As with advances in all areas of human understanding, technology has been crucial to developing the field of neuroscience, and so the emergence in recent decades of innovations such as neuro-imaging and brain scanning has helped scientists rapidly improve their knowledge of how the brain works. Some scientists call the 1990s the "decade of the brain", a time when many of the processes that happen at the subconscious level begun to be understood better. Thanks to technology, researchers were able to link certain stimuli (colour, shape, pain, etc) with specific areas in our brains, with neuro-imaging pinpointing electronic activity in each corresponding section.
One of the major insights of neuroscience is that little of what we do is done consciously (for more details, this makes fascinating reading). It's a scary thought, but the unconscious brain controls most of what we do. In fact, the conscious mind is just a small part of our entire brain, acting like a book-keeper that attempts to record all the events we experience, people we meet and knowledge we amass. This conscious part of our brain, also known as the neocortex, is what separates primates from other animals as it also allows us to undertake long-term planning, whereas most animals are more fully engaged in the here and now. In humans, this neocortex has grown to a relatively huge size, owing to language development and other creative pursuits.
One popular theory is that the human brain is split into 3 layers, each of which evolved after the next. At the core is the "reptilian brain", which controls movement, aggression and all the other basic functions, including breathing. Then layered above this is the "old mammalian brain", site of the limbic system which governs our emotions, long-term memory and hormones. Then comes the largest section, the "neocortex", the huge size of which gives humans an evolutionary advantage over other animals. Seeing this neocortex develop in a human foetus is one of the wonders of life, made possible by a neural tube that sends wave upon wave of neurons to the brain. As a results, humans are at the top of the "neocortex tree" alongside dolphins, who are the brain champions of the oceans.
And of course some brains are bigger than others, with London taxi drivers possessing a larger hippocampus (the site where memories are encoded) than the average human thanks to the "knowledge", closely followed by actors who know better than most professionals that our "memory is a muscle". Although neuroscience has been able to establish such interesting facts about the hippocampus, the fact that the whole brain (and not just the hippocampus) lights up on an MRI scan when trying to retrieve a memory, as if it were breathing, is still a mystery.
Indeed, despite all the progress in neuroscience, much remains unknown about the brain and scientists expect the coming century to unveil some big secrets about how we operate. For instance, an experiment using neuro-imaging showed that, when asking both a person in a coma and someone who is fully conscious to visualise serving a tennis ball, the exact same section of the brain would light up on an MRI scan. Another mystery is "locked in syndrome", memorably portrayed in the book-cum-film The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, where a patient is completely paralysed but still fully conscious. Scientists are confident that all these mysteries, and more, will be solved in the coming century, so watch this space.
One of the major insights of neuroscience is that little of what we do is done consciously (for more details, this makes fascinating reading). It's a scary thought, but the unconscious brain controls most of what we do. In fact, the conscious mind is just a small part of our entire brain, acting like a book-keeper that attempts to record all the events we experience, people we meet and knowledge we amass. This conscious part of our brain, also known as the neocortex, is what separates primates from other animals as it also allows us to undertake long-term planning, whereas most animals are more fully engaged in the here and now. In humans, this neocortex has grown to a relatively huge size, owing to language development and other creative pursuits.
One popular theory is that the human brain is split into 3 layers, each of which evolved after the next. At the core is the "reptilian brain", which controls movement, aggression and all the other basic functions, including breathing. Then layered above this is the "old mammalian brain", site of the limbic system which governs our emotions, long-term memory and hormones. Then comes the largest section, the "neocortex", the huge size of which gives humans an evolutionary advantage over other animals. Seeing this neocortex develop in a human foetus is one of the wonders of life, made possible by a neural tube that sends wave upon wave of neurons to the brain. As a results, humans are at the top of the "neocortex tree" alongside dolphins, who are the brain champions of the oceans.
And of course some brains are bigger than others, with London taxi drivers possessing a larger hippocampus (the site where memories are encoded) than the average human thanks to the "knowledge", closely followed by actors who know better than most professionals that our "memory is a muscle". Although neuroscience has been able to establish such interesting facts about the hippocampus, the fact that the whole brain (and not just the hippocampus) lights up on an MRI scan when trying to retrieve a memory, as if it were breathing, is still a mystery.
Indeed, despite all the progress in neuroscience, much remains unknown about the brain and scientists expect the coming century to unveil some big secrets about how we operate. For instance, an experiment using neuro-imaging showed that, when asking both a person in a coma and someone who is fully conscious to visualise serving a tennis ball, the exact same section of the brain would light up on an MRI scan. Another mystery is "locked in syndrome", memorably portrayed in the book-cum-film The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, where a patient is completely paralysed but still fully conscious. Scientists are confident that all these mysteries, and more, will be solved in the coming century, so watch this space.
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