Human BodyBrain
You became you by deletion. Billions of connections cut.
A young child's brain contains far more synaptic connections than an adult's. Through childhood and adolescence the brain deletes the ones it rarely uses, a pruning that continues into the mid-twenties — you are, in part, what your brain chose to remove.
Step by step
- A young child's brain holds far more synapses than an adult's ever will.
- Connections that rarely fire get deleted; the busy ones are kept and strengthened.
- The pruning runs into your mid-twenties. What's left — the keepers — is you.
Source
This fact is written from the English Wikipedia article it links to, so you can check every word in one tap. Fact Drop rates that source 4 out of 5 for credibility, and the rating travels with the fact on the back of its card in the app.
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And the pruning shears belong to a very unexpected crew…
This fact is a step in the rabbit hole The self-eating brain. Follow the rabbit hole
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