Interesting brain facts ...

Hey, I saw a show called Human Body on Discovery tonight about the brain. It was really interesting. A few factoids I thought I'd pass along:

• Your brain uses 1/5 of your body's energy.
• Your brain actually processes incoming info twice as fast under stress and diress, which help explain why time seems to slow down when you're under attack or stressed.
• Your brain will take over and figure out what you need to eat to survive if it's not getting enough of some nutrient. They profiled a guy who was adrift at sea for several weeks. At first, he only had the fleshy part of fish he caught. But, then his brain took over and he started eating the skin, eyes, liver, etc that had water and vitamins he wasn't getting from the meat.
• Your brain will take over and let you “run on empty” without food, something gained through evolution (thought you might like tidbit as you head out to the Galapagos). One of the only machines that continues to function on empty.
• Your brain is as active or more when you're sleeping. It repairs itself, and will actually "take you out" by making you sleep when in danger of not getting time to repair itself. But, the hearing part of your brain is as alert, which is why you can hear an alarm clock, fire alarm, etc.
• (You already know this ...) It's better to study before getting a good night's sleep than stay up all night and study. Both because your brain will continue to process what you were studying before you fell asleep and because without sleep, you're brain shuts down the logic and reasoning area (not good when taking a test ... :-).
• (And, my personal favorite). While it is true that the pleasure part of your brain shows increased activity when kissing, that part of the brain responds MUCH more to eating chocolate.

So, eat some chocolate and get some sleep! :-)

Love you to Ecuador and back!
Mom