As you greet the new week by banging your head on your desk in office despair, rest assured: The brain’s wrinkled surface protects you from non-existential damage.
The prevailing explanation for the brain’s crenellations is that they increase computational capacity by packing a large surface area into a small space. Exactly how this works is a matter of speculation, but abnormalities have been linked to disorders like autism and depression.
In a paper published online Monday in the Journal of Biomechanics, researchers simulated the effects of trauma on three-dimensional computer models of normal and wrinkle-free brains. In the smooth models, almost every brain structure, from brain stem to frontal lobe, was more vulnerable to damage. Our brains appear to have a built-in crumple zone.
The results should improve models of traumatic impacts used to design protective headgear and investigate injury. In the meantime, the protective effect of the wrinkles, known technically as sulci, doesn’t mean cognitive explanations are incorrect. The two features are complementary, a testament to the exquisite piece of evolutionary engineering that is the brain.
Wired (Thanks Tiram)
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Does that mean if you stretch/flatten the brain out it would cover an enourmous area i.e. the size of Sussex?
that’s reassuring. Tho painkillers on hand are always good.
Well, the lungs gain more surface area due to their structure enabling increased transfer of gases from the atmosphere to the bloodstream, so not surprising to find a similar concept at work in another important organ. Are the external crenellations mirrored in the brain’s internal structure giving more processing power? Wikipedia spouts off a lot of info about the brain – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain – but nothing on the old crenellations…..
I dont think that it was designed like that, with wrinkles, for that reason, but it might be a nice side effect of it. Nonetheless, good that there is a skull around it and that we dont keep banging our heads to the wall ….
I myself would see it more in the area of energy transport/maintenance .. these wrinkles .. ehehe .. and also .. there’s more stuff around the brain that protects the brain .. the stuff between the skull and the brainwrinkled surface. I’d say .. if it had been less wrinkled and could get into wrinkled shape after the owner smashed his/her head into something .. that would be more like a crumple zone ..And the cooling/heating of a wrinkled surface .. as with a radiator .. Hm, smooth brains vs autism and depression …. a link … and then the link to normal brains.