• Question: What is the capacity of the human brain? Is everyone's brain different?

    Asked by Ron Weasely to Jos, Kate, Lisa on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Joshaniel Cooper

      Joshaniel Cooper answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Everyone’s brains is different and our memories are stored as pathways between our different brain cells. I think that the capacity is huge (because there are lots of different ways of going between different cells), but I don’t think we could ever fill up a brain. There are some people who have weird problems with their brain and who remember everything that has ever happened to them perfectly, that’s alot of information!

    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      I think that as a fast as we can get close to a “capacity” we’d evolve more. I thin its really interesting how different people remember different things…. if I could get rid of all those pop song lyrics from when I was a kid I know I could use the space for something more useful! There’s all sorts of ways that brains processes information, did you know some people smell colours? They have a condition called synesthesia whch means their senses are kind of cross wired, so they see letters as having colours, or hear with colour as well as sound. The “wiring” in the brain is very complicated and we’re a long way from understanding memory or amnesia propoerly.

      I’ve seen my brain on an MRI scan, which was cool. Apprently there is one bit in the middle somewhere which is usually darker coloured (on the scan image – it’s the same actual colour in real life) on the on the left side than on the right, except in about 1 in 100 people when it’s the other way round, a bit like being left or right handed only 1ox rarer. I’m right handed but by brain is one of the 1 in 100 that’s the other way. When I was told this they didn’t know why this was, but they used the picture of my brain to put in a text book for the next generation of brain specialists. How cool is that! 🙂

Comments