# Humanities & Anthropology > Philosophy >  Some brain questions

## Dutch Baka

How much information can a human brain take? In your life time you take so much information into your brain, things like your childhood memories of climbing trees and your first girlfriend, the 50hours of study you did every week, listening to the news, the conversations with your friends, the books you have read, and many more things.

Can your brain ever become full? How big can your brain be? A couple of years ago they had did a research about the size of brains, and they found out that a brain of a London cab driver, and the brain of Einstein are bigger than average persons. 

Does a person who study laws for 5 hours a day a bigger brain than someone who work in a clothes store? 

Do we now know more than people who lived a 100 years ago, because of things like radio, TV and internet?

When you forget things, does It mean that your brain lost that information, because you already have to much? 

And in what part of life do you take most information into your brain? When you are a student, in your mid-life crises, or when you are 80 and play word games with your neighbours? Or in another part of life?

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## Clawn

> And in what part of life do you take most information into your brain? When you are a student, in your mid-life crises, or when you are 80 and play word games with your neighbours? Or in another part of life?


From what I've gathered and have have heard, the earliest stages in life(infancy to mid teens) is when most learning takes place.

http://www.fi.edu/brain/exercise.htm

By the time you were four or five years old, your fundamental cerebral architecture was complete.


Until your early teens, various windows of opportunity opened when you could most easily learn language and writing, math and music, as well as the coordinated movements used in sports and dance. But, at any age you can – and should – continue to build your brain and expand your mind.

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## Tsuyoiko

I read somewhere that you learn the most between birth and two. That seems plausible, as it is between those ages that you learn to use your senses and to walk and talk, which are the bases for everything else. I think the human brain is to all purposes infinite in capacity - not literally, but I think it can store so much that you will never run out of space. I think when you forgot things it is not because they aren't there any more, but because we can't access them - we all have experiences when we suddenly remember something we thought we had forgotten. I sometimes think my memory is failing me, but I think it is just because my job doesn't stimulate me intellectually. When I get into a good discussion here I can remember all kinds of things I can't recall at other times.

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## Maciamo

> How much information can a human brain take? In your life time you take so much information into your brain, things like your childhood memories of climbing trees and your first girlfriend, the 50hours of study you did every week, listening to the news, the conversations with your friends, the books you have read, and many more things.


Very difficult to quantify.




> Can your brain ever become full?


Not really. People usually die before that, but memory decreases with age, along with the decrease in neurons (=disk space). We could say that Alzheimer is a disease that destroys bytes of disk space (i.e. neurons).




> How big can your brain be?


Brain size can vary considerably between people, and so does neuron density. So the total number of neurons (size x density) varies a lot from a person to another. That's (partly) why some people think faster or remember more easily than others. Naturally, the more you train your brain, the the faster and more efficient at memorising it will be. The total number of neuron one has may have an influence on their quality of memory in old age, or the potential of things they can learn. One of course has to use this potential to make a difference...




> A couple of years ago they had did a research about the size of brains, and they found out that a brain of a London cab driver, and the brain of Einstein are bigger than average persons.


London cab drivers have a bigger hippocampus, a small central part of the brain which plays a role in 3D navigation. Its size increases when you use it more (and decreases with the lack of use).

Einstein's brain was not much bigger than average. In fact, they dissected it after his death and didn't find anything "special".




> Does a person who study laws for 5 hours a day a bigger brain than someone who work in a clothes store?


They don't get a "bigger brain", they create more connections between neurons, or in other words "train their brain" and increase their memory. Think of the brain as a hard disk. When you are born, it's empty. Learning is like typing data or installing new programmes. The more you install, the more things you computer can do (or the more data you type, the more is stocked). But like a hard disk, some neurons (clusters for HD) can get physically damaged (e.g. lack of oxygen, poor diet) so that you can't use them anymore. In any case, brains and HD slowly lose in speed and space with time, until it stops working.




> Do we now know more than people who lived a 100 years ago, because of things like radio, TV and internet?


In average, yes, we certainly do. But I feel that the gap between those who crave for knowledge and those who don't give a damn about learning also increases with time, as it has never been easier for anyone to learn whatever they want than now.




> When you forget things, does It mean that your brain lost that information, because you already have to much?


There are 2 ways of forgetting. Either the information is not accessible right now (too many programmes running at the same time, or you can't find the directory where you stocked your file), but it's still there. Or it has be destroyed (neuron died) or not properly saved (didn't try to remember, or the stimulus was too weak). In the first case, you will remember it later, or remember to have known it before. In the second, it's like it never happened.




> And in what part of life do you take most information into your brain?


Certainly in the first few years after being born. After that, it depends on the people, their motivation and environment. Usually, the older you get (especalli after 20), and the more difficult it gets to learn.

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## himagain

I don't think of the brain as a big vessel you can fill until it won't hold anymore information.
I think the quality and complexity of a particular brain may be a better measure.

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## The Alani Dragon

In the first couple of years of life children learn more than all the time they go through school. But I believe we tend to have the ability to learn for the duration of our lives, excluding serious degenerative brain conditions. Things do become harder at about the age of ten, but it doesn't become impossible.

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## himagain

I believe Einstein's brain has been discovered to have more gial cells than the average.

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