Saturday, July 20, 2013

How The Brain Works

Our seven-year-old daughter was working on a drawing a few days ago. It was a diagram of the brain:

How The Brain Really Works

She had color-coded each part of the brain in the drawing, and she explained to my husband and me how it all works:

Pink -   Separate World ("Seperate World")-- i.e., imagination. Everyone can have a separate world, she told us. You can decide the color of your separate world. My daughter's world, of course, is pink.

Green - Silly Beans. Everyone is born with 1,000,000 silly beans. After birth, you start losing them. Between the ages of 4 to 7, you have 1,800 (or at least, I think--her calculations were too complicated for me to follow). At this stage of life, my husband has 900; I have only 700 silly beans left.

Lines and Dots  - Files. Most of the space in your brain, she told us, is occupied by files. 

Red -  Blood  ("Blud")

Blue - Thinking. Note the size of the part of the brain that is devoted to thinking.

14 comments:

  1. I love it, better than any doctors explanation. According to that I probably only lost a few files, I'm good to go.

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  2. This is absolutely smashing--best explanation of brain anatomy and functioning I've seen. I'm wondering how many silly beans her grandparents still have left . . .And she's right on in the large part of the brain devoted to "files," many of which, she perhaps realizes, one has difficulty in accessing with increasing years and increasing accumulations of files. I'm sure my separate world is colored green, and I bet she would agree. I'm going to hang on to this comprehensive understanding of the brain, and pass it on to those of us who aren't sure we understand just how our brains are working any more--this clarifies everything. Grammy.

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  3. Your daughter's explanations made me laugh. Thanks for sharing this with us.

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  4. I bet that even though I've got LOTS of silly beans left, Tom has more. I can feel mine rolling around in there. Say hey to your family for me.

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  5. I LOVE THIS! I think my separate world is orange.

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  6. Brilliant and hysterical. Thank you Grace.

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    1. Thank Lucy!

      And thank you to you and Kathryn. What a great class we've had.

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    2. Oh my! Out of the mouths of babes! LOL, but makes sense in so many ways. I do wonder how many Silly Beans I have left! LOL! Can we regenerate those?? I'm sure Bob has more than me!! Though he did lose lots of those files...

      Your daughter is wonderful, Grace. Bless her soul. And give her a hug from me.

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    3. Diane, I wonder if you can get a transplant to get more Silly Beans?! With all you have been through,you need as much as you can get...

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  7. Would you be interested in my stroke blog?

    http://arockystrokerecovery.com/2013/09/07/the-problem-with-runningfree-is/

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  8. Hi Grace,
    I love this brain diagram! Do you think I could use it in my aphasia class? Would your daughter give me permission? I like the separate world part too.
    Best,
    Marjorie N. (fellow Arlingtonian)

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    1. Hi Marjorie--I'm sure she would be happy to give permission. Although, knowing her, she might ask how much she would be paid ;)

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