Sperm in the Brain

Yesterday as we were trying to get out of the house, Leo set up a "locked gate" for me to get through to get out of the kitchen. I had to push buttons on his hand and twist a drum sitting on his leg and do all this stuff to get out. I wasn't really paying attention and did it wrong a couple times.

He later said he had a question for me. He doesn't usually ask that in a serious voice, so I took him seriously. He asked, "why do mommies and daddies sometimes forget things that kids don't, even when mommies and daddies have bigger brains? Your brain is so big it couldn't fit into MY head. Is it because your brain is getting old? And the tadpoles, I mean the sperm, I mean when you get old you don't have as many sperm branches."

That led to first, a correction that tadpoles, sperm, and neurons all looked alike but neurons were in the brain. And that we only used a small part of the brain. And that people remember different things depending on what is important to them. And that there are fewer neural pathways when you get older and this is why kids brains learn so much faster than adult brains.