Livescience reports that the brain, when waking, will boot up like a computer. Nitric oxide seems to be the “on” switch of the brain, as when the person wakes it triggers certain functions that will set the scene for increasingly complex activities—such as going to the bathroom.

Scientists have found that the thalamus might not be the primitive structure they had previously thought. Before they thought it was simply a gate that opened and shut to allow sensory information to flow through or to bar it, now they believe it has more processing power and can pick and choose who goes through, like a bouncer does at a club. What does this all mean? It’s mostly food for thought, right now anyway, but it may lead scientists to make more advanced discoveries about how the brain functions.

Your Brain Boots Up Like a Computer[livescience]