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=Wikipost #2= =The Brain - December 1, 2013=

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The most complex organ of the body, containing one hundred billion neurons that create every thought, feeling, action, and experience in the world, better known as the brain. The brain has neurons that come in contact with thousands of others, while making new connections every second. Within these connections, personalities, habits and memories are all formed and stored.

= = Our brains consist of different parts that all have specific functions for our bodies. They include:


 * The frontal lobe - Controls motor functions, higher thinking (conscious thoughts), planning, problem solving, judgement, and impulse control, among many others.
 * The temporal lobe - Controls abilities to hear and understand, memory and learning, some visual perception, and speech.
 * Olfactory -
 * The brain stem (Medulla, pons, and midbrain) - These control automatic functions such as breathing, and heart rate, and also visceral functions like digestion.
 * The cerebellum - It coordinates movements, controls balance, some memory.
 * The hypothalamus (pituitary gland) - Controls visceral functions, body temperature, and responses such as eating, drinking, aggression, and pleasure.
 * The cerebrum (cerebral cortex, amygdala, hippocampus) - Controls motor functions, reads information from sense organs, controls emotions, and hold memories and thought processes.



===The brain is only a part of a larger system, known as the nervous system. The nervous system consists of the brain, the spinal cord and peripheral nerves; it runs on neurons that transmit signals throughout the body. There are two parts of the nervous system, the central and peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system is made up of the brain, spinal cord and retina, while the peripheral is made up of sensory organs alone with groups of neurons and nerves that connect back to the central nervous system.===

Neurons are the cells that transmit signals all throughout our bodies, to tell our bodies what to do and how to do it. We are made up of 100 billion neurons that are all connected to each other in some way. They send signals through axons, which carry the message thought the cell, it is released by the synapses, where it is met by another neuron. These messages can be passed within milliseconds.

There are four basic types of neurons:


 *  Sensory neurons carry signals from the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system.
 * Motor neurons carry signals from the central nervous system to the peripheral nervous system.
 *  Internerons connect neurons between the brain and spinal cord
 *  Pyrimidal cells transmits signals meant for voluntary movement



= =

For further reading;
Explained parts of the human brain : [] Interesting facts on the brain: [] For more information on the nervous system: [] For more on neurons: []

=== This video was released September 5,2012. It took 30 years to figure out that 78% of the DNA scientists thought was useless is actually important and useful to our bodies. This video explains in more detail the ENCODE project and what they discovered on our junk DNA. Hank states that "we still don't know what all of that other junk does," but recently, there have been breakthroughs that have found diseases hiding in our non-coding DNA. ===



This picture shows all the of the different functions of DNA, and it goes to show that only around 20% is unclassified.

====The ENCODE project, along with other researchers have found direct links between variations in our junk DNA and the development of diseases. They found that some of our non-coding DNA show the same levels of low variation as protein-coding genes. These are called "ultrasensitive" regions. In these regions, they would alter a letter, and would cause problems in the genetic code, and would cause a disease. With involvement with our regulatory genes, if something goes wrong, the genes can be mutated, causing diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Crohn's disease. Because our regulatory genes control the growth of tissues and organs, it is essential that these genes function correctly in the development of fetuses during pregnancy as well. It is impossible to think that it was once thought that only 2% of our genes were useful; Without our junk DNA, we would be nothing like we are now.====



This picture explains the how mutations in our junk DNA can cause disease, and problems within our bodies. Now that it is understood how some diseases are caused, it could possibly lead to finding new treatments.

**Further Reading**
More on Junk DNA: [] Junk DNA in relation to disease: [] Junk DNA and breast cancer: [] More on ENCODE: [|http://www.nature.com/encode/#/threads/impact-of-evolutionary-selection-on-functional-regions]

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