The Power of the Human Brain
By Roshni Kapur
Hollow face illusion, false memory, motion capture….all these complex terminologies have been creatively simplified by Bruce Hood for our basic understanding. The Star Lecture 2012 was held by renowned professor Bruce Hood, the director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre at Mediacorp Centre from 13-17 August.
Highly interactive and instrumental in nature, this year’s Star Lecture has been a youth success amongst high school teenagers who have been swayed by the Professor’s creative games, model analogies and experiments. A two hours long lecture absolutely did not feel that long!
Bruce Hood, has intelligently illustrated the power of our brain and its understanding of the world surrounding it. He kicks off the lecture by showing the audience an actual human brain preserved in a glass cylinder. Getting mixed reactions from the audience, he next shows real life jelly fish that ‘do not really’ have a brain. The human brain consists of 86 billion neutrons that grow and develop as we age since the day we are born.
Being consistent with his model analogy to maintain the audience’s excitement, he opens up a big, life-size cortex that has all been coiled and compressed to fit into the size of our brain. Everything is a product of our brain which makes it different and unique in each and every individual. Our brain helps us to navigate our way and makes sense of everything around us.g it. He kicks off the lecture by showing the audience an actual human brain preserved in a glass cylinder. Getting mixed reactions from the audience, he next shows real life jelly fish that ‘do not really’ have a brain. The human brain consists of 86 billion neutrons that grow and develop as we age since the day we are born.
The professor then introduces two young scientists from Astar Research who have intelligently created a computer game that uses our concentration level to control the speed of a moving object. The higher the concentration level, the faster is the movement of the object in the game. They get a student from the audience to try it out which has also been used in clinical trials to help children with attention deficit disorder to increase their concentration levels. All of this shows the power of our brain and its amazing ability to control various mechanisms.
With the variety of models, colorful illustrations and experiments, this year’s star lecture has indeed widened one’s horizons on what we can do with our powerful brain. The brain feeds the mind with different sorts of information which ultimately decide our behavior.
