PPT Slide
- The average three-pound brain contains about 100 billion neurons.
- The average three-pound brain contains about 1000 billion glial cells.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
Notes:
1. The total number of brain cells is staggering, although many of us are not stunned by the number because we have no prior knowledge or schema developed for numbers that large.
2. Glial cells have no cell body and are generally thought to perform such roles as help to form the barrier between blood and brain, help to regulate the immune system, help move nutrients through the brain, and provide basic structural support and the quality of firmness to the brain.
3. Neurons have a cell body, axons and dendrites. They are the basic functional unit of the brain and do the brain’s “work”.
4. This vast number of brain cells are developed during gestation. Each of us are born with the brain cells we will have for the duration of our lives.
5. While we basically grow no new neurons*, we do grow more connections between neurons and more glial cells to support new dendrite growth.
*A recent exception discovered at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California indicates that some areas of the brain do grow new neurons although the implications of this are yet to be determined.