The Brain- and why you should look after it
The Amazing Brain
Every day we go about our routine – waking up, brushing teeth, cooking and eating food, bathing, dressing, going to work, talking to colleagues, returning home, preparing dinner, meeting family and friends, and going to sleep – all the while never fully appreciating just how much effort we are asking the brain to do.
The brain is the organ that ensures that our heartrate and breathing is steady, that controls when we feel sleepy or awake, that allows us to move without much difficulty when we are trying to sit onto a chair with the adequate amount of force, that allows us to remember what gossip has already been shared with friends and what the teacher wants to hear as the answer is something that was taught in the first year of college (i.e., testing for basics). It is because our brain is functioning in the manner it should, that we are able to exactly assess just how far we need to take our hand to reach the teacup, how to curl the fingers to grasp the handle (and which fingers to curl), how much pressure is needed to hold the handle and how much effort is needed to lift the cup to reach our lips, whilst not losing track of the conversation.
Essentially, the brain allows us to be human and to do all things that we humans do regularly. The simplest of acts require the brain to quickly receive information from the environment, assess what we want to do, compare it with what we need to do, plan the best possible method of doing the act, and executing it. Let us give it up for our dear Brain, whom we so often overlook in our lives, but who never fails to oversee everything that we are doing (even writing this article).
The Brain floats in our skull, protected by the latter and three layers of tissue (dura mater, pia mater, and arachnoid). Together with the spinal cord, it comprises the Nervous System. Nerves extend from the brain and spinal cord to all corners of our body and vice-versa. Just like our body is made up of cells, the brain is made up of neurons of different shapes and sizes.
Broadly, the brain can be divided into the Cerebrum (of which we will mostly be talking about), Cerebellum (also referred to as the little brain), and Brain stem (which is different from the spinal cord and is the link between the rest of the brain and the spinal cord).
Structurally, it can be divided into two hemispheres – the Left Hemisphere and the Right Hemisphere. The Cerebellum can be divided into four functional parts - Frontal, Parietal, Occipital, and Temporal Lobes. These lobes are constantly exchanging information between themselves to make sense of the world around us.
