Impact of caffeine and vitamin D on the brain

Introduction

Now-a-days, memory, attention and cognition power have been reduced to various reason. Prolonged wakefulness is a widespread phenomenon. Nevertheless, in the field of sleep and wakefulness, several unanswered questions remain. Prolonged wakefulness can be due to acute total sleep deprivation (SD) or to chronic partial sleep restriction. Although the latter is more common in everyday life, the effects of total SD have been examined more thoroughly. Both total and partial SD induce adverse changes in cognitive performance. First and foremost, total SD impairs attention and working memory, but it also affects other functions, such as long-term memory and decision-making.

Partial SD is found to influence attention, especially vigilance.

Before the deluge of iPhones, iPads and other devices, the average person had an attention span of about 12 seconds. Now it's believed that we can only concentrate for about 8 seconds on average before moving on to something else. It's hard to stay on task with all the distractions we have these days.

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Something is always going viral, there are new trends to follow and our phone lights are always winking to alert us to new messages. These tech distractions affect our relationships, productivity and ability to learn all of which require a certain level of concentration. Being constantly inundated with information also impacts our creativity and ability to be contemplative.

In the new study, Finnish researchers specializing in brain imaging discovered that changing tasks too frequently interferes with brain activity. There is little real progress and this leads to a feeling of inadequacy.

Concentration decreases, which causes stress. Prolonged stress hinders thinking and memory.

So, we try to evaluate whether memory, cognition and attention has been increased by taking caffeine and vitamin D.

Anatomy of the brain

The brain is the most complex of all biological tissues in nature. The complexity lies in the fact that the brain is an extremely heterogeneous tissue, composed of many constituent parts. Each part not only has its own structural organization, cellular makeup, chemical composition, and functional activity but also has a unique developmental characteristic. However, the different parts develop and maintain among themselves a highly organized coordinated system that contributes ultimately to the functioning of the brain seemingly as a single organ. It is estimated that the human central nervous system contains 11-12 billion nerve cells, each of which is capable of making up to 10,000 synaptic interconnections. According to one estimate, the number of intercellular interactions that could possibly occur within a single human brain may be greater than the total number of particles in the whole universe. It is the development of a network of this vast number of interactions that forms the basis of the functioning of the brain. Understanding the complex developmental processes of the brain and brain functions has indeed been one of the greatest challenges for man. This article explores and unveils some aspects of the complex processes of brain development in man and other animals.

- Understanding the Brain and Its Development: A Chemical Approach

Constituents of brain

The human brain is the command center for the human nervous system. It receives signals from the body's sensory organs and outputs information to the muscles. The human brain has the same basic structure as other mammal brains but is larger in relation to body size than any other brains.

• The human brain is the largest brain of all vertebrates relative to body size.
• It weighs about 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kilograms).
• The average male has a brain volume of 1,274 cubic centimeters.
• The average female brain has a volume of 1,131 cm3.
• The brain makes up about 2 percent of a human's body weight.
• The cerebrum makes up 85 percent of the brain's weight.
• It contains about 86 billion nerve cells (neurons) the "gray matter."
• It contains billions of nerve fibers (axons and dendrites) the "white matter."
• These neurons are connected by trillions of connections, or synapses.

Human brain is one of the complex organs in the body. Different physiological activities are controlled by the four major parts of human brain. The major parts of human brain are frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobe [1]. The main functions of frontal lobe are decision making, personality, judgment, behavior, memory, etc. A small area just behind the frontal lobe is motor area. This part of the brain functions for our motor actions like hand or feet movements.

Function of the brain

Physiologically, the function of the brain is to utilize centralized control over the different organs of the body. The brain performs on the rest of the body both by creating patterns of muscle activity and by driving the discharge of chemicals called hormones. This centralized control permits quick and coordinated responses to changes in the environment. Some fundamental types of responsiveness such as reflexes can be intervened by the spinal cord or fringe ganglia. However sophisticated purposeful control of behavior based on complex sensory input necessitates the information integrating capabilities of a centralized brain

Mechanism of brain

Many information about the functioning of brain is known now. The brain processes turn incoming information into the various components of subjective experience, such as thoughts or emotions. Each sensory organ is specialized to deal with a different type of stimulus such as the eyes are sensitive to light, the ears to sound waves, and so on. Though the stimuli are different but the way of response of these sense organs are almost same they generate electrical signals, which are sent on for further processing. Information from each organ is sent to a different part of the brain, and then processed along a different neural pathway, determining what sort of experience it will generate.

Carter, R. (2014). The human brain book: An illustrated guide to its structure, function, and disorders. Penguin.

Anatomical classification of the brain

Cerebrum

Cerebrum, the largest and uppermost portion of the brain. The cerebrum consists of the cerebral hemispheres and accounts for two-thirds of the total weight of the brain. One hemisphere, usually the left, is functionally dominant, controlling language and speech. The other hemisphere interprets visual and spatial information.

Cerebellum

The cerebellum receives information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord, and other parts of the brain and then regulates motor movements. The cerebellum coordinates voluntary movements such as posture, balance, coordination, and speech, resulting in smooth and balanced muscular activity. It is also important for learning motor behaviors. It is a relatively small portion of the brain -- about ten percent of the total weight, but it contains roughly half of the brain's neurons, specialized cells that transmit information via electrical signals.