← Giant Brain Candy
Giant Brain Candy: The Other 85 Billion. Neurons have partners: about 85 billion other cells, mostly glia — astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia. The old claim of ten glia for every neuron turned out to be a myth. Source: Neurons and glia, counted.
Strong evidenceThe research
  1. Azevedo, F. A. C., Carvalho, L. R. B., Grinberg, L. T., Farfel, J. M., Ferretti, R. E. L., Leite, R. E. P., Jacob Filho, W., Lent, R., & Herculano-Houzel, S. (2009). Equal numbers of neuronal and nonneuronal cells make the human brain an isometrically scaled-up primate brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 513(5), 532–541.
  2. von Bartheld, C. S., Bahney, J., & Herculano-Houzel, S. (2016). The search for true numbers of neurons and glial cells in the human brain: A review of 150 years of cell counting. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 524(18), 3865–3895.

Journey 1 · Non-Consciousness

The Other 85 Billion

Neurons have partners: about 85 billion other cells, mostly glia — astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia. The old claim of ten glia for every neuron turned out to be a myth.

Source: Neurons and glia, counted · Strong evidence

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Giant Brain Candy: 86 Billion Neurons. Your brain holds about 86 billion neurons. Scientists counted them by dissolving brain tissue into a ‘soup’ of cell nuclei and tallying samples of it. Source: Counting the brain’s cells.
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