The brain is a complex biological device, an organ consisting of many interconnected cells and processes. If we 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, this is a very small organ - in a modern person, it weighs from 1020 to 1970 grams.
Two life-changing breakthroughs
The secrets and possibilities of the human brain have long been a sore point for researchers. Until recently, they could only build theories about its work, and the organ itself could only be observed during an autopsy. The first big breakthrough came when doctors were able to implant electrodes directly into the brain. Around the same time, it became clear how a neuron works and how data is transmitted along the nerves and from one neuron to another.
The second big step forward came with electroencephalography techniques,magnetoencephalography, positron emission and functional magnetic resonance imaging. They made it possible to "look" inside a living, working brain. With the help of these tools, doctors and researchers are able to "see" which parts of the brain are active during sleep, conversation, thinking, it became possible to distinguish the normal functioning of the organ from its pathology, detect abnormalities and make more accurate diagnoses.
The human brain: features and capabilities
This relatively small organ, which takes up only 2% of the total body weight, nevertheless consumes about 20% of all oxygen that enters the body. From birth to death, he never, even for a minute, stops his activities.
The human brain, which continues to outperform even the most modern computers, can remember 5 times more information than is contained in the Encyclopædia Britannica. According to some estimates, he can accommodate from 3 to 1000 terabytes. This is not even close to what currently exists in technology: by the end of 2015, it is planned to reach a capacity of only 20 terabytes.
Earlier it was believed that in an adult this organ is static - neural tissues remain unchanged and can only die, but the body is not able to grow new ones. However, by the end of the 20th century, thanks to the research 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 notlimited to new neurons. There was an opinion that this organ is not able to recover from injuries and injuries. Scientists from Karolinska University and Lund University conducted a study whose results could turn modern ideas on its head. According to their study, in places affected by a stroke, the body can "grow" new neurons to replace damaged ones.
The ability to process information
The ability to process information and adapt to circumstances is another property possessed by this body. Moreover, such adaptability makes one suspect the hidden possibilities of the human brain in many "ordinary" people. The ability to perceive and store an unlimited amount of information in Kim Peak or sonar vision in people like Daniel Kish and Ben Underwood are just two examples of such mysteries.
Daniel Kish and human echolocation
Can you believe that a person is able to navigate by ear, like a bat? That a completely blind person would be able to walk without a guide, without a cane, without modern technical know-how? And not just walking - running, playing games, playing sports, mountain biking? The human brain, features and capabilities of Daniel Kish allow him to do this - he is one of those who have mastered sonar vision, or human echolocation.
Daniel lost the ability to see at a very young age, shortly after he was one year old. To navigate inspace, he began to use sounds - clicks of the tongue, the echo of which returned to him and allowed him to "see" the environment. Gradually, he improved his ability so that he could do everything that ordinary children do - play games, ride a bicycle and, of course, walk without a guide.
Due to the lack of sight, many blind people have highly developed hearing. However, this is not just an excellent rumor - Daniel Kish, if I may say so, developed a new feeling out of it, which managed to replace one of the five missing ones. With the help of clicks of the tongue, he, as it were, sends sound into space and, according to the echo received in response, he is able to “see” the relief, the 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 actively teaches sonar vision to other blind children and adults.
One of his most talented students is Ben Underwood, who had both eyes removed due to cancer at the age of three. In addition to him, other students of Kish show incredible results - Lucas Murray and Brian Bushway. This clearly shows that the human brain is far from being fully understood, its features and capabilities go far beyond the limits of those skills that most people have enough for everyday life.
According to the assumptions of scientists, those parts of the brain that in sighted people are responsible for converting eye signals are involved in the process of echolocation. In the case of the blind, they simply "repurposed". There is also a theory that sonar vision is not something unique - such abilities, justcompletely undeveloped, about 5% of people have them. And it is quite possible to teach them to both the blind and the sighted.
