Explodapedia: The Brain - Ben Martynoga - E-Book

Explodapedia: The Brain E-Book

Ben Martynoga

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Beschreibung

Every human brain is utterly unique, with 180 billion brain cells which keep us safe, curious and creative, whilst gifting us incredible powers of memory and bamboozling brilliant imaginations.Maximise your understanding of our miraculous minds!

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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

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Welcome to
Explodapedia
, the indispensable guide to
everything you need to know!
This series is packed with in-depth knowledge you can trust;
it gives you the tools you need to understand the science
behind the wonders of our world. Read on to learn all about
our miraculous minds in
The Brain
. . .
The Brain
is splendid - fun to read and really exciting.’
Henry Marsh CBE, neurosurgeon
‘Elegantly balanced between soaring possibility
and informative realism’
Guardian
‘Extraordinary discoveries are explained in this book in
a way everyone can understand.’
Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize winner
‘The perfect balance between charm, quirkiness and
wonder . . . for kids and adults alike.’
Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize winner
‘A totally fascinating book, brimming with amazing scientific
knowledge and fab illustrations.’
Greg Jenner
BM: To Cal, whose love, wisdom, and support endlessly sculpt my
brain and enrich my mind. x
MA: For Karen, Connor and Spencer.
I’m so glad our universes overlapped.
Explodapedia: The Brain
First published in 2025
by David Fickling Books, 26 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2NP
This ebook edition first published in 2025
All rights reserved
Text © Ben Martynoga, 2025
Cover Illustration ©
Moose Allain, 2025
The right of Ben Martynoga and Moose Allain to be identified as author and illus-
trator of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred,
distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as
specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and
conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable
copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct
infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be
liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 978–1–178845-275-5
Italic type is used in Explodapedia to highlight words that are defined
in the glossary when they first appear, to show quoted material and
the names of published works. Bold type is used for emphasis.
Contents
A Whole Universe Inside Your Skull
7
Chapter 1: How the Brain Works
15
Chapter 2: Brain Exploration
34
Chapter 3: What Brains Are ‘For’
54
Chapter 4: All an Illusion
70
Chapter 5: How Brains Change Themselves
83
Chapter 6: Me or We?
96
Chapter 7: How It Feels to Be You
108
Chapter 8: Mind Your Head
123
Chapter 9: All Kinds of Minds
140
Towards a Brain-Bending Future?
154
Glossary
166
Index
172
Acknowledgements
175
About the Author and Illustrator
176
7
A Whole Universe Inside Your Skull
Picture the scene: you’re finally knuckling down to finish the
project you’ve been putting off all week, it’s due in tomorrow,
and you’ve just about got time to do a decent piece of work.
You open your laptop and start tapping away when – ‘bing’–
a message arrives.
It’s from your friend Ash: ‘Amazing! Got returned tickets
for the gig tonight! Come with us!!!’
Oh wow! You tried everything to see this band, but tickets
sold out months ago.
. . . But . . . Why tonight?
It’s decision time. Do you play it safe, stay home and study,
or seize the moment and head to the concert?
Chances are you’ve now got a heated debate starting up
inside your head, with different ‘voices’ yelling things like:
Woohoo! Of course
you’re going!
No way! The deadline is
TOMORROW – and you
need a good grade.
Stay up late and write
the report after the gig!
Don’t be daft. You
need your sleep!
Hah! Imagine telling
everyone at school
tomorrow, though!
Yeah, but your parents
are going to flip out if
you get a bad report.
Besides, it’s Tuesday.
We never go out
midweek.
But it’ll be epic!
OK, OK, calm down
everyone! Let’s weigh up
all the pros and cons.
It’s noisy in there, right?! But where the heck do those vivid
sensations and yabbering voices actually come from?
Your brain, of course. We’ll return to this conversation
later, to find out exactly how – and why – your brain can end
up arguing with
itself
. But right now, the key thing you need to
know is that your skull contains one of the most complicated,
creative, awe-inspiring and bamboozlingly powerful objects in
the universe!
That said, to be honest, the human brain is kind of
unimpressive to look at. Roughly the size and shape of a large
cauliflower, it’s a dull greyish pink in colour. And if you jabbed
it with your finger, it’d be like prodding a massive soft-boiled
egg.
But, somehow, that fleshy-pink, bulging, slightly wibbly
cauliflower is the most essential, irreplaceable part of your
entire being! As we’ll see, it’s in control of almost every part of
your body and practically everything you
think
,
feel
and
do
. It
can make your mouth water at the thought of a biscuit. And,
at the same time, thanks to its amazing powers of memory and
imagination, your brain can turn itself into the best time-travel
machine ever invented.
Brain
Cauliflower
9
So if, for any reason, you’re feeling a bit stupid or down,
or you’re just having a rubbish day, try to hang on to this fact:
