Are bigger brains necessarily better brains? Sometimes, yes, but not always. It’s the quality of the grey matter that counts and, of course, how you use it. For instance, Einstein had an average size brain, but had a humungous area of his parietal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for visual imagery and mathematical thinking. Women have smaller brains than men overall because we tend to be physically smaller. But that doesn’t make us dumber, we just use our noodles differently, and, some say, make better use of a smaller space. Also, the additional surface area offered by deeper folds and convolutions on the brains surface can also give the average size brain more thinking power. {via Boing Boing, brain cupcake image courtesy of Me, Myself and Meningioma}
Posts Tagged ‘neurons’
Big Fat Brains
Posted: Friday, February 26th, 2010Brain Balloon
Posted: Monday, October 26th, 2009
Fly the neural skies with this awesome brain balloon, created by the International Brain Foundation to bring attention to our wonderful brains and some of the diseases and disorders that cause problems with it. From the website’s schedule, it looks like this giant brain won’t be floating by you anytime soon, but we still heart it anyway, maybe because our heads are already in the clouds.
Brainy Bikers
Posted: Friday, October 9th, 2009
It’s been a while since we checked in with Team Menstrual Cycles, our favorite band of bike-riding gynecologists who are on a mission to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. Turns out the team raised over $50,000, and they won a prize for best jersey design! Go go go! Check out the brains on that team. We were so so happy to work with them on their jerseys. They are planning to raise more funds with t-shirts of similar design, so we will keep you posted on how you can contribute to MS research.
This is Your Brain on Doodling
Posted: Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Ever been caught drawing in class, during a meeting or while listening to someone blabbing on and on? I certainly have. Next time someone accuses you of doodling, though, tell them you are actually listening intently — and that science is on your side. A recently published brain study shows doodling actually helps people concentrate. Apparently the listening part of your brain works better when the drawing part of your brain is occupied — it keeps you from daydreaming and spacing out altogether. Sadly, the study did not conclude that doodlers are smarter than non-doodlers (heh heh). The study was kind of small — just 20 people were studied in each given task, so some might argue the data is statistically insignificant. I don’t care though. I’ll take any pro-doodling stance I can get.
