How does your brain develop? Do you ever wonder how you can think about and learn so much stuff? Don't tire yourself out thinking about the answer. It's not an easy one, unless you’re a medical student or a doctor. Just to be clear, this isn't Neuroanatomy class okay? So relax. Now let’s focus on your brain development in a nutshell.
Before we start, let’s backtrack a little (or further if you’re that old). Let’s pretend you’re still inside your mother’s uterus and starting to develop a brain.
While inside your mother’s womb, your brain develops and grows at an astounding rate. It’s estimated that 250,000 neurons are added every passing minute. When you’re born, almost all of the neurons required for you to live are already present. In spite of this, your brain continues to grow in size for a few more years. When you’re about two years old, your brain is approximately 80 to 85% of its adult size.
Your nervous system (brain and spinal cord) develops from primitive tissues called the ectoderm. The first indication that you’re developing a brain is the presence of a neural plate which forms just over two weeks after conception. Shortly after this, the plate develops into the neural tube which is already fully formed by about 27 days after conception.
The front part of this tube thickens and becomes your future brain and the rest (rear part) turns into your spinal cord. Some scattered cells around the neural tube become your peripheral nervous system. In the coming weeks of brain development, your brain increases in weight. Take a look at the infographic below and see how your brain nearly triples in weight soon after you’re born.
As you can see, your brain attains its heaviest weight when you’re 19 to 21 years old. After that, there is a slow and steady reduction in its weight. Hey, don’t worry, a heavier brain doesn’t necessarily equate to smarter thinking.
The Major Parts of Your Brain and their Functions
Part of the Brain
What it Does
Frontal lobe
If we’re talking about a five star hotel, this would be the penthouse suite where the party is. The host and all his connections are here. The frontal lobe represents all of man’s greatest challenges and triumphs.Your frontal lobe is responsible for:
Your ability to choose between bad and good
Your ability to recognise the consequences of your actions
Your most memorable memories are stored here
Your body movements
In other words, your frontal lobe is the king.
Damage to this area of your brain will lead to changes in sexual habits, socialisation, and attention as well as increased risk-taking.
Parietal lobe
Back to the hotel, this represents the concierge where all the sensory input goes. Guests arrive here.Your parietal lobe is responsible for:
Processing tactile sensory information like pain, touch and pressure, both inside and outside the body
Damage to the parietal lobe can lead to inability to control your eye movements, problems with verbal memory and language.
Temporal lobe
In our five star hotel scenario, this represents the music lounge.Your temporal lobe is responsible for:
Interpreting the sounds we hear (it’s beside your ears)
Forming your memories
If you have damage to this lobe, you will have difficulty in understanding speech and forming memories.
Occipital lobe
This undoubtedly represents a function room in the hotel where presentations are done.Your occipital lobe is responsible for:
Receiving visual stimuli and processing it into meaningful information
Damage to this area results in visual problems like difficulty in identifying colours, recognising words and objects.
Cerebellum
This part of your brain is like the fitness room.Your cerebellum is responsible for:
Storing learned sequences of movement such as with dancing
Contributes to coordination and fine tuning movements as well as precision and timing of movements
Aids in balance, muscle tension and posture
Damage to this part of the brain can cause issues with motor learning, fine movement, balance and posture.
Brainstem
In our hotel example, this is the managing team who make sure everything runs smoothly day in and day out.Your brainstem is responsible for:
Crucial functions like breathing, heart rate and blood pressure
Sleeping and digestion
Maintaining consciousness and alertness
Coordinating motor control signals between the body and the brain
Damage to the brainstem can be very serious and even life-threatening because of it’s vital roles.
Now that you know the main functions of the major areas in the brain, you can use these to recognise poor or delayed brain development in your child. If this occurs, you may notice that he or she lags behind their peers in learning new material. If you have any concerns about your child’s brain development, consult your doctor.
Let's jump to the other end of the spectrum now and visit our elderly folks. As elderly people show signs of aging, so do their brains.
Normal signs of an aging brain include:
1. Mild decline in cognitive functioning.
2. Decline in immediate/short term memory especially in non-verbal, verbal and visual memory.
3. Your ability to generate words decreases.
4. Reduction in the maintenance and control of attention.
Other signs of poor brain function such as loss of spatial orientation and decreased motor control may indicate pending dementia or other neurological problems so regular check ups are important. The incidence of age-related brain diseases like stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease increase as we age.
To delay age related brain changes, try these stimulating brain exercises:
1. Read! Reading is one of the most basic brain exercises that you can easily do. You will continue to process new information that keeps your neurons in tip top shape. Reading also helps to increase your vocabulary as do crosswords. Reading non fiction is especially good for stretching the brain and learning about new subjects.
2. Listen to music. Regularly listening to music has been found to improve attention, the ability to anticipate events as well as accessing memories. Play your favourite music at home and you may even find yourself dancing around the house.
3. Exercise helps to support cardiovascular health and circulation of blood to the brain. Which in turn supports the growth of new brain cells. Find something you enjoy doing that doesn’t feel like exercise. Here are some ideas for fun forms of exercise.
4. Write something, anything. Writing involves major processes in your brain, thereby exercising it. Try writing a journal or a children’s story or even memoirs of your life so far. Everybody has an interesting life story!
5. Learning a new language sharpens the language and speech areas of your brain. Put this on your bucket list. If you learn the language for a country you have always wanted to visit, you can add a holiday to the country to your bucket list as well. If you don’t have a bucket list, start one now. Its never too late to start!
Good Read: nutritional tips to maintain a healthy brain.
After learning about brain development, you may be wondering about the relationship between your brain and your mind (yes, this is a different thing). It’s hard to imagine how your emotions and thoughts could be manifested by such physical structures or entities like neurons. Of course, you do realise this is beyond the scope of this article. Who knows, maybe someday, someone will be able to enlighten us. Until then, enjoy life USING your brain. It’s not just a paperweight inside your skull.
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