FUN BRAINY FACTS   

Yawning Tired? That’s not the only reason you yawn. According to doctors kids who are bored yawn more and each yawn is slightly longer than compared to kids who are doing something fun. Think about that when you are bored and have nothing to do. Try to keep track of your yawns and write them down. Do the same thing when you’re playing or anything else that’s fun. Compare the two to see the difference. Many people have made the assumption that people yawn because our bodies want to get rid of extra carbon dioxide which scientists refer to as CO2 and take in more oxygen or scientifically called O2. There is a theory that when you are sleepy or bored, your breathing isn’t as fast. When you started breathing slower, less oxygen makes it to your lungs. You get too much of carbon dioxide in your blood so it signals to the brain and the brain tells the lungs to get a big breath of air and that’s where yawning comes in. Doctors are still debating if this is why we yawn. For now it still remains a theory.

Eye The process of seeing is performed by the brain not by the eye. The function of the eye is to translate the vibrations of light into patterns of nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain.

Dreaming A form of mental activity.  A dream period usually lasts from 5 to 20 minutes.  It is likely that other animals dream. Mammals,  have D-sleep periods like those of humans.

Sleep A  normal, regular state of rest of an organism. In contrast to being awake sleep is characterized of physiological functions (blood pressure, breathing, heartbeat) and a relatively low response to things going on around. The brain waves of a person go through changes, classified as stages 1 to 4, in the course of the sleep cycle. Basically, certain areas in the brain stem,  the most primitive part of the brain and the part that controls such basic functions as breathing and heart rate,  are involved in the control of the two sleep states.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a procedure for recording the electrical activity of the brain by means of electrodes attached to the surface of the skull.  Many new techniques help scientists learn more about the brain.

Memory (mental process)The process of storing and retrieving information in the brain.  The process is vital to learning and thinking. Little is known about the memory storage in the brain.

Vomiting Is the expulsion of the contents of the stomach through the mouth. Vomiting is often caused by nausea, flu, sweating, and other sicknesses, although it can happen without warning. It is controlled by a specific part of the brain stem, called the vomiting center.

Thirst   The urgent need to drink, stimulated by the body’s need for water.   Little is known about thirst.  It is likely controlled by the drinking center,   (hypothalamus), the part of the brain that controls body functions such as body temperature, hunger, and thirst.

Physiological Psychology The study of underlying physiological bases of psychological functions is known as physiological psychology. The two major communication systems of the body—the nervous system and the circulatory system.  The nervous system has 12.5 billion neurons, of which about 10 billion are in the brain itself.

Pain The complex nature of pain is illustrated by a story about soldiers who are severely wounded and do not complain of pain, or of athletes who are injured but continue to play.  They do not experience pain until the contest is over. In some countries, an operation called trepanning is performed on the skull without anesthetic. The brain does not feel the pain.

Handedness A preference for the use of either the right hand or the left hand.   The differences in left- and right-handers in patterns of brain organization may be associated with differences in skills, aptitudes, and perhaps even personalities. In the large majority of right-handers ,(90%) speech is controlled by the left side of the brain. The right hemisphere of the brain is usually specialized for recognizing and remembering faces and understanding relationships in space. In left-handers, the pattern of brain organization is unpredictable. About 65% to 70% of left-handers have speech controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, as is the case for right-handers, but in 30 to 35 percent of left-handers speech is controlled by the right hemisphere. In some left-handers, both hemispheres of the brain are capable of controlling speech.

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