Some people are supertasters they have more taste buds and can detect tastes that others can’t
Contents Introduction Central Control You’ve Got a Nerve Brainy Inside Your Brain Brain Map Moving and Feeling Seeing Things Hear Hear Smell That Taste That Remember Remember The History of the Brain More Brainy Facts Index 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32
Introduction Every creature has a brain but we humans have especially clever ones The human brain is a living supercomputer But like a computer it needs inputs and outputs and that’s where nerves come in Nerves provide input by sending signals to the brain from sensors all over the body and output by sending signals to tell the body what to do Your brain and nerves make up the nervous system Brainy Neanderthals We humans like to think we’ve got big brains But Neanderthal people had even bigger brains Neanderthal people lived 160,000 to 40,000 years ago in Eurasia Their brains were about 30 percent bigger than ours But an elephant has a brain three times as big as ours Intelligence Quotient An Intelligence Quotient IQ test features a series of questions designed to test your brainpower Most people get an IQ score between 85 and 115 Some very clever people get higher scores But IQ scores don’t really show how clever you are They only show how good at IQ tests you are The more you practice the better you do 6
Mind Your Brain Scientists and other thinkers often argue about whether you think with your brain or your mind Your brain is the mass of nerves inside your head that does your thinking Your mind is all your thoughts If your brain were a computer your mind would be all the things a computer does Just Squidding Most nerves are far too small too see except under a powerful microscope But the squid has a nerve with an axon tail that is over 0 04 inches 1 millimeter thick thicker than cotton thread The axon sends the signal that fires the squid’s jet propulsion system the jet of water it shoots out to give it a quick burst of speed Scientists have learned a lot about how human nerves work by studying the squid’s giant nerve Sigmund Freud the world’s best known psychologist Brain Science Different sciences involve different aspects of the brain and how it works Neuroscientists study how the brain and nerves work physically Cognitive neuroscientists study how the nerves in your brain make you think Psychologists study people’s minds and how they behave 7
