All mysteries
Mystery #4Tier 2brain signals

How quickly do thoughts and signals zip around inside your brain?

Touch something hot and your hand pulls back before you have even finished the thought. Solve a sum, picture a dragon, remember a name, and it all happens in a blink. Messages are clearly racing around inside your head. So just how fast do thoughts and signals really zip around your brain?

Hundreds of brain cells glowing green and red under a microscope, their fine threads tangling together into a dense network
Photo: ManuelSchottdorf · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What's your guess? What kind of message do you think your brain is sending, and how fast could it possibly go?

There's no single magic word to type, have a go in your own words, then reveal the answer to see how close you got.

Make a guess to unlock the hints and the answer.