How many gigabytes does a human brain have?

Question

People say that a human brain is like the CPU of a computer, so I would like to know how many gigabytes it has. I would like to know if this information is available, that is, if anyone knows this information. I suppose the capacity can vary, so an "average human brain" will do. Thank you for your replies.

Answer 1

Cool question. In order to really determine how many GB the human brain can store, you would have to use a relative memory unit. In other words, a computer stores data at the lowest level as binary code on the harddrive disk. 0's and 1's.
The brain, from what we know, stores memory as electric currents of various degrees. Each current transmitted but not kept in one spot. There is also chemical memory which is stored and only retrieved when requested. As you can see the way the brain stores memory is COMPLETELY different than a computer (so never compare then again!).
That said, we could make a general knowledge conclusion that the brain is not static (as opposed to a harddrive). The neuro-connectors in our brain are constantly changing and adapting. Therefore, I would have to say that the human brain is a capable of infinit data storage. Unlimited space. The ultimate computer.

Answer 2

Consider this:

Throughout your life, your brain has been storing data. From the day you were born (And probably before that), you have been taking in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, etc. It has been shown with regression therapy that people can remember almost everything they have ever seen in their past, just not conciously.

Take a look at a tree sometime. Do you see the thousands of leaves? Maybe you don't register the fact that you see all of them, but you do. Look at a line of tree's. Your brain takes in and disects the information it has been given, and it does see all of those leaves. And, it remembers them, too.

While you may not be able to remember what you had for breakfast yesterday, or last week, your brain remembers and has all of this information stored. I can still recall what food tasted like from when I lived in Germany, and that was 15 years ago.

There is no computer or hard drive that could even be compared to a human brain. The amount of storage needed would be impossible to achieve.

Answer 3

the brain contains about 10^11 (100
billion) neurons. If we assume that the average neuron has 1,000 connections (not unreasonable), and that each of these connections stores one byte, then your figure of 100 terabytes is reasonable.

So that's about one hundred thousand (100,000) gigabytes.

That's the total memory capacity of the average brain, but it's not really possible to have all that data stored in a way that one could access it like a computer because the human memory doesn't work that way.

Answer 4

Well considering that we keep making brain cells, and we also loose some ... wouldn't the amount always fluxuaite?
We also connect to brain cells making a network, and we deconnect ... like making new highways, and forgetting old ones. the info is still all there, but we only build the network roads to where we need at the mement...
so agian... wouldn't it be ever changing?

I'm not sure if we have a set average that could be described in a static figure like Gigabytes...

::: Peace :::

Answer 5

the capacity of the human brain does vary but no one has ever filled that capacity. If you did your brain would completely shut down.

Answer 6

relies upon who it really is. If it Britany Spears or PAris Hilton i'd estimate round 3 megabytes. someone like Steven HAwkins or Albert Einstein i'd say 10,000 terabytes.. prevalent Human.... 4000 Terabytes.

Answer 7

an infinite amount! It all depends what you put your mind on and how you shape it through brain development exersises and what not. So there is no pre-determined brain size it all depends on what you do with it.

Go ahead THINK about that one