Quiz

BuzzFeed Staff

Science

<b>Separate fact from fiction in this brainy quiz!</b>

Separate fact from fiction in this brainy quiz!

Can You Answer These Basic Brain Questions?

This simple ratio was once thought to be a measurement of intelligence. But using this as a metric, [birds would be smarter than humans,](https://books.google.com/books?dq=The+Central+Nervous+System+of+Vertebrates%3A+Volume+3.+Overal+Morphologic+Pattern%2C+Part+2&id=Ly2oixWgxYMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA735#v=onepage&q=Cuvier%27s%20fraction&f=false) and humans would have the same intelligence as a mouse.

False!

Pain receptors, or nociceptors, are nerve cells that send pain signals TO the brain. The brain itself [doesn't actually have any](https://www.academia.edu/562630/Pain_Physiological_mechanisms). This is why open brain surgery can be performed when a patient is conscious.

True!

The 10% myth is ["laughably"](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/) wrong.

It's [true](http://www.pnas.org/content/99/16/10237.full)! Even more remarkable is the fact that it accounts for only 2% of our body weight.

It's actually a [rare medical procedure](http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W98/medupdate.html) called a hemispherectomy. The brain is remarkably adaptable and it can rewire its functions in a way that allows it to operate with only one hemisphere.

Sure, there has been some [promising work](http://www.nature.com/news/brain-decoding-reading-minds-1.13989) using fMRI scans to visualize thoughts as they happen in the brain, but calling it "mind-reading" would be overselling it.

Short term memory exists in the lateral prefrontal cortex and the [hippocampus](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-short-term-memory-to-long-term/), whereas long-term memory generally exists in the neocortex.

The brain is a lot [more complicated](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0071275) than this simple myth would suggest.

This is [true for most people](http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/123/12/2512). That being said, it is possible for the right side to develop the same skills (in the case of a hemispherectomy, for example).

It's [true](http://www.northeastern.edu/nutraumaticbraininjury/braintbi-anatomy/brain-functions/)! Science, you crazy…

[Science](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3606042) has shown that this is simply not true.

This is a widely cited number, but no peer-reviewed studies have actually shown it to be true. One study estimates that there are around [86 billion neurons](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19226510) in the brain.

More accurately, alcohol [PREVENTS](http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-2/186-196.htm?ictd%5Bil726%5D=rlt~1419410585~land~2_4757_direct_&ictd%5Bmaster%5D=vid~aa462ca7-6c0c-4267-bbc5-6a81dfcadebb) the brain from making NEW memories.

[Up until 1998](http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v4/n11/full/nm1198_1313.html) that's what science thought, too. But we now know that new brain cells can be generated in adults.

Your brain's got it going on. Not only does it know some cool stuff about itself, but it also can easily tell science fact from science fiction. Nice work!

You a brainiac!

Your brain DGAF. It clearly works pretty well... You are a living, breathing, internetting human, after all. It's smart enough to not waste its time with meaningless brain trivia.

Your brain is too busy for self-reflection.

Your brain hasn't learned everything about itself, but it clearly has the goods to tell fact from fiction. This will get you far in life!

You got some brain knowledge goin' on!

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