Brain Basics

things you need to know so that r e res

There are a few
of the book makes sense You need some basic icts
about brains and how they work. Then, when i use a word
like neuron later, youll know what fm on about And
you forget, you can come back to this section.

BRAIN BASIC 1: WHATS IN A BRAIN?

The human brain contains about 100 bilion nerve cels

(neurons). Each neuron has a long tail-Hike part (axon)

and many branches (dendrites - from the Greek word
dendron, meaning tree). A neuron sends super-fast

messages to other neurons by passing a tiny electrical

nudeus
dendrites

axon

cell body
synapse
axon ofanother
nerve cel
11
 current along its axon and acros ery tiny gaps
into the dendrites of other neurons
(syna
If the neurons did not communicate
body woud
do nothing Every single thing you do
every
-

action, sneeze, emotion, even things like

going to th
thought
toilet happens when the neurons send
the rink
messages, very fast, through this incredibly
web of branches complicated
Each time you repeat the same action, or
recall the same memory, that particular web or thought,
of connec
tions is activated again. Each time that
of connections becomes
happens, the weh
stronger. And the stronger the
connections, the better you are at that
That's why practice makes perfect
particular task
But if you don't use those
connections again, they may
die off. That's how you forget how to do
forget a fact or a something
name, or how to do a maths calculation,
or how to kick a ball at a
perfect angle. If you want to
relearn anything, you have
rebuild your web of
to
connections by practising
again. After a brain injury,
such as a stroke,
someone might have to relearn how to
walk or speak. That
would be if the stroke had damaged
Some neurons
and dendrites which
help to control
walking or speaking.
We all have different skills. The
a
brains of a pianist and
footballer will have
different numbers of dendrites dand
synapses in different areas of
their brains.

12
 When a human baby is born, it has almost all of its
neurons. But it has few dendrites and therefore few
synapses connecting them. That is why babies can't do
very much. But their brains develop fast. The fastest time
of dendrite development in a baby is at around 8 months.
Eventually, there can be up to 100,000 dendrites on every
neuron, making 100 trillion connections.
The brain is made of grey matter and white matter. Grey
matter is mainly made up of neurons and you find most
of it in the cortex (the outer wrinkly bit of the brain, which
is only about 2 millimetres thick). White matter is mostly
below the cortex and is made up of all the axons that
carry messages between neurons. We could call grey
matter the "clever stuff". But it couldn't do very much if
there wasn't plenty of good strong white matter too.
You also have brain cells called glial cells. These can't
carry messages or make you do anything, but they sup
port and nourish the neurons and help remove debris.

BRAIN BASIC 2: MIRROR NEURONS

There is a fascinating type of neuron called a mirror neuron.
These were first identified by scientists in Italy' in the 1990s
and they are beginning to offer real insights into how we
all learn. When we do something, neurons in the relevant
part of our brain fire up, sending messages to enable us to
act. But some of our neurons mirror neurons fire up
when we simply watch someone else perform an action

13
 Those same mirror neurons will also be used when
we
it we watch someone
perform the action ourselves. So, do
somethingafew times, when we come to do it ourselve ?
may be easier because some of Our neurons have alread.
ady
actually practised the action. Some scientists pelieve that
mirror neurons have a role to play in empathy feelinn
what others feel.
So, how the people around us behave should be very
important for how we behave and that's not just for
young people, but people of all ages. It helps explain how
we learn by imitation.

BRAIN BASIC 3: MAKING CONNECTIONS

The connections do not happen of their own accord. Or
randomly, Connections grow when we do something. Each
time a baby tries to focus on an object, this makes connec
tions multiply and then strengthen in the parts of the brain
which deal with seeing. And in the parts which deal with

understanding what we see. And in the parts that deal

with remembering what we have seen.

Scientists can look at the brains of young rats and

actually count increased dendrites after the rats have

for example, spent some days leaming their
way around a maze
 think W's also intresting Ghenughperhatp a kn
frightening) to know hat iertists hae ar drvruered
that there are critir al pernds in a brair's der elrpnert
and that if the brain doesrit get the right prar te a the
righl time, It may not be able to learn certain skill, later
That's why, f you don't learn a foreign language before
the age of about 7, you could still learn to spesk t fluertly
but youll probably always speak it with the wrong accent,
because you have passed the stage at which the brain can
pick up accents. It's also why, if a baby doesn't have an
opportunity to use its eyes properly at around 8 months
old, Its sight will never develop properly later But, luckily
for us, most skills are not like this: most skills can be picked
up later even if we miss out on some early learning.
if you think of your brain cells and connections as being
like trees, i's easier to picture what's going on. Imagine
starting with a very simple tree with a few branches if
you water and feed it, it will grow lots more branches.
That's a bit like what happens when you do or practise
something - it develops the brain cells which are respon

sible for that particular thing. And makes them grow more
branches, or stronger branches.

