• Question: how can your brain store so much knowledge?

    Asked by busstopbaby to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      because we have billions and billions of neurons, namely little cells to store all the information about how our body works, plus our behaviour and everything else

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      Ever seen how the brain looks like a walnut? That’s because it’s all folded up and over itself so it can fit more neurons into the skull. The human brain has many more folds than most species so we can store more information.

    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      It’s like a really really good computer, but instead of using wires and computer chips, it uses little cells called neurons.
      The neurons help store all the knowledge in your brain, and the way they work means that the more often you think of something the easier it becomes to remember it. So if you’re trying to remember something (for a test in school perhaps) then it helps if you remind yourself about it every so often. The more you think about it the easier it will be to remember when you have your test.
      The computers we use (like the laptop I’m using now) are actually better than our brains at things like maths, but our brains are still better at other things like recognising patterns.

    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 17 Mar 2012:


      We don’t understand a lot about how the brain works yet, we know that certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain things like hearing, and vision and movement. But we don’t really understand very well how this all adds up to our understanding of the world around us, and how we remember things.
      Lots of scientists are trying to understand this at the moment. They can use MRI machines with huge magnets to look inside your brain with out even touching you. It’s amazing!

Comments