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Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain

664 points · 258 comments · emigre

  1. meindnoch · · focus · HN ↗
    Fun fact: 80% of the brain's neurons are in the cerebellum, not the cortex.

    In other words: only <20% of pur neuron budget goes to higher cognition (thinking, language, seeing, hearing). 80% is spent on motor skills.

    1. dinfinity · · focus · HN ↗
      > 80% is spent on motor skills.

      The cerebellum isn't just for motor skills. It's more of a place where very commonly used patterns get a bunch of dedicated wetware so the computation is superfast and precise. In an (undoubtedly very limited) analogy a bunch of FPGAs to complement the general processing. It does make a lot of sense to use this functionality for motor skills, though.

      See:

      - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC4089997&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC4089997&#x2F;

      - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;38663092&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;38663092&#x2F;

      1. LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
        So the 80% is spent on, more generally, habits and intuition. Makes sense.
        1. TeMPOraL · · focus · HN ↗
          Headline for IEEE: biologists show that human brain is basically a big FPGA devboard.
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