Brain – Main Parts, Structure & Fun Facts

One very important part of our body that we all know about is our Brain. It is the organ which plays the role of controlling all our actions and thoughts as well.

Have you ever wondered, how your hand knows to pick up a spoon, when you have your food? Interesting right? This is possible because our brain sends signals to our hand muscles to do so.

Here’s another question- how do you remember what you had learnt in your class, or how do we communicate with what we think? The answer to this too is our precious brain.

The brain is a vital part of the nervous system in our body and it controls a lot of other things like beating of our heart, the digestion of food, the feeling of happiness when we meet our friends etc.

If we think of our brain as the human computer, controlling the bodily functions, then the nervous system can be thought of as the network laid out in our body relaying the responses and messages back and forth from the brain to different parts of the body.

It does this via the spinal cord which runs from the brain down through the back and contains threadlike nerves that branch out to every organ and body part.

Fun Fact: About 75% of our brain is made up of water, so drink lots of water kids ! Your brain needs water to help you survive.

You might wonder if our brain is so precious, what protects it from harm? It’s our skull.

Fun Fact: Our brain also controls what we dream of when we are asleep !! Our brain never sleeps, but we sleep so that it gets rest for a while from the excessive thinking that we do everyday. 

A team is always known to work more efficiently and similarly, the brain is a team of 3 groups :

Let us learn this through a story of a girl, Ana, whose father taught her to ride a bicycle. Being a child, she was enjoying it more than anything else. The wind in her hair, birds flying along with her in the sky.

For such a joyous activity, she wondered how her body worked which brought her so much happiness. Her father explained it to her.

Contents

1. Cerebrum

The biggest part (team) of the brain is cerebrum; and it makes up 85% of the brain’s weight.

This is the thinking part of the brain and it controls all our voluntary actions (like running, pushing a cart etc. ). Apart from this, this team is also responsible for learning, memory, intelligence and logic.

2. Cerebellum

The cerebrum as you can see in the picture is on the back part of our brain below the cerebrum. It’s approximately 1/8th the size of cerebrum. But like the famous authors say, size does not tell you the power it holds.

Similarly, though being small, cerebellum plays various important roles like it controls balance, movement and coordination. For example, when Ana was riding a bicycle, all these three factors were involved and now she knew which part of the brain to thank, for helping her be a super rider.

It is also because of cerebellum that we can stand upright, keep our balance and move around. Imagine not having a cerebellum, you could not be doing any of the adventurous things that you do.

3. Medulla

Also know as the brainstem (because of the structure), it’s located below the cerebrum, in front of the cerebellum. It connects the rest of the brain to the spinal cord.

This brainstem is needed to keep you alive, because it is in charge of all the vital actions like breathing air, digesting food, circulating blood etc. You must be wondering that how do we even control our digesting? Not to worry, because it’s the medulla that takes care of this for you.

Before we end this lesson kids, here’s another fun fact for you.

Fun Fact: A brain freeze happens when something you eat or drink something is cold. It chills the blood vessels and arteries in the very back of the throat, including the ones that take blood to your brain. These constrict when they’re cold and open back up with they’re warm again, causing the pain in your forehead.

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