Human Brain & Intelligence: Their Secrets and Wonders

CHAPTER 3 Discussion The discussion aim to answer the inquiries listed in the statement of the problem.

The essence of these answers will help readers to anticipate the structure of what will follow. The following are the questions that the researchers aim to work out: 1. What is unique about human brains? We, humans pride ourselves on the uniqueness of our brain. It is unique from other species mainly because of its size and its ability to think. Its difference in size to other animals is very obvious because as a larger animal, we need a bigger brain to run our bodies.It also contains unique structures and patterns of organization that causes our intelligence.

Human brain compares, synthesizes, analyses and generates ideas which can then be tested for legitimacy. It can think through and interpret into action complex ideas is what distinguishes our species from animals. According to Shakira Karipineni (2000), "During human evolution, our forebrain became larger as our cerebral cortex increased in size. This means it had to become more folded to fit inside the skull. This gives the outside of the human brain its 'walnut' appearance.Humans have a larger cerebral cortex relative to the rest of the brain than any other animal.

The cerebral cortex handles many of our unique skills, like language and problem solving. " The folds of the brain are also called Gyri. Inside these Gyris were millions of neurons, which are accountable for the transmission of information from the senses to the brain. And having more folds, or Gyri, makes you more intelligent. According to Dr.

Katie Lynne Garnett (2011), “It is sort of survival of the most elaborate.This would strongly suggest, but not prove, some kind of divine design. Human brain-folds are a great, clever idea that sent creation down a very interesting path, perhaps down the rabbit hole itself. Science suggests that you use less than 20% of your brain capacity. What you believe you think consciously…is not all that you think.

Your emotional responses come from the unconscious thoughts that are stored in your DNA as patterns and programs of thought and behavior that reach the surface of your conscious thinking only when you have a feeling.You name that feeling, which then pulls up other thoughts that support those emotions, which send more chemical messages down to the cells, which then send up more familiar and related thoughts, or creates new thoughts that match the existing ones. Therefore, in the process of dealing with all those thoughts running around in your brain, the ones with an emotional charge in particular, are sent to your brain from your unconscious. They are then re-circulated and reinforced, generally without re-evaluation.The subconscious mind controls 95% of your behavior and your gene-regulating cognitive activity through programs obtained from your stored beliefs. ” According to Pasko T.

Rakic, “The brain is the organ that sets us apart from any other species. It is not the strength of our muscles or of our bones that makes us different, it is our brain. ” For centuries, scientists and philosophers have been arguing for “What makes human unique from other species? ” Some says, it was because of the brain.But what is really unique about the Human Brain? The brain is a thinking organ that learns and grows by interacting with the world through perception and action. Humans are physically unique, it is also obvious that we differ from other animals in far more complex aspects.

Only human were able to think vividly. Humans are able to solve problems effortlessly. The brain is a very big place in a very small space. Isn’t it amazing that an organ, just like the brain, which contains millions of cells, develops from a single cell, the egg.According to Michael Gazzaniga, one of the world's leading neuroscientists, “There simply is no one thing that will ever account for our spectacular abilities, aspirations and capacity to travel mentally in time to almost the infinite world beyond our present existence. Even though we have all of these connections with the biologic world from which we came, and we have in some instances similar mental structures, we are hugely different.

While most of our genes and brain architecture are held in common with animals, there are always differences to be found.And while we can use lathes to mill fine jewelry, and chimps can use stones to crack open nuts, the differences are light years apart. And while, the family dog may appear empathetic, no pet understands the difference between sorrow and pity. ” (Are human brains unique?. (2007, April 10). Retrieved from http://www.

edge. org/3rd_culture/gazzaniga08/gazzaniga08_index. html) 2. How do brains change in experience and gain intelligence? Experience change the actual structure of the brain as that your brain needs exercise just like a muscle.If you use it often and in the right ways, you will increase your ability to focus, become more skilled thinker, and gained intelligence. The brain development is "activity-dependent," meaning that the electrical activity in every circuit—sensory, motor, emotional, cognitive--shapes the way that circuit gets put together.

