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In partnership with The Conversation, #Trending brings you Curious Kids, a series where we ask experts to answer questions from kids.
How does our brain send signals to our body? – Aarav, aged 9, Mumbai, India
Georgia Chronaki, senior lecturer in developmental neuroscience, University of Central Lancashire, UK:
“The average human brain contains about 86 billion nerve cells, called neurons. These are the building blocks of your brain and they communicate with each other by sending chemical and electrical signals.
Each neuron is connected with other neurons across tiny junctions called “synapses”. Impulses rush along tiny fibres, like electrical wires, from one neuron to the next.
Every time you recognise a familiar face, hear a voice or learn something new, millions of neurons are communicating with each other through hundreds of millions of synapses.
The brain is the body’s control centre: it sends messages to your body through a network of nerves called “the nervous system”, which controls your muscles, so that you can walk, run and move around.
The nervous system extends through your body from your spinal cord, which runs from your brain down your backbone.
The nerve cells in your eyes, ears and nose detect sensations, and send signals to different parts of your brain, which turn them into what you see, hear and smell – all in a matter of milliseconds.
The brain also uses chemical signals to control processes in the body.
As well as allowing us to move around and understand what’s going on in the world, the brain gives us a sense of who we are – a “sense of self”, that’s different from other people.
Scientists don’t yet fully understand how the brain creates each person’s sense of self. But research has shown that when people think they’re being watched by others, certain parts of their brains are busy. This part – called the “medial prefrontal cortex” – is what makes you feel self-conscious.
The brain is always trying to find ways to explain the sensations that we feel in our body. And the same sensation can have different meanings in different contexts.
The various experiences become part of how your brain makes sense of whatever’s happening to you. This means that people have more control over their emotions than they might think, because the brain can learn how to respond to experiences differently. As author Wayne Dyer wrote: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
. To read more of Chronaki’s answer, go to the conversation.com
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