Video Explores What We Don't Need Our Brains For

Youtube’s Vsauce is just a guy on the Internet that often enjoys talking about obscure scientific topics, including how much a shadow weighs. This week, Vsauce introduced us to “A Real No-Brainer,” a video that looks into the various tasks that humans need their brains for and subsequently asks the question: Can there be a real no-brainer?

The answer is yes, that is, depending on how you look at the phrase. According to the video, while the brain is important to most movement and all thought processes, there are some areas where people don’t need their brains to function. These areas include reflexes and unconscious processes, both activities where your body doesn’t need to consult with your brain to encourage an activity to happen. There usually isn’t enough time (the example he gives is the reaction a person has when he or she places their hands on a too-hot surface).

If you want to get really morbid with it, there are still opportunities for no-brainer happenings at the moment of death or after. Think about a person's muscles being capable of twitching after a body has already been laid out on a concrete slab or a person's skin cells continuing to multiply for days after death. Yeah, that latter thing happens. So, maybe there are some true no-brainer moments, after all.

I’m the news chick and not the science guru, so if you really want to get deep into the topic of no-brainers, you really should check out the video. Your brain will probably thank you for it.