Do You Really Use Only 10 Percent of Your Brain?
Curated from: psychology.about.com
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What percentage of our brain do we use?
The popularly and widely spread belief that we only use or have access to 10 percent of our brain's power is often used to speculate about the extent of human abilities if only we could utilize our brain's full capacity.Ā
In reality, this claim is 100 percent myth. We use all of our brain.
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The Origins of the Myth
Researchers suggest that this popular urban legend has existed since at least the early 1900s. It may have been influenced by people misunderstanding or misinterpreting neurological research.Ā
The 10% myth may have emerged from the writings of psychologist and philosopher William James. In his 1908 book, The Energies of Men, he wrote, "We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources."
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Debunking the 10 Percent Myth
Neuroscientists point out a number of reasons why the 10% myth is false:
- Brain imaging scans clearly show that almost all regions of the brain are active during even fairly routine tasks such as talking, walking, and listening to music.
- If the 10% myth were true, people who suffer brain damage as the result of an accident or stroke would probably not notice any real effect. In reality, there isn't a single area of the brain that can be damaged without resulting in some sort of consequence.
- We would not have evolved such large brains if we were only using a tiny portion of them.
- The brain uses approximately 20% of the body's energy.
- "Numerous types of brain imaging studies show that no area of the brain is completely silent or inactive," wrote Dr. Rachel C. Vreeman and Dr. Aaron E. Carroll in a study of medical myths. "Detailed probing of the brain has failed to identify the 'non-functioning' 90 percent."
Unfortunately, the 10% myth remains both popular and persistent.
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