MYTH #5: Your brain is all grey
Unless you’re into cannibalism or experimental surgery, the real brains you’ve seen were likely in jars of formaldehyde — a preservative chemical that turns them grey. But, a fresh brain’s color scheme is pretty much the same as the Atlanta Falcons: grey, white, red, and black. Grey matter is, in fact, mostly grey. But it also consists of white matter in the form of connective nerve fibers. The black part, called substantia nigra (“black substance”), is a melanin-rich part of the basal ganglia at the base of the brain. And the red? That’s blood.
