As a cognitive science student, I often forget that the entire world isn't as obsessed with brains as I am. I'm always astounded because the brain is responsible for almost everything that happens to us in our lives. It tells us when we're hungry, alerts us when we've stubbed our toe, and writes our Odyssey articles for us. Learning about the brain is important for acquiring fun insights into why we think the way we do, and is important for humanity so we won't be alarmed and can understand what it means when something goes wrong.

1. The brain is made up of special cells that communicate to each other by sending each other tiny particles called "neurotransmitters."

If you ever took high school biology, you probably know that a cell looks like this:

Well, in the brain, cells look a bit different. They look like this:

This shape helps them send messages, which is basically their entire job. The neurotransmitters that they send each other help us on a conscious level recognize when we're feeling sad, happy, hungry, etc, but also they hold code for skills that we know such as how to write and how to hold a fork.

2. The brain has an astounding power to adapt.

Scientists call this "brain plasticity," and it has only been discovered relatively recently. Scientists used to believe that the brain had fixed sections with special skills that, once damaged, were permanently lost. Case studies and research have shown, however, that when one part of the brain is damaged occasionally surrounding areas will take over.

Brain plasticity is also the reason that babies learn languages and that teenagers really shouldn't do drugs. You can probably imagine that the brain of a 12-year-old probably doesn't work the same as that of a newborn and this is because the brain has had some time to develop. When the brain develops, it essentially is just creating new links between cells and getting rid of the old ones that are no longer in use. The brain is most adept to change as a newborn and as a late teenager. This is key for babies to learn new skills and for teenagers to become adults. The reason why it is more dangerous for teenagers to try addictive drugs than adults is because the brain is more likely to incorporate addiction into the developing young adolescent's brain as opposed to an older adult whose brain is less likely to change. This is also the reason that adults are so obnoxious about teen driver safety, because part of the brain that evaluates risks doesn't develop until your twenties. Maybe this is also when the part of your brain that nags children also develops? There should really be some research on that.

3. Your reality is determined by your brain, not by what is actually around you.

Basically, your reality is determined by what you see, hear, and smell, etc; but your brain can be selective in what you pay attention to and/or how it presents the world to you. A classic example/throwback from this past year would be this image...

...which distressed procrastinators across the globe. Just like every individual is different, all of our worlds are different too, but (hopefully) not by much. We can tell that the brain doesn't always relay information accurately to us through optical illusions, where we sometimes see things that aren't actually there. But don't worry, this is actually a good thing. The brain has adapted a sort of survival strategy where it filters out irrelevant information and only presents you with what is important. Important things include things that move irregularly, new things, and especially things that betray the laws of science. That's why this is so fascinating: http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/photos-you-really-need-to-look-at-to-understand#.vnQ2AJZZow

Scientists suspect that schizophrenia is caused when the brain loses its ability to filter out the unimportant information and constantly focuses mundane things, like the clock ticking or the feeling of clothes on your skin. And on that note....

4. Mental illness really can't be cured by a change in attitude.

People will say this all the time, but rarely, will they explain why. It's actually very simple. Essentially, in most mental illnesses, there are too many or two few neurotransmitters being sent or received. When I say "received" I mean that cell 1 can send out lots of a neurotransmitter, but cell 2 might not necessarily take all of it in. Depression, the most common mental illness, occurs when one cell sends out dopamine or serotonin (signals that you are happy), and the next cell doesn't receive all of it. It gets lost somewhere in the space between them, called the "synaptic cleft." This is how doctors can tell the difference between someone who is sad and someone who is depressed. While someone who is sad will be able to recover within a few hours or days, a person who is depressed is in a chronic deficit of this key signal that tells their brain to be happy.

And, finally,...

5. We don't actually know that much about the brain.

I haven't been lying to you, I promise. While we know many things about the brain right now, we also know that there is a lot left to learn. For example, scientists use a few different kinds of imaging to look at the brain. There's the MRI, which is essentially just a picture of the brain and is used to spot tumors, and the functional MRI, which shows a psychedelic picture of the brain that gives information about how much blood is in different regions of the brain.

Yet, as I mentioned earlier, our brain activity occurs mostly at the cellular level. While MRIs and fMRIs are useful to spot big tumors, there are still many small details we still can't see with our current technology. It's like looking at a picture of someone's whole arm to see whether or not their pinky is broken. This is also why there are usually only a few medical options for someone with a brain issue. Scientists are confident that with improved technology we will be able to learn incredible details about a person through their brain, and will be able to find better cures for specific disorders.