How much information can the Human Brain process or Store?
447068
I'm a neurosurgeon. I don't think anyone will be able to give a satisfactory answer to that question, in large part because we don't have any meaningful units of measurement. \n\nWe can't use "bytes" like in a computer. We can't determine how many "facts" someone knows. We might be able to work out reaction speeds etc. but we can't really pin down how many other things you are thinking of at the time and how that might influence it; we can't sort out how many people you know or what your total vocabulary is really; or how many slightly different scents you can recognize.\n\nMost of the time, we are unaware of the thousands of pieces of information we are constantly processing unconsciously, like air temperature, sounds around us, colour of text on screen, clock ticking, feel of socks on our feet, hair on our neck. We may notice out of the corner of our eye that our co-worker has gotten up; her unhurried walk and the smell of cappucino indicate that it's coffee break rather than an emergency evacuation, and our brain doesn't even consciously notify us of making the decision to stay at our desk.\n\nThe brain can process massive amounts of information very quickly - you are actually doing complicated calculus every time you catch a flying ball! - but we don't have a good way to quantify it.
1134010
Phenomenal. The brain is a Massively interconnected parallel processor.
811390
In brief (lol) - As children we give equal importance to al the data we receive.\n\nLearning can be from any sense source, but we are slowly 'taught' to learn exclusively with our ears, and we develop a language, despite the fact that 90% of communication is visual - body language.\n\nJust when the child has got over the fact that it has to learn by audio means, we throw it back into confusion, by introducing a written (visual) code, which has to be learned.\n\nThe majority of children will have a nano-cortex (brain) divided into two halves, and store this info from the central mammalian brain (short-term memory).\n\nSleep allows the brain to refresh these memories, and sort out chemical links so we learn to relate certain things to others, and thus learn.\n\nSome children will have breaks in the chemical chains, or have divided their brain before birth into more sections (dyslexia) so they may find the established methods of acquiring data a little difficult at first.\n\nAt about 11 years, the cranium joints in the protective bones of our skull fuse together, and we free to then go on to develop the inside functions. This results in the development of abstract thought.\n\nIt can be simplified to this\n\n1. Unconsciously unaware don't know, and you don't know it.\n2. Consciously unaware, don't know, but you realise that you don't know.\n3. Unconsciously aware. You do know, but have not realised it.\n4. Consciously aware. You know, and you realise this.\n\nAt the end of your life, the chemical links you have built up over a lifetime start to decay, and you find it harder to recall the bits you haven't used for some time.\n\nSome people like Gardiner, theorised that we learn in spirals, building up on the last information, by revisiting it.\n\nBriggs Mayer identified that we like to learn in one of four preferred styles, or combinations of them, and thus learn best when taught in a style that suits us.\n\nLook at teaching books in the library - pedagogic (children), and androgogic (adults)
532132
Our cells do not sleep.  The function of cognizance shifts from the real world to the dream world.  Yes, as we expand our knowledge our capacity to learn increases.  It is a false notion that there is only so much "space" in the brain\nWe all function far below or mental capacities.
