Engine for brain development: similarity between engine and brain

Abstract

A theoretical model that simulates the developmental process of the human brain, including the blood vessels, is proposed. Observations of the development of the human brain with a high-speed camera show that the bones of the skull become increasingly large over the neck, and that a lot of soup-like fluid for generating brain cells enters the skull from the body. This process is essentially similar to the intake process of an internal combustion engine, because the volume of the engine cylinder, which increases according to the descent of the piston, corresponds geometrically to the development of the skull, and also because the human neck resembles the intake port that serves as the throat of the engine. A higher-order numerical computation of the Navier-Stokes equation reveals the similarity between the convexo-concave forms inside the brain and the flow structure in the internal combustion engine at very low Reynolds numbers. Further, we examine the similarity between the main blood vessels in the brain and the path lines in the engine.