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The Brain

This century man has made many discoveries about the universe – the world outside himself. But he has also started to look into the workings of that other universe which is inside himself – the human brain. Man still has a lot to learn about the most powerful and complex part of his body – the brain.

In ancient times men did not think that the brain was the centre of men­tal activity. Aristotle, the philosopher of ancient Greece, thought that the mind was based in the heart. It was not until the 18^th century that man real­ized that the whole of the brain was involved in the workings of the mind. During the 19^th century scientists found that when certain parts of the brain were damaged, men lost the ability to do certain things. And so people thought that each part of the brain controlled a different activity. But mod­ern research has found that this is not so. It is not easy to say exactly what each part of the brain does.

In the past 50 years there has been a great increase in the amount of research being done on the brain. Chemists and biologists have found that the way the brain works is far more complicated than they had thought. In fact, many people believe that we are only now really starting to learn the truth about how the human brain works. The more scientists find out, the more questions they are unable to answer. For instance, chemists have found that over 100,000 chemical reactions take place in the brain every second!

Scientists hope that if we can discover how the brain works, the better use we will be able to put it to. For example, how do we learn language? Man dif­fers most from all the other animals in his ability to learn and use language, but we still do not know exactly how this is done. Earlier scientists thought that during a men's lifetime the power of his brain decreases. But it is now thought that this is not so. As long as the brain is given plenty of exercises, it keeps its power. It has been found that an old person who has always been mentally active has a quicker mind than a young person who has done only physical work. It is now thought that the more work we give our brains, the more work they are able to do.

Other people believe that we use only 1% of our brain's full potential. They say that the only limit on the power of the brain is the limit of what we think is possible. This is probably because of the way we are taught as chil­dren. When we first start learning to use our minds, we are told what to do, for example, to remember certain facts, but we are not taught how our mem­ory works and how to make the best use of it.

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