In a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made
You know that old adage we always hear repeated about how we only use 10 percent of our brain? Or 1 percent? Or one tenth of one percent, as I've also heard?
That always makes me cringe.
The myth has been debunked over and over.
First of all, it's mathematically inaccurate. If you're talking about using our potential, there's no way of knowing the full potential of something like a brain. So there's no way to calculate what percent of [unknown] that we "use".
And secondly, the reality is that we physically use all of our brain. There's no lumpy dark part that doesn't get used. No scientific study has ever shown that we don't use all of it. All your neurons can fire. However, actions are compartmentalized, so we use different sections of it to perform different tasks. But it all sparks and sputters at some point.
You may argue that we just don't know how much more can be done with the use of our brain. So sure, with our oodles of neurons, there are billions of potential connections to be made. And that might mean a lot of "unused" potential in ourselves, but it doesn't mean there's just a lot of fatty grey tissue in our heads doing nothing. Well, not most of us, anyway. It just means there's thoughts and actions we haven't thought or acted yet. It doesn't mean we aren't able to do so right now because of something faulty or inefficient in our brain. Our brain is magnificently efficient as it is.
Even recent tests have proven that efficiency... and people are misreading those results. A recent article in Scientific American was headlined The Brain May Use Only 20 Percent of Its Memory-Forming Neurons ...which is misleading. The fact that the brain only needs 20 percent of the neurons in the almond-shaped amygdalae region of the midbrain to form a memory is a work of ultimate efficiency! It doesn't use the other 80% of that tiny section because it doesn't require it for the formation of a memory. Not because there's anything wrong with it.
Once something makes it into long term memory, neurons can die or reconnect elsewhere and that memory is forgotten. There is where potential advancement can be made, I think. But next time someone says we only use a small percent of our brain, ask them, "What part do you use?"
Posted by heydomsar
2007-04-20
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
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