Do You Know the Difference between Brain and Mind?

February 27, 2020

Last Updated date: February 27, 2020

Knowing the difference between the brain and the mind will help us to know each other better. Although both are closely related, they perform different functions. Do you want to know more about the difference between the brain and the mind?

You can open Table of Contents show

You should know what the difference between brain and mind is. Since many people often confuse them, in addition to not being clear about the functions of each.

If we divide our being into a tangible reality and a non-tangible reality, our brain would be in the tangible space, that which can be observed. Meanwhile, our mind would take the place of the non-tangible, or what we cannot feel.

The truth is that, as human beings, we are complex. The studies indicate that our nervous system is made up of a hundred billion neurons, all interrelated. Other research also indicates the extreme complexity of our brain, revealing amazing details.

For example, the cranial cavity protects the brain through the bone covering. The brain weighs approximately 1.3 kg and is wrapped in membranes and liquid. Thanks to our brain, we can feel, think and act in one way or another.

Difference between brain and mind

Knowing these details, we can already affirm that the brain is an organ, like the rest, and that it can be examined. Instead, the mind cannot be seen or touched. It is the neurons that are part of our brain that help us make judgments, reason and shape our feelings to understand reality.

Our brain is made up of parts that are important. These are the cerebellum, the trunk, and the brain. The brain is also divided into two hemispheres, one right and one left. Each of these hemispheres has a frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobe.

What is known as “gray matter” is called the cerebral cortex, and it is the outer part of the brain that makes it possible to perform functions of thought. The cerebellum allows us to make movements, no matter how difficult or complex they may be, and to do so without thinking.

Brain functions:

The brain performs complex functions that make our survival possible. All this fabric makes our survival possible. Some important functions that our brain performs are the following:

Regulates vital functions: such as temperature, breathing, blood pressure, sleeping, eating, among others.
Receive the information of the senses: but also processes integrates and interpret what is perceived by taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch.
Develop the world of our emotions and behaviors.
It controls our movements, such as running, walking, talking, among others.
Thanks to the brain we can think, feel, reason.
It allows us to execute advanced cognitive functions, such as perception, memory, and learning.

All this leads us to wonder how they interact or how the mind and brain interact.

Relationship between the brain and the mind

Having clear their differences, knowing that the brain is a physical organ, which can be studied, seen and touched, and not the mind instead, it is worth learning how they relate or how they work together.

The work that the brain and mind do is really wonderful. For example, if we want to reach an object, we think about it, the brain receives that signal from our mind, activates the necessary nerves and the arm executes the movements.

The thoughts are conceived in our mind, but with the help of the brain is that work or process occurs on a physical level.

Our mind makes us unique

Unlike other living beings, human beings can act consciously or unconsciously. Incredible detail is that all animals are born with the essential resources to survive, and most act instinctively. However, human beings differ from other animals by the mental processes that we can execute.

The brain of other animals is small, it fulfills basic tasks to survive. Its operation is rudimentary and the actions are due to stimuli. However, we humans have a mind and carry out processes consciously and unconsciously.

Our mind helps us analyze thoughts and interpret data; We can even build beliefs and integrate them into our conscious or unconscious world.

Our brain and mind are awesome. Your tasks are equally amazing. They work together and, thanks to this, we can make use of our intuition, imagination, perception, concentration, among others.

However, as we see, both have their differences and we must be clear when we refer to them. Interesting, right?

Bibliographic References:

Evolution, brain and cognition. (2010). Psychology from the Caribbean.
Peronard Thierry, M. (2009). Metacognition: mind and brain. Bulletin of Philology. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-93032009000100010
Manes, F., & Niro, M. (2015). Use the brain Use the brain.
Searle, JR (1985). Minds, brains and science. Theorem.
Thagard, P. (2019). Brain. In the mind. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvm7bd13.13
Vygotsky, LS (1964). Action, Thought and Language. In Mind and Brain. https://doi.org/10.1157/13094810