Prehistoric Human Brains Baffle Scientists

The most delicate organ in the human body is the brain, which is why it’s protected by a thick-boned skull. What’s baffling is that this squishy mass, out of all the organs, can survive the most time without decay.

Researchers have cataloged over 4,000 naturally preserved human brains, some as old as 12,000 years. This archive includes Inca sacrificial victims, prehistoric people, and North Pole explorers. And yet, the discovery of a preserved brain is perceived to be a very rare incident.

Human soft tissue, including the brain, can be preserved by some well-understood processes such as dehydration, freezing, and tanning. These methods can be the result of human actions or natural factors. It’s not unusual for brains to survive when other internal organs are well-preserved, such as in dried-out remains of desert burials, frozen bodies from mountain passes, and tanned bodies from bogs.

However, preserved brains have been found without other soft tissues, such as floating alongside bones in sunken shipwrecks, or sitting alongside ancient bones from a swampy pond.

Until now, there has been no systemic study to determine why brains last longer than other soft tissues.

This new archive allowed researchers to determine the prevalence of intact brains, to study how they persisted, and the diversity of their preservation conditions. They also mapped their distribution worldwide across time. Finally, the researchers studied the brains to understand ancient diseases and genetics.

About a quarter of the brains were discovered in bodies lacking any other preserved soft tissue. Known processes that preserve all types of tissue can’t explain why these brains endured.

The reason why these brains were preserved is a mystery, but it might be because of the brain’s chemical composition. The brain has a 1-to-1 ratio of proteins to lipids, while other soft tissues have different ratios. This ratio could mean that if metals like iron are introduced, it could cause the proteins and lipids to bind together and last longer. Many preserved brains were found to contain iron oxide (rust).

The team is employing new techniques to study the molecular interactions leading to the preservation of brains. The brains could also offer an opportunity to study neurological diseases in ancient humans.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/thousand-year-old-intact-human-brains-baffle-scientists-and-there-are-thousands-of-them/ar-BB1knvV8?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=e61c919954d04db49bab96e09d0a1bfa&ei=54

Enigmatic Sounds

I hear things.

I’m not talking about rumors, or all the usual sounds most people hear during the course of their daily lives. I’m not even talking about those creaks in the middle of the night as the house relaxes after a long day, though the sounds I am talking about come to me after the dark of night settles in and mostly after everybody else in the house has gone to bed.

The thing is, I’m don’t think these sounds are coming through my ears.

Ghosts? If it is, they have followed me from our old house in Nebraska to our new house in Florida.

What I hear is - frequently - music. I’ll be sitting here, playing games working on my computer, and I’ll become aware of music. Specifically, a radio playing Elvis tunes, or 50s hits, or once in a while, swing. But it’s not a strong signal; it reminds me of when I briefly lived in Cheyenne, and while I did my homework, I would try to tune in a specific radio station from Oklahoma. I frequently couldn’t find it, but if the clouds between us were in the correct positions, I could. Kind of. As I remember it, the static threatened to overtake the music, and that’s what this ‘night serenade’ sounds like. And there isn’t any DJ.

I’ve heard - now, this is a rumor - that some people pick up radio signals because of fillings in their teeth. But for me, this only started a couple years ago, and all my old-type fillings are much older than that. This past decade, my dentists have used ‘composite’ fillings, which don’t have the same minerals in them.

But static-laced music isn’t the only thing I hear. Last night, I listened to a phone ring for about an hour. We don’t have a land line in our house, and neither cell phone sounds like an actual phone ringing. In any case, this was the kind of ringing when you have ‘dialed’ and are waiting for someone to answer. Nobody ever did, nor did it go to voice mail or an answering machine. It just kept ringing.

I’m not the only one who ‘hears’ this kind of stuff. A couple friends have admitted having similar experiences, and all of us are diabetic. I don’t know if that last part has any bearing on it, but I would like to know why my mind does this. Is it so bored, it’s entertaining itself? How does it pick what it’s going to listen to? I’ve enjoyed Elvis as an entertainer, but I never bought any of his records. The 50s songs would have been popular when I was a child, but I don’t remember listening to a radio at that age. Swing music from WWII was definitely before my time. And a ringing phone? Who was it trying to call?

Now, here’s another way to think about it: When I’m all alone, I hear things that aren’t there. Things that aren’t creepy or scary. So I’m wondering if, when space travel becomes ‘fairly normal’, and some people are traveling by space ship but don’t have constant contact with ‘base’, will they hear things that aren’t there? Would it creep them out? Would they inform base of it at their next contact? Will science have an explanation for this strange brain activity by then?

How long has the ‘human’ brain been doing this? Did the brain of an ancient person entertain itself with birdsongs or the chattering of small animals (think squirrels)?

Okay, confess. What does your brain do when you’re all alone and not paying it much attention?