• Question: how does out brain make us do different things? for example, how does our brain make us feel pain?

    Asked by Cameron to Andres, Catherine, Darren, Ellie, Samantha on 12 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Andres Olivares del Campo

      Andres Olivares del Campo answered on 12 Nov 2016:

      Hi!

      I am not an expert in this field and I am sure Darren will be able to give you a better answer.

      But I think the way it works is that, we have nerves around our bodies, which are connected to the spinal cord which sends a signal up to our brain. These nerves respond differently to different stimuli. So for example, the chemical reaction for “pain” is different to the chemical reaction for “cold”. This produces a particular “electrical” signal, which is interpreted by the brain in a particular way. It is quite amazing, really! In fact, you can treat someone who has no hand, so that its brain thinks it has a hand and he or she feels no pain!!

      But my answer might be incomplete so hopefully Darren will illuminate us!

    • Photo: Samantha Watson

      Samantha Watson answered on 12 Nov 2016:

      Andres is right that nerves are used to communicate information such as pain to the brain. And I believe to carry messages from the brain to the muscles to make us respond eg if we are holding a hot cup of tea, the brain will receive the message that it is hot, and send out the message to let go before the heat causes damage us by causing a burn.

      How the brain knows what all the messages mean, and how to send the right message out to the right place I don’t know, but maybe someone else will?

Comments