Eric’s Blog

I was in the shower this morning running the hot water over my head. It felt good and it got me thinking. If the internal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and I can feel the heat from the shower, how quickly does the temperature conduct to the brain? The brain can’t feel, so the heat I was feeling from the shower was being transmitted from my skin and muscles to the peripheral nervous system. From there, it went to my central nervous system and to my brain where my brain recognized that it was heated. Then, my brain transmitted a signal back to the area where the heat was felt on my skin. It all happened instantly from my perspective. The nervous system and brain transmit signals at the speed of 70-120 meters per second (156-270 mph).¹

I started wondering how the brain would know if it was heating up too much. The heat from the water against my skin would conduct through my tissues, bones, and into the brain cavity where it would heat up the fluid in my skull and eventually my little grey cells. My brain would never feel it though since there are no nerve endings that sense feeling in the brain. How long would it take before the brain got too hot and damage would be done?

In my mind’s eye, I could “see” my brain floating around in cerebrospinal fluid, but unable to get away from the heat conducting through the skull.² I know it’s a weird image, but it’s one of the things I love about Psychology. It’s the science of the brain thinking about the brain.

Have you ever seen that meme that shows the brain, eyes, and nervous system? It has a caption that says something about the rest of the body evolving to be the most effective space suit to carry around this weird alien.

One of the coolest classes I took in college was Neuroscience. My professor took a video of herself holding a human brain and spinal column in her hands. She had a stroke at some point in her life and decided to become a neuroscientist to understand what happened to her. So cool.

When you get right down to it, that’s all we really are. We’re just a brain and a nervous system. All the other stuff just supports the brain and nervous system. At the end of the day, we’re just a collection of little grey cells, hormones, some other chemicals, and a series of electrical impulses. How cool is that?

Footnotes:

1. https://theconversation.com/it-feels-instantaneous-but-how-long-does-it-really-take-to-think-a-thought-42392#:~:text=In%20the%20human%20context%2C%20the,small%2Ddiameter%2C%20unmyelinated%20fibers%20of
2. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/brain-tumor/specialty-centers/skull-base/types/csf-leak.html#:~:text=Cerebrospinal%20fluid%20(CSF)%20is%20a,through%20the%20nose%20or%20ear.
3. https://www.google.com/search?q=meme+of+brain+and+nervous+system&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS813US813&sxsrf=AOaemvLU3YiOjNt9Kfl7a_gA3u2rGAVEZQ:1636591726519&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ScPuvVJqIFLURM%252CkuoE6vc8Fyl3FM%252C_%253BeimGam15wTFRCM%252CoRXgboohj9ZFjM%252C_%253B7FoYUOE2z4DbvM%252CkuoE6vc8Fyl3FM%252C_%253BYekQctChDDGsCM%252CeVO59QKFGS3aDM%252C_%253Bx_9eYL2T4O3F4M%252CXUVyGpK1Dm-yhM%252C_%253BGoQMwMsy3PMAhM%252CkuoE6vc8Fyl3FM%252C_%253Bo2AehsYJ5MCeLM%252CeVO59QKFGS3aDM%252C_%253Bu07dgWCL5cLihM%252CDBYo7uYSHhzd9M%252C_%253B6JUKaB7BeOaF2M%252CsxEHOoYxZ6xUtM%252C_%253Bq8Mz8Yik-NTpQM%252CllVkW3DLH4KcRM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRpcnnG2QZ_2SAnSct6ahoqLqPiCw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig8oCki4_0AhVMp3IEHYLjCC4Q9QF6BAgMEAE#imgrc=ScPuvVJqIFLURM