The brain is the least understood and most complex structure in the universe. Although it is responsible for the smallest processes taking place in our body, there is still no single scientific concept of the functioning of this organ, says Prof. Andrzej Wróbel.
Knowledge about the brain and social awareness of the importance of research into the nervous system is to be promoted by World Brain Week. This year it will be celebrated on March 15-20 in many countries around the world, incl. in Poland, Australia, China, Germany, India, Iran, Our Country, South Africa, Sweden, Uganda and Great Britain.
As prof. Wróbel – head of the Department of Neurophysiology at the Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences – a man can live without even 80 percent. brain, can function with its one hemisphere, and even – in the case of the so-called fission – with two separate hemispheres making up the two brains.
The brain is the least understood and most complicated structure we know in the universe – argues prof. Andrzej Wróbel. Most of what we know about the brain today, she explains, comes from research over the past 50 years. Although the last decade of the twentieth century was announced the decade of the brain, but – according to the expert – it did not bring much progress in the knowledge of the structure and functioning of this organ. However, it expanded the range of research possibilities.
Computer science has been introduced into biological research, which is necessary to answer the questions posed by scientists. However, to study such a complex structure as the brain, special tools are needed that we do not know yet, the scientist admits.
Scientists know very little about the cognitive and abstract information computations performed by the brain. They know a lot of hypotheses, even experimentally confirmed, but have failed to come up with a general idea of how the brain functions. We know a lot about the so-called input and output, that is, respectively about the sensory and motor systems. We know how the brain is built and which pieces are functionally responsible for what. But there is no general theory about how the brain works, just as there is no rational theory about the origin of life or the first moments after the Big Bang. These are the three scientific questions that still have to be scientifically clarified. So far, only the world’s great religions are responding to them – says prof. Sparrow.
The scientist dispels the emerging theories that humans use a small part of their brain. It is not true that we use only 20 percent. our brain’s capabilities. This myth arose because scientists who first studied the activity of brain cells with electrodes noticed that only one in five is active at any given time – that is, sends information to other cells – he explains. This does not mean that nothing is happening in the remaining, inactive cells. All the time they recalculate the impulses coming subliminally from other cells.
According to prof. Sparrow, most likely even the smallest element – the fact that we can see a fly on a white wall – is the work of the whole brain. He uses his full potential to perform both very simple and difficult operations, says the expert.
However, this does not mean, he adds, that if any part of the brain stops working, a person will not be able to function. You may not even have 80 percent. brain – says the head of the Department of Neurophysiology and cites the story of an Englishman who died at the age of 26, known from specialist literature. His brain tissue was a little compressed at the site of the brain, and the rest was a giant pressurized hydrocele. Nevertheless, the Englishman was starting to get a doctorate. His example shows that our knowledge about the brain is still in its infancy – adds the researcher.
How is it that the brain works, even with one hemisphere? When one hemisphere is missing, the latter takes over some of the functions for which the missing part was responsible. Of course, such a brain functions a bit differently than in healthy people, but contrary to appearances, it is not such a rare phenomenon as it might seem – explains the scientist.
The process by which one tissue in the brain replaces the part that stops working is called brain plasticity. It is well visible in people who have had a cerebral hemorrhage. Part of the brain tissue then dies, which in many cases causes paralysis of some part of the body. Later, with the help of rehabilitation, the limb’s efficiency is restored, although the part of the brain responsible for it no longer works – explains prof. Sparrow.
In his opinion, thanks to the fact that when one brain tissue dies, its tasks can be taken over by another part, the traditional division into the left hemisphere – rational and right – responsible for the imagination is fatal. Yes, there is some hemispherical specialization, but it is statistical. The brain can change all the time, so even if something + falls + e.g. in the left hemisphere, we will not stop thinking rationally – he emphasizes.
In addition to the fact that a man can live with part of the brain, there are known cases of people in whom the so-called disconnection of the brain. In 1981, Roger Wolcott Sperry was awarded the Nobel Prize for research into the disconnected brain. It turned out that both hemispheres of the brain function independently and govern their functions and half of the body. However, there are cases of people where when one hand wants to put on pants, the other can take them off at the same time – emphasizes prof. Sparrow.
What makes the human brain different from the brain of other mammals? Prof. Sparrow explains that as a result of evolution in the human brain, the part of the cerebral cortex that is responsible for processing purely hypothetical information, and not just for the simple reflex action – characteristic of most animals.
Second, a huge part of our brain is devoted to speech. The fact that we can communicate through speech is a huge evolutionary step. It allowed us to create culture, and thus use the experiences of other generations not only through oral transmission, but also through written resources – he explains.
Ewelina Krajczyńska (PAP)