The Human Brain
The brain is the source of all our behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and experiences. We have known for a long time that different areas of the brain are used for different activities – memory, language, problem-solving, and so on. Doreen Kimura, professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario, explains how the latest studies also show that, although all human brains are very similar, there are small differences in the way the brain is organized between one person and another. These differences may underlie some of our unique talents.
We know that people differ in the way they solve problems. We call this their intellectual, or cognitive, ability. We may differ from our friends not only in overall ability, sometimes referred to as IQ, or “smarts”, but also in the pattern of our abilities. One person may be especially good at problems involving words, whereas another may be better at dealing with problems relating to real-world objects. Since the brain is the centre for all such activities, there must be some way in which brains differ slightly from one person to another.
- The brain performs an incredible number of tasks:
- It controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.
- It accepts a flood of information about the world around you from your various senses (eyes, ears, nose, etc.).
- It handles physical motion when walking, talking, standing or sitting.
- It lets you think, dream, reason and experience emotions.
