Robert Baron, age 9, of Huntsville, Ala., for his question:
HOW DOES THE BRAIN WORK?
The brain continually gives off small waves of electricity. A record of the brain waves can be made by using continuously moving strips of paper and special electrically driven pen which make a record called an electroencephalogram, or EEG. The EEG helps doctors diagnose brain disorders or brain injury. Records of the electricalactivity of the brain help scientists discover how the brain works.
Master organ of the body is the brain. It is more complicated and more wonderful than any machine ever built. Our eyes, nose, ears and skin send messages to the brain, which in turn tells us what is going on in the world about us.
The brain also receives a steady stream of signals from other body organs that enable it to control our life processes. The brain controls our hunger, thirst and every blink as well as all our emotions such as fear, anger, love and hate.
The brain works by first gathering sensory impulses. The brain then sends motor responses to muscles that control speech and movement of the hands and fingers so that a reaction can be made to the sensory impulses which were received.
The brain is an expanded bulb at the upper end of the spinal cord, located in the skull. It consists mainly of neurons, or nerve cells, glial or supporting cells and blood vessels. The nerve cells carry out the brain's functions.
Each of the billions of tiny neurons consist of a cell body and a number of fibers. These fibers connect the cell body with other cell bodies.
In the cerebrum, the largest and most important part of the human brain, many important functions are handled including the complex mental processes such as memory, speech and thought. Man's highly developed cerebrum accounts for his intelligence.
The brain stores information from past experiences. This is why we can learn, remember and think. The brain selects and combines messages from the senses with memories and emotions to form our various thoughts and reactions.
Man can speak, solve hard problems and come up with creative ideas because of the amazing development of the human brain.
The brain is not a single organ. It has many parts with special functions, though they are all connected. Messages to the brain all pass through the brain stem and from here go to different parts of the brain for processing.
The brain's three main divisions include the forebrain (which includes the cerebrum and the diencephaton), the midbrain and the hindbrain (which includes the medulla oblongata and the cerebellum).