About the brain
Brain facts
- Your brain weighs about 3lbs, or just under 1.5kg
- It has the texture of blancmange
- Your brain is connected to your spinal cord by the brain stem
- Behind your brain stem is the cerebellum
- The cerebral cortex is the largest part of your brain. It contains the frontal lobes, the motor cortex, sensory cortex and parietal lobes
- The brain is made up of around 100 billion nerve cells and even more support cells, which provide nourishment to the nerve cells.
The diagram below shows which areas of your brain control different activities
Damage to a particular area can affect that activity. For example, damage to your frontal lobe could affect your personality.
We also know that the left side of your brain controls your right side. So if someone had a stroke, which affected the left side of their brain, it would be likely that the right side of their body would be affected. For most of us, the left side controls speech, while the right side controls our artistic skills such as drawing and music.
For further information about the brain, traumatic brain injury, forms of acquired brain injury, rehabilitation etc visit the Headway UK website