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The Brain

Essay by   •  November 21, 2010  •  1,470 Words (6 Pages)  •  1,008 Views

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The human brain is a miraculous organ. It regulates thought, memory, judgment, personal identity, and other aspects of what is commonly called mind. It also regulates aspects of the body including body temperature, blood pressure, and the activity of internal organs to help the body respond to its environment and to maintain the body's health. In fact, the brain is considered so central to human well-being and survival that the death of the brain is considered in many parts of the world to be equal legally to the death of the person. For years, scientists have been studying the enigmas of the brain and still today, there are many aspects of the brain that remain a mystery. The human brain is a very complex organ with an amazing structure. It's responsible for maintaining our health and many more. It's the motherboard of our bodies. The brain is also composed in two sides, the left brain and the right brain. Many theories have been made about those two sides, but what exactly is the difference?

The human body is divided into many different parts called organs. An organ called the brain is the center of the nervous system and it is the center of all voluntary and involuntary activities. The human brain is very sensitive and has a very complex structure. It contains thousands of millions of nerve cells that make up the nervous system. In order to comprehend the brain, it's necessary to understand the protection it has from injuries. It's also imperative to discover medical advances through tests and analysis to treat devastating neurological diseases. Twenty-eight bones make up the skull. Eight of those bones are interlocking plates that form the cranium. The cranium provides maximum protection for the brain while the other twenty bones make up the face. Another way the brain is kept safe is by keeping itself in liquid. Nearly one fifth of the blood pumped by the heart is sent to the brain. The brain then sends the blood through an intricate network of blood vessels to where the blood is needed. Specialized blood vessels produce a protective fluid. This fluid is what the brain literally floats in. A third protective measure taken by the brain is called the blood brain barrier. This barrier consists of a network of unique capillaries. These capillaries are filters for harmful chemicals carried by the blood, but do allow oxygen, water, and glucose to enter the brain. By understanding the nature in which the brain is kept, a person can assume that it is the most important organ in the body.

Your brain has two sides. Do you realize that in order for you to read this report, the two sides of your brain must do completely different things? Your brain's right and left sides have distinctly different ways of looking at the world. Your two hemispheres are very different from each other. The left brain controls the right side of the body and, is logical analytical, judgmental and verbal. It's interested in the bottom line, in being efficient. The right brain controls the left side of the body and leans more to the creative or the intuitive. It is concerned more with the visual and emotional side of life. Most people would identify more with their left brain. In face, many of use think we are our left brains. All of the non-stop verbalization that goes on in our heads is the dominant left brain talking to itself. As you read, your left side is sensibly making connections and analyzing the meaning of the words while putting it into a language you can understand. Meanwhile, the right side is providing emotional and even humorous cues, decoding visual information and maintaining an integrated story structure. While all of this is going on, the two sides are constantly communicating with each other across a connecting fiber tract called the corpus callosum. There is a certain amount of overlap, but essentially the two hemispheres of the brain are like two different personalities that working alone would be somewhat lacking and overspecialized, but when functioning together bring different strengths and areas of expertise to make an integrated whole. According to Eli Bay, president of Relaxation Response Inc. (a Toronto organization that teaches people how to relax), "the primitive cave person probably lived solely in the right brain." In a time of vast change like the present, the intuitive side of the brain operates so fast it can see what's coming, says Dr. Howard Eisenberg, a medical doctor who has studied hemispheric relationships. "The left brain is too slow, but the right can see around corners." "Playing video games, for example, automatically flips you over to the right brain. Any artistic endeavor, like music or sculpture, will also do it." says Bay. In her best-selling book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Dr. Betty Edwards developed a series of exercises designed to help people tap into the right brain, to actually see of process visual information, differently. She cites techniques that are as old as time, and modern high-tech visions such as biofeedback. An increasing number of medical professionals believe that being in touch with our brain, especially the right half, can help control

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