Superpower Competition
Except for professional waiters and mnemonics, few people can remember twenty unrelated words in a row. How about a few hundred words in 15 minutes? Seemingly incredible capabilities of the human brain are commonplace for participants in the World Memory Championship, which brings together several dozen people every year.
Participants in such competitions use mnemonics - a combination of various memorization techniques and techniques that 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, maps, random words in a limited time: for example, you need to remember the sequence in which abstract pictures went for 15 minutes. Or as many random numbers as possible within an hour. Champions of this unusual sport include Dominic O'Brien, Simon Reinhard, Johannes Mallow and Jonas von Essen.
Most champions have gained these abilities through regular training - according to Ben Pridman, a three-time world champion in this discipline, anyone can achieve this. 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 techniques of mnemonics known today. It seemed that the amount of his memory is not limited by anything. His only problem was learning to forget.
This man had a so-called synesthesia. In all other respects, S. V. Shereshevsky remained quite ordinary. The situation is not the same 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 had mastered the newspapers, and by seven he had learned the Bible by heart. Books by Daniel Tammet (who, like Kim Peak, is a "savant", but is much more social and, unlike others, can explain exactly how he does calculations) describe the capabilities of the human brain quite well.
Kim Peak kept maps of American cities in his head, hundreds of pieces of classical music, remembered several thousand books he had read. All this was not just "dead weight" - he understood the information in his memory, he could interpret and use it.
In 2002, he began playing the piano, voicing many pieces from memory. It was he who inspired Barry Levinson to make the famous film Rain Man.
Phenomena of science
Throughout human history, many things have happened that are difficult toexplain 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.
The man with half a brain
At the age of 14, Carlos Rodriguez was in a car accident: the car he was driving crashed into a pole, and he himself flew out through the windshield and “landed” on his head. As a result, after the operation, he lost about 60% of his brain. The most amazing thing is that Rodriguez is still alive. He is now over a quarter of a century old and continues to live a normal life.
Although medicine has come a long way since Phineas Gage's time, 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 survivors of severe trauma and brain loss prove that current views and theories are still wrong.
Phineas Gage: "a man with a hole in his head"
In the middle of the 19th century, a case occurred that scientists and doctors still could not explain: the builder Phineas Gage survived, having received a serious wound and having lost part of his brain, after a metal crowbar 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 partbrain. However, he did not die. Moreover, he soon regained consciousness, and he was taken to the doctor at the nearest hospital. The doctor applied a bandage and cleaned the wound of 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 amazing case has not found a clear explanation.
Tsiperovich 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 Tseperovich phenomenon. Yakov Tseperovich is a man who has not slept for more than thirty years, eats little and does not age at all. Time seems to have stopped for him - he still looks the same as in the 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. Coming out of it a week later, Yakov found that he could not sleep - he could not even lie horizontally. Doctors could neither explain nor change this state - only a few years later, taking up yoga and meditation, Tseperovich learned to take a horizontal position for a short time, but not for sleep, but for half-sleep.
Before that incident, Yakov was an ordinary person - he liked to fight, drink, worked as an electrician. After he began to be interested in oriental practices,developed his own system of exercises. Recently lives in Germany.
Is it possible to learn superpowers
Not only scientists, doctors and "ordinary" people are also interested in the capabilities of the human brain - a documentary from the BBC, Discovery, stories from other TV channels and film crews invariably find viewers.
All kinds of trainings aimed at developing the personality or some of its aspects are also becoming more and more popular. Not an exception and rather unconventional and unauthorized by official science training materials from Vyacheslav Bronnikov or Mirzakarim Norbekov.
Very popular are various methods from the patrimony of practical psychology. 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 quite traditional advice that fits into the theory of modern psychology.
It is quite possible that further research by scientists will prove the reality of alternative vision, and the ability to cure one's own diseases without modern medical technology, by a simple effort of will, and other possibilities that are still considered supernatural. One thing is clear - many interesting discoveries await us in the future.
