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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Brain

From the placebo effect to neuron generation, your gray matter has surprising superpowers

Brandy L Schillace
Elemental
Published in
6 min readAug 23, 2021

Photo: David Matos / Unsplash

There’s a lot about the brain we still don’t know. In fact, just this week neuroscientists discovered what they’re calling “zombie” brain cells, which only turn on after you die. (They are glial cells, and they are supposed to clean up the mess after a stroke or other trauma — they get to work immediately following death, even if their work is ultimately futile).

The space between your ears turns out to be almost as elusive as the space between planets. One neurosurgeon, Robert White, actually considered himself a brain “astronaut.” Your brain is indeed up to something all the time, in often surprising ways. Here are five of the most astounding.

1. You can survive with only half your brain.

The brain presents us with a curious paradox. It’s responsible for all we think, all we do, and much of what we are. It is necessary to our every function; we might even say it’s what makes us us. Yet we can seemingly get by on just half a brain — or even less. How do we explain this mystery?

The first human hemispherectomy was performed in 1923 at Johns Hopkins Hospital, when surgeon Walter Edward Dandy set…

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Elemental
Elemental

Published in Elemental

Elemental is a former publication from Medium for science-backed health and wellness coverage. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Brandy L Schillace
Brandy L Schillace

Written by Brandy L Schillace

(skil-AH-chay) Author in #history, #science, & #medicine. Bylines: SciAm, Globe&Mail, WIRED, WSJ. EIC Medical Humanities. Host of Peculiar Book Club. she/her

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The brain without body loses the consciousness. Consciousness is the embedded observer of the body and the body is the reference of the consciousness existence. Observing the universe is a derived consciousness from inner consciousness. However from…

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Thank you for this informative article. My daughter's Therapist practices Neurofeedback. It's fascinating how brain based therapy uses neuroplasticity to shift Anxiety & Depression. The awareness that is brought to the individual is "I am not my…

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It turns out that the brain can be taught to walk — and can also force you to unlearn those very same skills.

It turns out that the brain can be taught to walk — and can also force you to unlearn those very same skills.

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