The brain is a complex biological device, an organ consisting of many interconnected cells and processes. If you imagine all the connections in the brain as a single line, then it would be 7-8 times longer than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. And at the same time, it is a very small organ - in modern man it weighs from 1020 to 1970 grams.
Two fateful breakthroughs
The secrets and possibilities of the human brain have long remained a sore point for researchers. Until recently, they could only build theories about his work, and the organ itself could only be observed during the autopsy. The first major breakthrough came when doctors learned how to implant electrodes directly into the brain. Around the same time, it became clear how a neuron works and how data is transmitted along nerves and from one neuron to another.
The second big step forward happened when the methods of electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, positron emission and functional magnetic resonance imaging appeared. They made it possible to "look" inside the living, working brain. Using these tools, doctors and researchers are able to “see” which parts of the brain are active during sleep, talking, thinking, and it has become possible to distinguish the normal functioning of an organ from its pathology, detect disorders and make more accurate diagnoses.
The human brain: features and capabilities
This relatively small organ, which occupies only 2% of the total body weight, nevertheless consumes about 20% of all the oxygen that enters the body. From birth to death, he never, for a minute, never ceases his activities.
The human brain, whose capabilities and capabilities are still superior to the most modern computers, is able to remember 5 times more information than is contained in the British Encyclopedia. According to some estimates, it is able to accommodate from 3 to 1000 terabytes. This is not close to what exists in technology: by the end of 2015 it is planned to reach a capacity of only 20 terabytes.
Previously, it was believed that in an adult, this organ is static - neural tissues remain unchanged and can only die, but new organisms are not able to grow. However, by the end of the twentieth century, thanks to the studies of Elizabeth Goode, it became clear that new neurons and nervous tissue continue to grow throughout the life of the body.
However, the capabilities of the human brain are not limited to new neurons. It was believed that this body is not able to recover from injuries and injuries. Scientists from Carolina University and Lund University have conducted a study whose results can turn up-to-date ideas about this upside down. According to their study, in places affected by a stroke, the body can "grow" new neurons instead of damaged ones.
Ability to process information
The ability to process information and adapt to circumstances is another property that this body possesses. Moreover, such adaptability makes us suspect the hidden possibilities of the human brain in many "ordinary" people. The ability to perceive and store an unlimited amount of information from Kim Peak or sonar vision in people like Daniel Kish and Ben Underwood are just two examples of such puzzles.
Daniel Kish and Human Echolocation
Is it possible to believe that a person is able to focus on hearing, like a bat? That a completely blind person can walk without a guide, without a cane, without modern technical know-how? And not just walking - running, playing games, playing sports, riding a mountain bike? The human brain, the features and capabilities of Daniel Kish allow him this - he is one of those who have mastered sonar vision, or human echolocation.
Daniel lost his ability to see at a very young age, shortly after he turned one year old. To navigate in space, he began to use sounds - clicks of his tongue, the echo from which returned to him and allowed him to "see" the surroundings. Gradually, he improved his ability so much that he could do the same as ordinary children - play games, ride a bicycle and, of course, walk without a guide.
Due to the lack of vision, many blind people have a highly developed hearing. However, this is not just an excellent rumor - Daniel Kish, if I may say so, developed from him a new feeling that managed to replace one of the five absent ones. With the help of clicks with his tongue, he sends sound into space, and according to the echo received in response, he is able to “see” the relief, distance to objects, their shape and other details. However, Daniel Kish did not stop there - he created the organization World Access for the Blind and is actively teaching sonar vision to other blind children and adults.
One of his most talented students is Ben Underwood, who had both eyes removed at the age of three due to cancer. Besides him, incredible results are also shown by other students of Kish - Lucas Murray and Brian Bushway. This clearly shows that the human brain is far from fully understood, its features and capabilities go far beyond the skills that most people have enough for everyday life.
According to scientists, in the process of echolocation involved those parts of the brain that in sighted people are responsible for the conversion of eye signals. In the case of the blind, they simply "reprofiled." There is also a theory that sonar vision is not something unique - approximately 5% of people have similar abilities, which are completely undeveloped. And it is quite possible to teach them both the blind and the sighted.
Super Ability Competition
With the exception of professional waiters and mnemonics, few are able to remember twenty unrelated words in a row. A few hundred words in 15 minutes? The seemingly incredible capabilities of the human brain are commonplace for participants in the World Cup in memory, which gathers several dozen people every year.
Participants in such competitions use mnemonics - a combination of various techniques and memorization techniques, which allows you to develop the usual capabilities of the human brain and store information of any type and almost any size in memory.
These people compete in memorizing a large number of faces and names, numbers, abstract pictures, cards, random words for a limited time: for example, you need to remember in which sequence the abstract pictures went for 15 minutes. Or as many random numbers as possible within an hour. Among the champions of this unusual sport are Dominic O'Brien, Simon Reinhard, Johannes Mallow and Jonas von Essen.
