Human brain
In popular culture

Earlier ideas about the relative importance of the different organs of the human body sometimes emphasised the heart. Modern Western popular conceptions, in contrast, have placed increasing focus on the brain.

Research has disproved some common misconceptions about the brain. These include both ancient and modern myths. It is not true (for example) that neurons are not replaced after the age of two; nor that normal humans use only ten per cent of the brain. Popular culture has also oversimplified the lateralisation of the brain by suggesting that functions are completely specific to one side of the brain or the other. Akio Mori coined the term " game brain " for the unreliably supported theory that spending long periods playing video games harmed the brain's pre-frontal region, and impaired the expression of emotion and creativity.

Historically, particularly in the early-19th century, the brain featured in popular culture through phrenology, a pseudoscience that assigned personality attributes to different regions of the cortex. The cortex remains important in popular culture as covered in books and satire.

The human brain can feature in science fiction, with themes such as brain transplants and cyborgs (beings with features like partly artificial brains). The 1942 science-fiction book (adapted three times for the cinema) Donovan's Brain tells the tale of an isolated brain kept alive in vitro, gradually taking over the personality of the book's protagonist.
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