your brain is one of the brightest stars in the universe. In a way,
it actually
contains
the entire the universe.
In fact, it was a poet
called Emily Dickinson,
not a brain scientist, who first pointed
this out, way
back in 1862:
What she meant was that absolutely
anything
and
everything
that you can sense, feel or even just
imagine
must,
somehow, exist
inside
your brain. And that includes the
universe itself! Since you can
think
of it as a ‘thing’ – an almost
unbelievably massive one, sure – it must be able to fit inside
your skull.
Eh?
The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and You—beside
Wow!
Not bad for a wibbly, greyish-pink cauliflower, huh?
Um . . . hi, Octopus. Didn’t realize you could, er, talk . . .
We-ell, we do have the most complicated brains in the
animal kingdom.
Hmm. Got to admit, that does all fit with the latest brain
science discoveries about octopuses. So, since you’re such a
smart creature, could you stick around and help us figure out
how brains actually work?
Great.
11
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah,
blah. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
You lot aren’t the only intelligent
beings on this planet, you know.
Whatevs. You’ve only got one
brain, though. We’ve got nine.
Really?!
We use our brains for learning,
communicating, using tools,
cracking puzzles and generally
having a blast, just like you.
Sure . . . always happy to lend a hand –
or eight – to a friend in need.
OK folks, before we plunge on in, there are two things you
should know about brain science, or
neuroscience
– best to use
its proper name since you’re going to hear a lot about it in this
book:
Number 1
: Despite centuries of research, nobody truly
understands how a human brain works. In fact, nobody’s even
figured out precisely how the tiny, much simpler, worm brain
works.
It’s not that
neuroscientists
are clueless. Far from it; they’ve
made all kinds of amazing discoveries over the years – and
more are coming thick and fast today. It’s just that the things
we ‘know’ about the brain are still massively outnumbered by
all the ‘unknowns’. But that’s exciting – much of the brain is a
huge, mysterious world, just waiting to be explored.
Human brain: made
from
180 billion
cells
Worm brain: made
from just
300
cells
So what on earth are you doing
writing a book called
The Brain
?
13
Number 2
: Some of the neuroscience discoveries you’re going
to encounter in this book might sound plain daft – for example:
• Your brain is stuck in the future.
• Your toes don’t feel pain.
• A newborn baby has more brain
cells
than you do.
• Everyone might see the colour
blue differently.
• Bees can play football.
Ahem. Sure, we’ll definitely be looking at some of our
brains’ weaknesses, as well as the astonishing powers of other
kinds of brain – including yours, Octopus.
But if any of you find yourselves doubting anything you
read in this book, that’s great! You’re thinking like a scientist.
Because science isn’t really about proving ‘facts’. Doubts and
mistakes are massively important – as we’ll find out when we
look at how brain research has progressed over the centuries.
And brain researchers all have one thing in common:
intense curiosity. A characteristic it seems you share too. After
all, your brain is curious enough to want to understand
itself
.
Why else would it have instructed you to pick up this book?
And what could be dafter than
the idea that human brains are
always best at everything!?
All human brains have a raging hunger for learning and
thinking. Each day your brain gorges, non-stop, on memories,
feelings and ideas – and, believe it or not, every single one of
them leaves a lasting imprint inside your head. And that means
– just like faces and fingerprints – every human brain is truly,
utterly, wonderfully unique.
You say that like it’s bad thing, Octopus! And, it’s true,
our brains can cause us strife when we get anxious, depressed
or suffer other
mental-health
challenges (we’ll tackle these in
Chapter 8). But maybe our brains’ quirks and sudden shifts of
emotion are part of what makes life worth living?!
OK, if we need to get to grips with the massive, mysterious
cauliflowers inside our heads, we’ve got a lot to cover. First up,
we’re going to get our hands on an actual brain, to see what it’s
made up of and how it all fits together. Then we’ll get an even
closer view of the nitty-gritty details by venturing inside it.
14
Uniquely weird and
unpredictable, you mean!
So, let’s get on with it!
Catch me if you can!
15
CHAPTER 1
How the Brain Works
PART 1: G
eTTinG
To
K
now
B
RiAn
s
B
RAin
So, your brain looks a bit like a cauliflower. But what is it made
from and how does it work? Anyone willing to let us take out
their brain so we can have a proper look?
Great! And don’t worry, you’ll hardly notice it’s gone.
I volunteer my
fearless friend Brian!
Er, okaay . . . all in
the name of
science, I guess.
Really?
16
Absolutely. Because, weirdly, the brain itself can’t sense
pain – you won’t even feel us lifting it out.
Well, you’re holding Brian’s entire world! Be gentle – it’s
fragile.
The contents of Brian’s brain may be unique, but the basic
parts work the same way in practically all human brains. Let’s
see what we’ve got.
Left hemisphere
Here, hold this.
I’d say it looks more
like a jellyfish than a
cauliflower!
Euggh. It feels like
jelly too . . . but
really heavy . . .
Right
hemisphere
Brainstem
See the line dividing Brian’s brain into two halves, or
‘hemispheres’? The hemispheres are mirror images of each