Most champions have gained such abilities through regular training - as Ben Pridman, a three-time world champion in this discipline, assures everyone can achieve. However, such superpowers of the human brain are also innate - for example, the mnemonist S.V. Shereshevsky and the American Kim Peak.
Kim Peak and Solomon Shereshevsky
Solomon Shereshevsky came under the supervision of psychologist A. Lurie when he was a fairly young man - and his memory was phenomenal without any training. His way of “storing" information is similar to the methods of mnemonics known today. It seemed that the amount of his memory was not limited by anything. His only problem was learning to forget.
This man had so-called synesthesia. In all other respects S.V. Shereshevsky remained quite ordinary. This is not the situation with Kim Peak - he was born with certain disorders, which, however, by themselves should not have made him either a genius or a patient. However, already at 16 months the child learned to read, by the age of three he mastered the newspapers, and by seven he learned the Bible by heart. The books of Daniel Tammet (which, like Kim Peak, is a savant, but much more social and, unlike others, can explain exactly how the calculations are made) describe the capabilities of the human brain.
Kim Peak kept in his head maps of American cities, hundreds of works of classical music, remembered several thousand books read. All this was not just a “dead weight” - he understood the information in his memory, could interpret and use it.
In 2002, he began playing the piano, voicing many works from memory. It was he who inspired Barry Levinson to make the famous Rain Man film.
Science phenomena
Throughout human history, many things have happened that are difficult to explain to science. Moreover, there are cases that literally make scientists feel that the capabilities of the human brain are by no means limited to modern ideas about it.
A man with half a brain
At age 14, Carlos Rodriguez had a car accident: the car he was driving crashed into a pole, and he flew out through the windshield and “landed” on his head. As a result, after surgery, he lost about 60% of the brain. The most amazing thing is that Rodriguez is still alive. Now he is already more than a quarter century, and he continues to live an ordinary life.
Although medicine has stepped far forward compared to what happened during the Phineas Gage, such injuries are still considered very serious. In addition, it is believed that without the brain, all its parts, a person cannot live or lives like a “vegetable”.
Rodriguez, Gage, and many other people who have experienced serious injuries and loss of part of the brain prove that modern views and theories are still erroneous.
Phineas Gage: “a man with a hole in his head”
In the middle of the 19th century, an incident occurred that scientists and physicians still could not explain: the Phineas Gage builder survived, having suffered a severe wound and having lost part of his brain after a metal scrap pierced his head. At that time, Gage was 25 years old.
The pin entered below the left eye and exited the body, flying a few more meters, leaving the young builder without a good part of the brain. However, he did not die. Moreover, he soon regained consciousness and was taken to a doctor in the nearest hospital. The doctor applied a bandage and cleaned the wound from splinters - that was all that medicine of that time could offer. People were sure that Phineas Gage would die.
After a while, a bacterial infection developed, and mold also grew. Nevertheless, after about 10 weeks, the patient recovered - he retained his memory, clear consciousness and his professional skills. Phineas Gage died in 1860, and this astounding case never found a clear explanation.
Ziperovich phenomenon
However, the cases mentioned are not the most surprising. There is a phenomenon that demonstrates even more amazing capabilities of the human brain - the Zeperovich phenomenon. Yakov Zeperovich is a man who has not been sleeping for more than thirty years, eats little and does not age at all. Time seemed to stop for him - he now looks the same as in photographs of the 70s.
The story of this man began in 1979 - after severe poisoning, he was in a state of clinical death, after which he fell into a coma. Leaving it a week later, Yakov discovered that he could not sleep - he could not even lie horizontally. Doctors could neither explain nor change this state - only a few years later, doing yoga and meditation, Zeperovich learned to take a horizontal position for a short time, but not for sleep, but for half a nap.
Before that incident, Jacob was an ordinary person - he loved to fight, drink, worked as an electrician. After he became interested in oriental practices, he developed his own system of exercises. Recently lives in Germany.
Is it possible to learn supernormal abilities
Not only scientists, doctors and “ordinary” people are also interested in the capabilities of the human brain - a documentary film from the Air Force, Discovery, stories from other television channels and film crews always find viewers.
All kinds of trainings aimed at the development of the personality or some of its aspects are also becoming more and more popular. Training materials from Vyacheslav Bronnikov or Mirzakarim Norbekov, which are quite unconventional and unauthorized by official science, are no exception.
Various methods from the patrimony of practical psychology are very popular. For example, a project that also develops the capabilities of the human brain is “5 Spheres”. Here, unlike, for example, the Bronnikov method, we are talking about completely traditional advice that fits into the theory of modern psychology.
It is possible that further research by scientists will prove the reality of alternative vision, and the ability to cure their own diseases without modern medical technology, by a simple effort of the will, and other possibilities that are still considered supernatural. One thing is clear - in the future we will find many interesting discoveries.