Like computer circuits, neural circuits process information through the flow of electricity. Unlike computer circuits, however, the circuits in our brains are not fixed structures.Every experience--whether it is seeing one's first rainbow, riding a bicycle, reading a book, sharing a joke--excites certain neural circuits and leaves others inactive. Those that are consistently turned on over time will be strengthened, while those that are rarely excited may be dropped away.

Or, as neuroscientists sometimes say, "Cells that fire together, wire together. " The elimination of unused neural circuits, also referred to as "pruning," may sound harsh, but it is generally a good thing.It streamlines children's neural processing, making the remaining circuits work more quickly and efficiently. Without synaptic pruning, children wouldn't be able to walk, talk, or even see properly. (Does experience change the actual structure of the brain?. In Zero to Three.

. Retrieved September 2, 2011, from http://main. zerotothree. org/site/PageServer? pagename=ter_key_brainFAQ#experience ) 3.

Are bigger brains better in terms of intelligence? A human brain averages roughly 1350 cubic centimeters in volume, with normal brains easily ranging from 1100 to 1500 cc.From human to human, bigger isn’t necessarily better: some very intelligent and accomplished people have small brains, and vice versa. At two extremes, satirist Jonathan Swift had an apparently giant brain of roughly 1900 cc, while equally noted writer Anatole France reportedly had a brain that barely topped 1000 cc. Geniuses are no exception.

Einstein’s brain reportedly measured an average and undistinguished 1230 cc (Lynch, G. , & Granger, R. (2008). Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence. 175 Fifth Ave. , New York City, U.

S.A. : Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, Ltd. ). A bigger, more complex brain may have advantages over a small brain in terms of computing power, but brain expansion has costs. For one thing, a big brain is a metabolic drain on our bodies.

Indeed, some people argue that, because the brain is one of the most metabolically expensive tissues in our body, our brains could only have expanded in response to an improved diet. Another cost that goes along with a big brain is the need to reorganize its wiring. “As brain size increases, several problems are reated”, explains systems neurobiologist Jon Kaas (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States). “The most serious is the increased time it takes to get information from one place to another.

” One solution is to make the axons of the neurons bigger but this increases brain size again and the problem escalates. Another solution is to do things locally: only connect those parts of the brain that have to be connected, and avoid the need for communication between hemispheres by making different sides of the brain do different things.A big brain can also be made more efficient by organizing it into more subdivisions, “rather like splitting a company into departments”, says Kaas. Overall, he concludes, because a bigger brain per se would not work, brain reorganization and size increase probably occurred in parallel during human brain evolution.

The end result is that the human brain is not just a scaled-up version of a mammal brain or even of an ape brain. (Bradbury, J. (2005). Molecular Insights into Human Brain Evolution. PLOS Biology. Retrieved from http://www.

plosbiology. org/article/info:doi/10. 1371/journal. bio.

0030050 ). 4. Is the brain the same as the mind? No. Mind is just the mental process and the product of an activity in the brain. The Brain and the Mind are two distinct entities.

Our mind is what makes us unique. Everyone has a brain. The Brain is the physical aspect of our thought processes. The Mind is the metaphysical component.

But every person is different. That is because, although the brain in each of us processes information in a basically similar way, our memories, likes, dislikes, fears, ambitions and hopes (dreams) are unlike. Wallace Smith stated that, The human mind is simply the product of chemical and electrical activity in the brain. That is, all mental processes are simply effects physically generated by the organ, and that what we call the human “mind” is simply the result of physical changes in the brain.