230369
The brain controls "lower" or involuntary activities such as heartbeat, respiration, and digestion - these are known as autonomic functions. The brain also controls "higher" order, conscious activities, such as thought, reasoning, and abstraction. The human brain is generally regarded as more capable of these higher order activities than any other species.\n\nThe human brain is thought to be the source of the conscious, cognitive mind. The mind is the set of cognitive processes related to perception, interpretation, imagination, and memories, of which a person may or may not be aware. Beyond cognitive functions, the brain regulates autonomic processes related to essential body functions such as respiration and heartbeat.\n\nExtended neocortical capacity allows humans some control over emotional behavior, but neural pathways between emotive centers of the brain stem and cerebral motor control areas are shorter than those connecting complex cognitive areas in the neocortex with incoming sensory information from the brain stem. Powerful emotional pathways can modulate spontaneous emotive expression regardless of attempts at cerebral self-control. Emotive stability in humans is associated with planning, experience, and an environment that is both stable and stimulating, especially during early developmental years.\n\nThe 19th century discovery of the primary motor cortex mapped to correspond with regions of the body led to popular belief that the brain was organized around a homunculus. A distorted figure drawn to represent the body's motor map in the prefrontal cortex was popularly recognized as the brain's homunculus, but function of the human brain is far more complex.\n\nThe human brain appears to have no localized center of conscious control. The brain seems to derive consciousness from interaction among numerous systems within the brain. Executive functions rely on cerebral activities, especially those of the frontal lobes, but redundant and complementary processes within the brain result in a diffuse assignment of executive control that can be difficult to attribute to any single locale.\n\nMidbrain functions include routing, selecting, mapping, and cataloguing information, including information perceived from the environment and information that is remembered and processed throughout the cerebral cortex. Endocrine functions housed in the midbrain play a leading role in modulating arousal of the cortex and of autonomic systems.\n\nNerves from the brain stem complex where autonomic functions are modulated join nerves routing messages to and from the cerebrum in a bundle that passes through the spinal column to related parts of a body. Twelve pairs of cranial nerves, including some that innervate parts of the head, follow pathways from the medulla oblongata outside the spinal cord.\n\nA definite description of the biological basis for consciousness so far eludes the best efforts of the current generation of researchers. But reasonable assumptions based on observable behaviors and on related internal responses have provided the basis for general classification of elements of consciousness and of likely neural regions associated with those elements. Researchers know people lose consciousness and regain it, they have identified partial losses of consciousness associated with particular neuropathologies and they know that certain conscious activities are impossible without particular neural structures.
325550
Great question that has been raised in many a bio-psych class.  Our brain is much more adaptable and maleable than a computer. I would love to be able to "delete" some of my memories and would definately love to organize my thoughts into "file folders" but our brain does not do that.  We are unable to control/alt/delete either.  \n\nThe human brain is amazing and I don't believe we know everything that it is capable of.  \n\nGood luck on this fun question and discussion!
1082817
yes there must be a limit  for the brain functions and  storage!! but the Brain only uses 2% of its total capacity the links and the other organs such as ear nose eye cannot coup up with it !! that's why the eye needs rest after reading for a long time !! the brain usually stores the messages by replacing the unwanted with the new one which are used more!! and when you study in a certain topic in different places and different ways it gets easy for the brain to store the information in one place and link it to the other links!! so more you study the easy it'll be for you to study>>>
537389
( scientifically speaking )\n\nour current understanding of the brain suggests that it is essentially a process of CHEMICAL and ELECTRICAL reactions. \n\nif thought is to be anything REAL ( and not metaphysical ) , then it MUST have basis in these chemical and electrical reactions.\n\nthe existence of LONG TERM memory is a well documented phenomena in human beings ( and many animals ).\n\nLong term memory must be "stored" intact for it to be retrieved quickly.  Storage means that the information must be present in an organized pattern in an electric or chemical medium.\n\nthere is no scientific evidence that the brain stores "charge" or electricity in an organized way to encode information ( i.e. it is not a capacitor ).\n\nit does however contain chemicals ( i.e. proteins ) and molecules that can be theoretically be altered and manipulated to encode information.\n\ncurrent speculation is that thoughts have a physical basis in the chemical structure of the brain.\n\nto answer your question, \n\nYES, thoughts DO have a SUBSTANCE .
1027249
i believe it is possible. we use less than 10 % of our brain. it is believed that if we could use more then we could fly, move things with our minds, and read peoples thoughts.
896114
A rough indication is the number of base pairs in the organism's DNA sequence.  It will be a slight overestimate of the organism's complexity because some of the genome is redundant.  So since there are 4 different bases and there are 3 billion base pairs in the human genome, and 4=2^2, there are 6 billion bits of information in the human genetic make-up.  If it seems incredible to you that the information to create something as complex as a human could easily be stored on a CD, some of the structures in a human body are highly repetitive.  Remember, all this information can be condensed into one sperm and one egg.  Centuries ago we'd reached the stage where an average person's cultural complexity, that is, their knowledge, language and memories, exceeded their physiological complexity.
189577
prefrontal lobes....short term memory are stored here...
