Monday, September 10, 2012

Soooo Geniuses have More Calcium in their Brains?!

This week my fascination is about Glial cells in the brain. These cells are what I like to think of as neurons’ little helpers. They are important to the brain signaling system, as they aid in the neuronal activity. There are so many different kinds of glia cells like Microglia that remove waste material, and Schwann cells that build myelin sheaths around the axon. These are important functions of some glia but the ones I focused on the most were astrocytes. These cells help harmonize activity between axons and send messages in calcium waves. Why is that important? Well from an article, The Root OfThought, the author says these cells are enhancing our brain activity, creating deep thought. The article states, “Astrocytes can induce neurons to fire. Therefore, astrocytes improve neuron behavior...The fact that humans have the largest astrocytes of any animal and we are capable of creativity and imagination also justifies this theory.” He believes the calcium waves generated by astrocytes are our "thinking" mind. Without these waves neuronal transmittion would just generate reflex, making us just simple animals. Astrocytes also help bring more nutrients to areas in the brain that have more activity by dialating blood vessals.Glial cells are very important for the human brain. They protect, enhance, and guide neurons. I also saw a video where a scientist talks about how the genius Albert Einstein had a lot of astrocytes in his brain. 
So the more glia, the closer you are to genius. I know of the helping functions of glia but I was surprised to find out that this certain kind of glial cell could solely end up being our thoughts and imagination.I mean to suggest that without glia the neuron activity in the brain would just produce reflexes is pretty crazy.At the same time, there are more glia cells than neurons.
 So the question now is, how many of those glia cells are astrocytes? Is this what I need more of to be a genius like Einstein? 
Is it the quality or quantity of glia/astrocytes that made Albert a genius?

1 comment:

  1. So the main idea is to have a lot of glia. How do we find how much we have? I would love to produce lots of glia for myself to be a genius. Really its also important to know for me beacuse I am a parent and finding out how much my children have would be great. And just like you stated in your comment can I or my children be an Albert and can they be creative to change the world?

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