Prof. Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, chair, Centre for Neurosciences, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), said that brain has enormous capacity and that one can use it or not use it - as one wishes. Addressing students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad on ‘The human brain - What we know and the challenges ahead’ on Tuesday, Prof. Vijayalakshmi said that the brain is the controller of human being and it would not replicate outside world but processes its own designs. “That is why no one of us can think in the same way. Our pleasures, sorrows and every feeling come from that,” she said. Brain carries only two percent of the body weight but uses 20 percent of cardiac output to function, Prof. Vijayalakshmi said that brain has 84 billion neuro-cells, 100 trillion connections and 3.2 kilometre wires while weighing only for 1.5 kilograms. Stating that the complexity of brain can be defined by the number of connections, the Professor said that understanding neurosciences involves psychology, biology and chemistry and more focus is on the subject for the past four decades. She said an ayurvedic medicine being prepared has been giving some promising results in treating brain related problems.