The mental is purely the result of the physical. Chemicals and electricity are the cause and “mind” is the effect. This makes influence a one way street: the chemicals and electrical activity can affect (indeed, completely cause) the state of what we call the “mind,” but there is no going in reverse, in which mind affects the brain.In fact, the idea of going in reverse — according to the neuroscientists – is not even supposed to be conceivable, since “mind” is simply the word we use to describe the result of these physical processes and therefore has no independent existence apart from them. ” (Mind & Brain: Not the same… (2007, January 19). Retrieved from http://wallacegsmith.

wordpress. com/2007/01/19/mind-and-brain-not-the-same/) The same knowledge was indicated by Douglas De Long (2007), “Most people think of the brain and the mind as being one and the same thing. Doctors, scientists and other highly trained persons share this belief.People from all walks of life use the words “brain” and “mind” interchangeably. In reality, they are two separate and distinct creations.

The brain is a biochemical organ – a part of the human body. The mind, on the other hand, is a psychic organ that is attached to the human soul. Both the soul and the mind are connected to the Creator and the heavenly realms. As human beings you are dual in nature, possessing both a physical body and a psychic body. Within the physical body are physical organs and glands. The psychic body – which is contained within the physical form – has its own set of psychic organs.

In other words, a person possesses a physical heart as well as a psychic heart. This is the same situation in regards to the brain and the mind, the brain being the physical organ and the mind being the psychic one. The mind, a part of the human soul, has a profound influence upon the brain, the nervous system, the body, and all organs and glands. It is the mind that gives all of you the sense of cognition and a sense of beingness.

The physical and the psychic are linked so closely together that one does not function without the other. The physical organs and the psychic organs work together in a harmonious relationship. (Brain & Mind. Both same or two things?. (2007).

Retrieved from http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20070524225555AApIhIm) 5. Who are The Boskops? Boskop or Boskops Man is a type of homonid found in Africa which gained a lot of researchers’ attention because of the size of its skull. It was suspected to have more than 20-30 times bigger skull than an average modern-day human. The story of these big-skulled creatures started in the autumn of 1913, two farmers were arguing about hominid skull fragments they had uncovered while digging a drainage ditch.

The location was Boskop, a small town about 200 miles inland from the east coast of South Africa. These African farmers, to their lasting credit, had the presence of mind to notice that there was something distinctly odd about the bones. They brought the find to Frederick W. FitzSimons, director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, in a small town at the tip of South Africa. The scientific community of South Africa was small, and before long the skull came to the attention of S. H.

Haughton, one of the country’s few formally trained paleontologists.He reported his findings at a 1915 meeting of the Royal Society of South Africa. “The cranial capacity must have been very large,” he said, and “calculation by the method of Broca gives a minimum figure of 1,832 cc [cubic centimeters]. ” The Boskop skull, it would seem, housed a brain perhaps 25 percent or more larger than our own. The idea that giant-brained people were not so long ago walking the dusty plains of South Africa was sufficiently shocking to draw in the luminaries back in England.

Two of the most prominent anatomists of the day, both experts in the reconstruction of skulls, weighed in with opinions generally supportive of Haughton’s conclusions. The Scottish scientist Robert Broom reported that “we get for the corrected cranial capacity of the Boskop skull the very remarkable figure of 1,980 cc. ” Remarkable indeed: These measures say that the distance from Boskop to humans is greater than the distance between humans and their Homo erectus predecessors (Lynch, G. , & Granger, R. (2009). What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?.

Discover Magazine. Retrieved from http://discovermagazine. com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us/article_view? b_start:int=0&-C=). The Boskops were around our size, between five and six feet tall.

They walked upright. They had light, slender bones, and small, trim bodies – topped by very big brains. Multiple scholar articles were written about the Boskops and their brethren, and it became widely appreciated that a stunning discovery really had been made: previous humans had been bigger-brained, and likely smarter, than modern-day humans.Sir Arthur Keith, the most prominent anatomist in the British Empire, and president of Royal Anthropological Institute, declared that Boskop “outrivals in brain volume any people of Europe, ancient or modern. ” These discoveries caused a sensation in the early twentieth century.

They were the subjects of conferences, the lead stories in newspapers, and were widely discussed in the scientific community (Lynch, G. , & Granger, R. (2008). Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence. 175 Fifth Ave.

, New York City, U. S. A. : Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, Ltd. ).