Your Brain, By the Numbers
Somehow, the brain is greater than the sum of its parts
- By Laura Helmuth
- Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2012, Subscribe
100: Number, in billions, of neurons in a human brain
100: Estimated number, in terabytes, of information it can store
1: Number, in terabytes, of information a typical desktop computer can store
2: Percentage of the body’s weight represented by the brain
20: Percentage of the body’s energy used by the brain
95: Number of diagnoses in the 1952 DSM-I, the first edition of psychiatry’s manual for diagnosing mental illnesses
283: Number of diagnoses in the 2011 DSM-IV-TR, the most recent edition
303: Highest number of random digits memorized at the 2012 USA Memory Championship, a record
10: Approximate percentage drop, in one study, in the accurate recall of random letters as a result of chewing gum
50: Percentage of times that human volunteers successfully recalled a sequence of five numbers presented briefly on a computer screen
80: Percentage of times that a chimpanzee named Ayumu succeeded at the same task
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