other, so everything on the left side of the brain has a nearly
identical partner on the right side. Brain scientists still don’t
know why, but the left hemisphere is mainly
in charge of the right side of the body and vice
versa.
Yep – that’s the
brainstem
. And Brian
wouldn’t last a second without it. It takes charge of:
The ‘cauliflower’
even has a ‘stalk’!
keeping his
heart beating
coughing and sneezing
breathing
digestion
chewing
sleeping
telling him when
he needs to pee
18
That’s the
cerebellum
. It’s all about controlling movement
and balance. Whenever Brian’s walking, dancing, riding a bike,
etc. his cerebellum will be working hard to keep him upright
and co-ordinated.
Cerebellum
Brainstems are brilliant!
Ooh, and what’s this weird
lump at the back?
Cerebral cortex
Come on, cerebellum,
we can do this!
Above the cerebellum, the brain’s outer layer is called the
cerebral cortex
(or ‘cortex’ for short). It’s so big it only fits inside
Brian’s skull because it’s scrumpled up – hence all those bulges
and crevices. If we stretch it out flat, the cortex is as big as a
pillow!
It needs to be big because it has huge amounts of work to do.
And, more than any other part of the brain, the cortex makes
Brian the unique person he is. It takes charge of language,
deliberate movements, planning, imagination and personality,
as well as stuff that other animals can’t do, like algebra and
navigating social media. On top of all that, it makes sense of
almost everything Brian can see, hear, feel, taste and smell.
There’s a heck of a lot going on in the cortex and, like most
brain regions, it’s always multi-tasking – with lots of different
processes happening at once. Some parts of the cortex are
mainly concerned with very specific tasks, though.
19
Gently now . . .
Let’s scrumple Brian’s cortex back up and see which bits
do what:
Believe it or not, any brain is mostly water. Even the ‘solid’
parts aren’t all that solid. They’re mainly made of fat – oily
molecules
that scientists call
lipids
. All your best ideas and
fiercest feelings emerge from as much fat as you’d get in a pack
and a half of butter!
Brian’s brain is so
slippery and soft I nearly
dropped it! What’s it
actually made of?
Oops! . . .
Planning
movements
Controlling
speech (see p. 43)
Planning and
self-control
Social
awareness
Sense
of smell
Processing
hearing
Recognizing
faces
Vision
(‘visual cortex’,
see p. 77)
Understanding
speech
Processing
numbers
Sense
of touch
Controlling muscles
(
motor cortex
)
20
Most brain regions can
‘multi-task’, taking part in
various processes. Also,
different regions often link
up to get jobs done. These
labels just show the key
roles certain areas play.
And the crucial working parts at the centre of
your brain’s structure are its microscopic cells. All
living things are made of cells.
Yes, partly. All cells have a kind of ‘skin’, called
a
cell membrane
, which is the bit that’s made from
lipids. Cells are life’s building blocks.* And it takes
180 billion of them to build a brain.
Not yet! There’s another bunch of brain parts you need to
know about. It’s called the
limbic system
, and life would be dull,
short and (literally) forgettable without it, because it mainly
handles memories and emotions – as well as keeping the body
*
Find out more in Explodapedia:
The Cell.
21
So it’s the cells in the brain
that are made of fat?
Crikey.
Can Brian have his 180
billion brain cells back now?
If each one of these
180 billion cells was
a penny, this stack would
reach two-thirds of
the way to the moon
Brain cell
(x1000)
up and running. But the limbic system is buried deep inside
Brian’s brain. Let’s peel back his cortex to take a look:
You don’t need to! For now, just hold on
to the fact that your limbic system is vital for
Hippocampus
: Means ‘sea-
horse’ in Latin, (it’s meant to look
like one!). Essential for making
and recalling memories. And
for finding your way around –
Brian’d be lost without it
If that’s a seahorse, I’m a lobster!
Amygdala
: Smaller than a
jelly bean, but plays a huge
part in Brian’s emotional life.
Sounds the alarm if he’s scared
or anxious and helps him figure
out other people’s feelings
I’ll never remember
all these fancy
brain-part names!
Basal ganglia
: Helps control
movements, learn new skills,
form habits and process
emotions
Hypothalamus
: Controls
Brian’s body temperature,
thirst, hunger, sleepiness and
emotions
22
memories, emotions and some basic bodily functions.
Right. Brian can have his brain back now . . .
Now Brian can think, feel, see, move, eat, drink, breathe
and remember again. His brain – like all our brains – is essential
to pretty much every aspect of being human.
It’s a bit complicated. Maybe the best way to show you is by
taking a (guaranteed, pain-free) trip inside Brian’s brain. OK
with you Brian?
Have you taken it out yet?
Er . . . Ye-es . . .
We’ve actually just
popped it back in!
Really?
But
how
do our brains do all that?
Er . . .
PART 2: W
IRING
U
P
B
RIAN
S
G
IANT
‘S
UPERCOMPUTER
’ B
RAIN
Prepare yourself: we’re about to shrink down to just one
hundredth of a millimetre tall. Then we’ll climb into this
tiny, remote-controlled transport capsule ready to be fired up
Brian’s left nostril and into his brain.
Sure. But it’s going to be
pretty weird in there – a bit
like entering the heart of a
massive
supercomputer
. That’s
roughly what a human brain
is: a huge ‘warehouse’, packed
with powerful computers.
*
The ‘warehouse’ is the main
‘control centre’ for your entire
nervous system
– the gigantic
‘communications network’