World Brain Day is celebrated every July 22 , a date agreed by the World Federation of Neurology since 2014 to raise awareness about the care of this important organ of the human body and the importance of preventing diseases that cause its deterioration. Cerebral disorders constitute 13 percent of the global cause of disease, surpassing cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The human brain is a main and complex organ that forms part of the nervous system , it would be "the boss" that controls all aspects of life and the vital functions of the human body and everything related to the senses, thoughts, movements, behaviors, reasoning and learning . Finally, it is the bearer of the energy of daily activities. For example, it controls the heart rate. Therefore, exercising is an important fact to maintain or improve the quality of life, it is known that more cells grow in the hippocampus (area of memory and learning) if we move.
The brain occupies 2 percent of the body's mass, however, it consumes around 20 percent of the oxygen and 25 percent of the body's glucose. The brain has more than 60 percent fat, it works with 25% of the body's cholesterol, without the sufficient amount of good cholesterol in high-density lipoproteins, the brain dies. It also works with 70 percent water so dehydration decreases its volume and can cause alterations in its functioning. Hydration is important.
This very sensitive organ is able to help us move, feel, love, think and react. Every skill learned, every language and every experience lived shapes our brain map.
The brain is a highly moldable and malleable organ prepared for endless activities, which begin from intrauterine life where the structures are formed. The prenatal period is one of the most important stages in the development of the human brain since it is when the neurons are formed . Just 30 days after being fertilized, the fetus already has three small lumps which are the brain and the spinal cord.
From there on, the neurons interconnect with each other (synapses) at high speed through myelin, an insulating covering made of fat that allows the transfer of information. During its development, our brain has critical and more sensitive periods that are particularly good for learning.
A curious fact is that our brain has not changed for many centuries and is born with all the tools inscribed in our genes, the difference is that from the time we are born we create a network of connections or paths that we traverse daily to strengthen them and each repetition of the same route will be easier and faster and therefore faster, which is why musicians and elite athletes can reach up to 80 percent greater speed in some neural connections.
The maturity of the brain does not arrive until the 20s or even until the 30s, some mention that until the 40s. And every time we have a new idea or a new memory, we create new brain connections . So we can reinforce the concept that, if you "train the brain, we change the mind". Every time we learn something new, something changes in the brain and new pathways are created. Neuroscience is taking giant steps to understand this complex functioning.
One of the most interesting discoveries in this sense was that of neuroplasticity . The World Health Organization (1982) defined the term neuroplasticity as the ability of the cells of the nervous system to regenerate anatomically and functionally, after being subjected to environmental or developmental pathological influences, including trauma and diseases.
In other words, plasticity is the brain 's ability to remodel the connections between its neurons . Therefore, it is at the base of memory and learning processes, but sometimes it also intervenes to compensate for the effects of brain lesions by establishing new networks, a fact that allows the construction of new pathways, new paths or connections, the basis of our philosophy for therapies in Cerebral Palsy.
The good news is that neuroplasticity is the ability to change with experience.
One of the Nobel Prizes in Medicine in 2000 was Eric R. Kandel who was awarded for his discoveries on how the efficiency of synapses can be modified and which molecular mechanisms are involved. Using the nervous system of a sea slug (aplysia) as an experimental model, he demonstrated how changes in synaptic function are key to learning and memory.
Our concepts in neuroscience, education and psychology have changed since in 1996 Giacomo Rizzolatti and collaborators discovered the mirror neurons that allow us to imitate and activate our social brain , which confirms that we learn when we relate to others.
This year 2020, another international team of scientists led by mathematicians from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid has delved into the study of conceptual neurons , that is, a group of individual neurons that form abstract concepts, which would mean that there would be a neuron associated with each concept. If the first note of Beethoven's symphony sounds, it is the same neuron that is activated and recognizes it.
The brain will not cease to surprise us and it will itself help us in its own knowledge and as Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1906, said: "It is necessary to vigorously shake the forest of sleepy cerebral neurons; it is necessary to make them vibrate with the emotion of the new and infuse them with noble and elevated concerns".
Following this wise advice and to preserve good brain health, the recommendation will continue to be to take care of the body and mind with a good routine of physical exercise, following a healthy diet, being curious and learning every day regardless of age.