978508
A memory is a piece of information stored in the brain. Memories sometimes can be stored in a way that is difficut to recollect, usually these have little meaning and cause almost no associations. But memories that make strong associations to other experiences and make links with other parts of the brain are more easily recalled and end up being stored in several areas of the brain.
1183486
The precise biological mechanisms of memory are not fully understood, but most scientists believe that memory results from changes in connections or connection strengths between neurons in the brain. One possible mechanism is long-term potentiation (LTP). Roughly stated, LTP refers to a process whereby if two neurons are usually active together, the connection between them will be strengthened; over time, this means that activity in one neuron will tend to produce activity in the other neuron. \n\nCategories of Memory Systems \n\nPsychologists and memory researchers often divide memory into categories defined by the duration for which the memory is expected to last. \n\nSensory memory refers to the fact that, after experiencing a stimulus, information about that stimulus is briefly held in memory in the exact form it was received, until it can be further processed. Typically, sensory memories may last only a few seconds before decaying -- or being overwritten by new, incoming information. But, while they last, sensory memories contains detailed information: almost like an internal "copy" of the stimulus, in perfect detail. For example, psychologists have assumed that there is a memory area (called a "buffer") where incoming visual information is stored as a picture or icon. This is sometimes called iconic memory. While visual information remains in iconic memory, an individual can answer detailed questions, such as what is the third row of numbers in a numerical display. Psychologists have assumed that there is also an echoic memory for auditory information (stored as an echo) and other buffers for information related to the other senses: taste, smell and touch. \n\nShort-term memory refers to memories which last for a few minutes. Unlike sensory memory, which is stored in the exact form it was experienced, short-term memory has received some processing; thus, "A" is stored not as a visual stimulus, but as an abstract concept of the letter "A". Short-term memory is of limited capacity, usually 5-9 items ("7-plus-or-minus-two"). Beyond this capacity, new information can "bump" out other items from short-term memory. This is one form of forgetting. Objects in short-term memory can be of indefinite complexity: thus short-term memory can hold several numbers, or several words, or several complex concepts simultaneously. Thus, while an individual may only be able to remember seven random digits, it may be possible to remember more digits if they are "chunked" into meaningful objects: thus, "1776-2001-1941" represents twelve separate digits -- well beyond most people's capacity -- but only three easily-remembered chunks. \n\nItems can be maintained indefinitely in short-term memory by rehearsal: e.g. by repeating the information over and over again. An example would be a seven-digit phone number, which is maintained in short-term memory by repetition until the number is dialed, and then fades from short-term memory once the conversation starts. Repetition may also increase the probability that items in short-term memory will enter permanent storage in long-term memory. \n\nIntermediate-term or working memory is sometimes considered a synonym for short-term memory. However, memory researchers often consider this a specialized term referring for information about the current task. Thus, even though a specific phone number may occupy short-term memory, working memory contains the information that lets you remember that you are in the process of phoning the gas company to complain about a recent billing error. \n\nLong-term memory is memory that lasts for years or longer. It contains everything we know about the world, including semantic and factual information as well as autobiographical experience. In general, long-term memory is organized so that it is easy to reach a stored item by a number of routes. For example, the concept "umbrella" may
708795
The scientists that constructed the experiment looked at the amount of space it takes for a computer to store written files and programs. Theoretically, you can assume that certain knowledge or tasks (such as mastering the english language) can be converted to hypothetical "memory" that your brain has to store. Depending on the size or complexity of what it is that is stored, scientists can figure what the average human brain can store by looking at the amount of things an average human can do and also memorize.
939655
Others have wondered whether or not downloading the contents of one's brain into an ultra-high-capacity chip would allow for the continuation of the consciousness. Arthur C. Clarke seems to think so. I'm not so sure, but it is an interesting Q.
1015687
Nothing, knowledge is something that you have gained by learning something or some skill.\nBabies, have a brain capacity, which grows as the get older and mature. But there is no real knowledge stored there.\nThey are pre wired so to speak to be able to learn language that they receive from their parents.\nThen they learn more every day, and gain knowledge of everything they need.\nBrain capacity, is usually measured by how much knowledge it can hold and store.
1155761
biological computers, the memory would grow and learn similar to our brains