DRAIN BASIC DRAIN ZONES

Although each human is a unique individual, our brains
all have the same areas or sections, all working roughly
in the same way (though there are some wonderful

15
 look very, very closely at tho
e way
when you
differences
individual brains work).
the brain help control the different
dift..
of
Different parts

types of activity we do,

but it's not quite as simnle
nple as
and this part control.
saving, "This part controls memory ols
are different types of memory id
movement." There
movement, and good you are
how a
different types of
movement will depend on how well all
at memory or
brain connect and how strona e
the parts of your
are between them. One way of
branches or pathways
understanding this is to think about playing the piano: to
to use your memory of how
play the piano, you need
for the notes of a
to play the piano and your memory
control movement of
particular piece and the ability to
several parts of your body and the bits of the brain that
control sight - and the bits that specifically control your

fingers. Playing the piano involves several parts of your

brain all working together.
So, later in this book Ill sometimes (quite often, actually)
mention a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex
and 1l say that it "includes the bits that control logic,
decision-making, complex thinking" - but it is in fact more
complicated than that, because lots of bits of the brain
be
w
working together. And there's still a lot that scientists
don't yet know about how all
the parts work together.
But, we can still say that particular
parts of the brain are
especially important for
particular activities.
16
 The next picture shows you the main brain parts and
themain things they help control. You have two halves to
your brain and each half looks very similar to the other
half and has matching sections. They are connected, and
for most activities you use both halves together but in
slightly different ways.

The left half of your brain controls everything on the right side
of your body, and the right half controls your left side.

left right
 A BRAIN MADE SIMPLE

cortex (grey matter

frontal
cortex and
prefrontal
skin
cortex

skull

white
matter

amygdala

hippocampus
cerebellum
spinal cord
 BRAIN BASIC 5: THE THREE-YEAR MYTH
used to think that:
Scientists
born with all the neurons we'll ever have
w e are
grow
-

WRONG
and that no more
almost all the brain's growth and development
the age of 3, and hardly any
happens by about
dendrites or connections grow after this WRONG
-

after the age of 5 or 6, neurons start dying and are

never replaced -

WRONG

the "three-year myth" the wrong belief

-

This is known as

is done in the first three

that all important development
years and after that it is downhill all the way.
We now know that the brain continues to develop and
even to grow more neurons later in our lives, too. Yes,

skills, making connections

older adults can learn new new

between existing cells and sometimes growing new

we know that
neurons. And, importantly for you,
adolescence is a time of major change in the volume of

grey matter, and that some parts of your

brain are affected
more than others.

BRAIN BASIC 6: WINDOws INTO THE BRAIN

How do we suddenly know so much more about the

human brain? Our increasing knowledge comes from

technology that allows scientists to see inside a living,

Conscious brain, without risk to the brain's owner. Before,
Only ways ofexamining a human brain were to dissect

19
 it or to use scanning techniques
which invoha
like injecting radioactive dye into people
This
involved things
scientists didn't have the
chance to eant
examine
tha
and couldn't scan the same person over
healthy
and brainns
because the techniques could be harmful over aoaqain
methods couldn't say anything about Also, the
what was old
in the brain while the person was doing happeni
something nga
Everything changed when a new
functional magnetic resonance technique came along
imaging (MRI). This ng
researchersto examine what is happening in allow
brain while they pertorm
any particular someone's
your brain scanned using tMRI, we'd activity. If you had
see
of your brain were exactly what parts
being used during a
Because fMRI is particular activity.
harmless, scientists can now
measure and compare the scan
brains of healthy, active
teenagers. At first, they were amazed by what they saw
and they are still finding
fascinating
more
and detailed
insights into the brains of adolescents.
The teenage brain
really is special.

A Word About
Genes
Actually, l'm not going to talk about
book, Some genes at all in this
people might find that a bit odd. After
Our
genes (as well as our al
that happen environment and the things
to us) make us
who we are and have aan
enormous part to play in
are the
what our brains are like. They
codes which we
inherit from our parents (and
20
 other more distant ancestors) and which can be found in
all cells in our bodies. They make you different from me
and more like your brother or sister than anyone else in
the world. But they are not relevant to this book, which
talks about how teenage brains in general are like other
teenage brains and unlike the brains of older or younger
people. Vou can blame your genes as well, if you like
in other words, your parents. And grandparents. And all
sorts of dead people you never knew. But it's not nearly
so interesting as looking inside your own head.