Your baby’s brain is remarkable.
Keeping it stimulated during the first three years of the brain’s growth and development is extremely important and critical.
Here are a few brain facts to “wet your appetite”…
- The first signs of the nervous system development are around days 21-24 in the embryo
- At times, the brain cells are being produced at a rate of 250,000 cells per minute
- In the primitive developing brain in the womb, the cells are produced around the neural tube, which is a precursor to the central nervous system
- There is then a great neuronal migration whereby all the neurons crawl along special cells called glial cells to their final destination
- Once neurons have reached their destination, they reach out and start connecting. This process is called neuroplasticity and continues throughout all of one’s life
- The brain has now been genetically mapped. Different regions are differently influenced by your genetic expression (activation of specific genes)
- The first few months of life are characterized by cell death — not growth. As the brain prunes its connections to those that it really needs, only about half of the brain cells will survive with you until adulthood
- There are 100 billion neurons and brain cells in the brain
- Each brain cell has an average of 1,000 connections, which makes 100 trillion total connections (called synapses)
- The bigger neurons are in the hippocampus, our memory consolidation units sitting deep in the brain
- We have a collection of neurons called mirror neurons that mirror actions we observe in others (i.e. they activate in our brain as we watch other people)
- Cells themselves can learn independently. They habituate to the same impulses or can become conditioned
- A nerve cell can fire up to 200 times a second
- Brain cells communicate with minute electrical impulses generated through chemicals
- Nerve impulses can travel up to 225 miles per hour
- The total length of all of our nerve cells, if placed end to end, is approximately 48,500 miles
- The brain weighs, on average, 2.9 pounds
- On average, approximately 1,270 quarts of blood pass through the brain each day
- The brain consumes approximately 85 quarts of oxygen a day, on average.
- Using only 20 watts, the human brain can process 20 trillion steps in a second (about the same 20 watts as the light in your refrigerator)
- The brain uses glucose as energy
- If all the neurons in the brain were laid out next to each other, they would cover approximately 83,000 square feet
- The human brain was genetically mapped for the first time in 2011
- The limbic system sits in the middle of the brain and processes our emotions
- Our pre-frontal lobes at the front of the brain are the last to develop and differentiate us from other animals. The frontal lobe is a seat of executive functions and higher cognition. It takes up about 35% of the outer cortex
- Information processed from the brain is done unconsciously 99.99% of the time
- There are currently 50+ chemicals that have been identified and are active within the brain
Your baby has already started to learn from day one. Do not let time pass your baby by.
Be sure to frequently interact and stimulate your baby whenever time and energy allow.
