig et al. (2015), Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews — PubMed, Nave et al. (2022), Royal Society Open Science — PMC, Wikipedia — Neuroscience and intelligence
The human brain accounts for 2% of body weight but uses 20% of the body's oxygen at rest.
Sources: Raichle & Gusnard 2002 'Appraising the brain's energy budget' PNAS (via PMC), Basic Neurochemistry (NCBI Bookshelf): Regulation of Cerebral Metabolic Rate
The human brain does not generate new neurons in adulthood.
Sources: Moreno-Jiménez et al. 2019, Nature Medicine (PubMed abstract), Kempermann et al. 2018, Cell Stem Cell (PMC), Llorens-Martín et al. 2021, Journal of Neuroscience (PMC)