BRAINS have fascinated us for centuries . . . and I’m not surprised.
Never has another organ been so misunderstood or heavily researched.
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I’ve been a doctor for 20 years and I know a little about how the brain works, and how to help when things don’t go to plan.
However, I’m still learning all the time. Now I want to pass on some of that knowledge to adults and children who might be curious.
In my new book, Brain Power, I want to show just how incredible the brain is, how to get to know it better and how you can help it to be the best it can possibly be.
I also want to show kids how to look after their mental health and wellbeing, which is so important.
Furthermore, I want every child to understand about neurodiversity and how different people think differently.
Even though that can pose some challenges, we all have strengths that we can use to be as wonderful as anyone else.
Our brains are more powerful than any supercomputer and each of us is unique.
That’s right – no one else has a brain like yours, and that makes every single person special.
So if you find brains as interesting as I do, or want exercises to improve your abilities or need help with difficult emotions, grab a copy of Brain Power today.
Hopefully, it will help you realise just how awesome you already are.
A billion squidgy cells
DID you know your brain is made up of around one billion cells? If you lined up one billion peas, they would stretch around the planet 25 times.
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It looks like a giant shrivelled prune inside your head.
Why is it so wrinkly? Because it’s folded many times so you can fit as much brain as possible into a small space.
If you laid your brain out flat, it would be the size of a pillow – and as flat as a pancake!
It’s really squidgy because it’s mainly made up of water, protein and fat – just like soup.
Electrical signals travel from your brain to your body at more than 400 kilometres an hour (248 mph).
Even when we’re asleep, our brains are busy cycling between two main types of sleep – rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep.
We dream in REM sleep – this is when our eyes flicker under our eyelids.
Your dog also experiences REM sleep – if you see them twitching, they are probably dreaming about chasing rabbits or fetching a ball.
Tests to check it’s working
THE two-point discrimination test: We use this in hospitals to see if someone is having problems with their nervous system.
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You need two pencils – make sure they are not too sharp!
Put the pencils side by side about 1cm apart. Close your eyes and touch both tips with your finger at the same time.
You should be able to feel two separate points. If you put the tips closer together, they will start to feel like one.
Ask a friend to carefully do the same thing on the middle of your back.
They should start with the pencils side by side and gently press the tips against your skin.
It should feel as if they are one pencil at first. If your friend gradually increases the space between the pencils, you’ll start to feel the two separate points.
This usually doesn’t happen until they’re at least a few centimetres apart – much more than in your fingers!
Test hand-eye co-ordination and multi-tasking skills: Put both your arms out in front of you and draw an alphabet letter in the air with your right hand.
Then draw a different letter with your left hand. Easy, right?
Now draw the two different letters at the same time with both hands.
For example, draw an “F” with your left hand while drawing a “T” with your right.
If you want to be really clever, try short words.
Horrid history lessons
THE ancient Egyptians believed that all thoughts originated in the heart.
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So when someone died, they would carefully mummify the body, including the heart, preserving all the important bits.
But, oops – they sucked out the brain through a hole in the skull (ewwww!) and tossed it in the bin because they didn’t think it was anything special.
Awkward.
In 70 BCE, a Greek doctor called Galen looked after Roman gladiators. He was one of the first people to say that emotions and all the different functions of the body were controlled by the brain.
In 1908, French doctor Alexis Carrel collaborated with American Dr Charles Guthrie to transplant the head of one dog on to the neck of another, in a bid to better understand blood vessel surgery.
I know, proper Frankenstein stuff!
Unfortunately, the “Frankendog” experiment didn’t work and the dog died soon after.
But people did not learn their lesson.
In 1970, an American called Dr Robert White tried a similar “head swap” experiment with monkeys.
Guess what? It didn’t work out too well for the monkeys either. Poor monkeys.
In 2020, a woman called Dagmar Turner had an operation on a brain tumour at King’s College Hospital, London.
Turner played the violin while the surgeons were operating on her tumour so they could make sure they didn’t damage any parts of the brain that controlled her hand movements.
Give it a workout
EXERCISING your body makes it fitter and healthier – and the same goes for your mind.
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Using your brain for different activities, such as puzzles, reading books, arts and crafts, helps to keep it active.
Try these simple exercises:
ON THE MOVE: Try this on your way to school. If you see someone walking by, pick out three things about them, such as their style of clothes, hair colour and the type of bag they have.
Then, after they’ve gone, wait five minutes and see how many of the three things you can remember. The more you practise, the better you’ll get.
MEMORY STORY: Ask a friend to come up with a list of random words for you. After reading the list for 30 seconds, can you remember all the words?
If so, ask for a new list including two more words.
When it starts getting tricky, try linking the words together in a story.
For example, if the words are mouse, apple, car, shoe, balloon and puddles, your story could be: The mouse was eating an apple in his car, but realised he’d forgotten his shoe, so used a balloon to float away so his feet didn’t get wet in the puddles.
It sounds ridiculous, but it works! See how many words can you remember.