question about human brain

[scman]

Hi ime a newbie and dont know much about biology,anyway heres my question.Does the brain have a saturation point where its pretty much impossible to learn anything else?It must follow the same rules as any other machine/computer albeit much more complicated.

[fafalone]

There should be an upper limit of memory. Memory is believed to be related to protein coats on cells in the brain, and since theres an upper limit of the number of cells theres an upper limit on memory, although defining just how much information that limit can be is not accurately possible at this time.

[iglak]

and even if that upper limit is reached, the brain most likely has many ways of compensating for it.

[Glider]

If you take the neurological phenomena associated with learning (Long term potentiation, Short-term potentiation, temporal and spacial summation, etc.) which mean any given neuron can be a part of many, many different 'circuits' (determined by dendritic connections to the neurons around it) and can perform many different functions, depending on which 'circuit' it's functioning as a part of at any time, and factors which, in effect, multiply the number of 'circuits' influenced by any given neuron (divergence, convergence and so-on), and given the number of neurones in the human cortex, there is no theoretical limit to the amount of information the brain can hold. Under the circumstances, given the numbers of dendritic connections there are in the cortex (which is only an estimate as it's impossible to count), even our ability to calculate the possible number of circuits is questionable. Even if there was a limit, neural plasticity (the ability to generate new dendritic connections and extinguish redundent ones, forming new 'circuits') would make it a flexible limit (which is oxymoronic).

[iglak]

Glider said in post #4 :

flexible limit (which is oxymoronic).

actually, it's semi-oxymoronic, like my entire sig.

sorry, just had to say that.

[Guest GemiNI]

I am also a new bee, here to contribute my 2 cents.

I have been studying some neuron sci in uni lately (love it)... from what i have found... I would agree that there really is no set limit for any particular person. Studies suggest that memory, in part, comes from the continual construction of new neural "connections" b/w axons, dendrites and glial cells

 

 

(semi- oxymoronic? :S ... yes yes.. wise fools indeed)

 

As it turns out, Albert Einstein actually had more glial cells in his frontal lobe then the average Joe. NOT neurons as commonly believed.

Any how, I think the amount that you can cram up there all depends on

1. How much time you have allowed to store it up there, and

2. how much previous practice your own mind has at storing it. (How used to making connections ... and what already available connections you have made)

[birdo118]

i agree with gilded, but i would like to add one more thing. as he said, redundant dendrites and neurons are deleted to make room for new ones. but id like to add that unneeded neurons are also deleted. at birth, a human forms many skills that are needed for life. as a human progresses, though, things that are not needed for survival are imprinted into our minds. these unneeded things like the knowledge of a cheat code for a game or the knowledge of the tire pressure on you tire are deleted to allow for more important information to enter the mind. i know that myself, as well as many of you, have remembered things for a short period of time so we can regurgitate the information soon after we learn it. if some of you havent realized, we forget that right, or soon, after we regurgitate it. this is because the mind deletes this unnecessary information on a regular basis. becuase of this, even if there were a limit to how much knowledge one can have, it will never be accounted for because the limit would be such an unimaginable amount.