The Beginning Of All Knowledge: The Brain (basics of the brain)

4 min readOct 4, 2020

By Abbas salami.

The Brain, a mysterious yet fascinating organ, nothing can compare to what the mind can do. The Brain is responsible for Thinking, feeling, memory, and even your ability to breathe. The Brain controls everything about you, and that’s why I found it so interesting that I’m willing to write an article about it.

So, What Is The Brain?

The brain is a unique organ located inside your skull; it is responsible for everything you do. You be a lifeless pile of flesh and bones without your mind, and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. When is said the brain was responsible for everything, I MEANT everything. The brain’s abilities are unmatched within the human body; it is THE dominant organ. Just think about this: “the brain is responsible for every mind-blowing invention that humankind introduced.” You see, all these people learning about success from other people when they should be learning at what’s up here, the center of YOUR POWER. The exterior of the brain is made up of literally one thing GRAY MATTER.

Gray matter, also known as “cerebral cortex,” is where you process information. The cerebral cortex is split into two parts by a deep fissure; these halves are called “hemispheres.” The hemispheres communicate with each other using a thick tract of nerves called the corpus callosum at the fissure base. Did you know that the opposite side of the brain usually handles messages to and from the other side of the body? It is where most, if not all, of the neuronal cell bodies, are contained. The cerebral cortex is split into four essential parts.

The frontal lobe
The parietal lobe
The occipital lobe
The temporal lobe

Every one of these parts controls a certain aspect of you. The frontal lobe controls thinking, planning, organizing, problem-solving, short-term memory, and movement. The parietal lobe analyses sensory data, such as taste, temp, and smell. The occipital lobe processes imagery and links them with images stored in our memory. The temporal lobe processes data from our senses of smell, taste and sound; it also plays a role in storing out memory. WOW, just…… WOW! when I first learned this, courtesy of mayoclinic.org, I went in shock. The brain works so well together. Imagine if we all did the same, help brains do what they’re supposed to think, feel, cooperate, and succeed.

What Lies Within This Fascinating Organ?

So, you’re ready to go deeper. GREAT! Inside, the brain rests the famous Hippocampus, Thalamus, and Hypothalamus. Ah yes, the Hippocampus. A trendy piece of the mind, yet few people have any real knowledge about it. The Hippocampus rests inside the brain, near the cerebellum (we’ll talk about that later). The Hippocampus is responsible for sending memories to be stored in the appropriate sections of the cerebrum, and then recalling them when necessary. The Hypothalamus, unheard of, but still significant. The Hypothalamus is located inside the brain; it rests near the frontal lobe and is the smallest of the three. The Hypothalamus is responsible for controlling emotions. It also regulates your body’s temperature and controls crucial urges, such as eating or sleeping. The Thalamus, more commonly known as the gatekeeper, the Thalamus is located inside the brain, near both the frontal and partial lobe. The Thalamus is responsible for messages being passed between the spinal cord and the cerebral hemispheres.

The Cerebellum, or What I Like to Call “the butt of the brain” / Brain Stem.

What is the cerebellum? The cerebellum is a ball of wrinkled tissue located at the bottom end of your brain. It combines sensory information to help with movement. Connected to the cerebellum is the brain stem. The brain stem links the brain to the spinal cord. It controls many functions that are vital to your survival, such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. This area is also essential for sleep.

Cool Questions + Answers

question:What is consciousness?

answer: according to an article I read “what is consciousness” consciousness is everything you feel; from what you feel emotionally (love, anger etc..) to physical feeling (a fractured hip, a broken finger etc..).

question :how do dreams work?

answer: dreams usually occur during the REM stage of sleep (rapid eye movement) when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. dreams are influenced by our waking lives in many ways.

Theories about why we dream include those that suggest dreaming is a means by which the brain processes emotions, stimuli, memories, and information that’s been absorbed throughout the waking day.

said an article called Why We Dream What We Dream

FUN FACT!

did you know that the wrinkles in your brain are there so that they can increase surface area of the cerebrum? Therefore allowing you to process more information?

Sources:

“Slide Show: How Your Brain Works.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Apr. 2016, www.mayoclinic.org/brain/SLS-20077047?s=4.

Kieffer, Sara. “How the Brain Works | Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Brain Tumor Center.” Hopkinsmedicine.Org, 3 Dec. 2018, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/brain_tumor/about-brain-tumors/how-the-brain-works.html.

“Why We Dream What We Dream.” Psychology Today, 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sleep-newzzz/201501/why-we-dream-what-we-dream.

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