Mind-blowing facts about the brain - The human mind is amazing and many scholars have tried to unravel its mysteries throughout the years. Today, memory, attention, logic, intuition, problem solving, and the ability to communicate are well-known characteristics of the mind.

The first theoretical explanations of the mind (Plato and Aristotle) associated it with the soul, considering it immortal and divine. But in light of recent research, how is the powerful human brain viewed as in the present day?

Click on the gallery and discover amazing facts about the human brain!

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Meaning of 'mind' - The term 'mind' originates from Anglo-Saxon English and means 'to think, to remember.'

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Water - According to The Guardian, 75% of our brain is made up of water.

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Weight - According to the Express, our brain weighs approximately 1.5 kg and represents 2 to 3% of our body mass. In addition, it consumes about 20% of our oxygen.

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Storage - Our brain is capable of storing the equivalent of 1,000 terabytes of information, according to the Daily Galaxy.

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Connections - The Daily Galaxy reports that the human brain has more connections than the number of stars in our galaxy.

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Philosophers and the mind - Philosophers were the pioneers in the study of the human mind. Plato advocated the theory that the mind was a blank sheet and acquired knowledge through virtue, regardless of sensory experience.

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Consciousness - Consciousness allows us to experience and react in a seemingly self-directed way. However, neuroscientists still can't explain how sensations are processed and translated into subjective impressions.

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Memory - Human memory is characterized by the ability of humans to 'encode, store, retain and recall information' through neurobiological devices and social interaction, according to The Human Memory.

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Inteligence - Intelligence has been popularly defined as one's ability for logic, abstraction, memorization, understanding, self-knowledge, communication, learning, emotional control, planning, and problem solving, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Perception - The main function of the brain is to convert our senses into experiences. This ability to perceive allows us to organize, identify, and interpret sensory information in a way that helps us build and understand our world, according to Utne Reader.

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Déjà vu - It's a psychological reaction where the brain transmits the feeling that we've been in a place or have seen a person before, even though we never did. The phenomenon is actually a fault in the brain where the facts that are happening are stored directly in long or medium term memory when the information should go into short-term memory - hence the feeling that we've experienced the situation before, says The Conversation.

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Dreams - Freud and psychoanalysis claim that dreams have the function of 'releasing' repressed desires and fears that embarrass us but are deeply present in our psyche.

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Reality vs. Imagination - When we look at an object, we request a sequence of neurons and patterns from our brains. If we're imagining an object, the process is the same: the same brain sequence will create a representation of the object. Therefore, the brain does not differentiate between reality and imagination.

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Free will - Some neuroscientists argue that free will is no more than an illusion and that brain activity predetermines a conscious choice.

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Movement - One of the mysteries of the mind is that we manage to move in a controlled and precise manner, even though our motor nerve impulses are considered slow, random, and unpredictable.

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Personality - A study revealed that the shape of our brains can reveal a lot about our behavior and the risks of developing mental disorders.

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Time - In the book 'Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception,' author Claudia Hammond says that the perception of time is something flexible for our minds and that, in situations of fear and threat, we 'see' time passing in slow motion. In addition, the author says that new experiences are processed differently by our brains. That's why we're more likely to remember events we've experienced between the ages of 15 and 25.

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How music affects our emotions - Music affects the nervous system directly through the thalamus, so the center of our emotions and feelings can be stimulated, says HealthLine.

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Improving boring stories - Scientists at the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow observed that when people were faced with a monotonous or boring story, their mind rewrote the story in ways that would improve them and make them interesting.

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Phobias - Over 400 different types of phobias are recognized. According to a study by the Emory University School of Medicine, phobias can be directly related to genetics, the memory of a negative experience recorded in the DNA and passed on from generation to generation.

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Negativity gene - According to research conducted by the University of British Columbia, some people are genetically predisposed to negativity. This is due to a variation of the ADRA2b gene that causes individuals to perceive negative emotional events more intensely.

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Extrasensory perception - It is the human capacity to acquire information without using any of the five senses. It's like using a sixth sense, says The Telegraph.

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Clairvoyance - It's the ability to acquire information from places or objects through extrasensory perception.

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Precognition - Known as premonition, people who claim to experience it get information about future events without having indications in the present that would allow them to come to such conclusion. Premonition can manifest through dreams, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Telepathy - It is usually characterized by the interaction between two minds, including the transmission of thoughts, memories, or images, according to IFL Science.

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Psychokinesis - According to Encyclopedia Britannica, this term means the ability to affect objects or living beings at a certain distance, solely through the power of the mind, without using any kind of physical force.

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Macro psychokinesis - These are visible manifestations of objects being moved. Some believe that spirits are not responsible for these events but rather children or young people with emotional problems, according to the Institute for International Economic Policy.

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Bio telekinesis - This is when psychokinesis is applied directly to a living being. An example of this would be the increase of electrical conductivity in the skin during a certain time.

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Micro psychokinesis - It works the same way as macro psychokinesis, but with very small pieces of matter, visible only with electronic devices, according to the Institute for International Economic Policy.

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