Hi everyone,

Last week, I was flipping through the channels & came to a show that was all about exposing urban legends-- Skeptic magazine, I believe was behind the show-- One of the urban legends was the idea that humans use only 10% or less of their brains. I've always, always believed this was true-- but the host was very happy to report that this is erroneous-- we use 100%. I just can't believe this could be true ( considering some of my own major gaffes). . . does anyone know the real facts on this?

Thanks,
Jenn

Hi, Triple! When I read your Post, I couldn't resist registering, so I could reply. This is a common skeptics' argument. It's a reflection of how one-dimensional their thinking can sometimes be. Biologically speaking, the brain's main function is to control movement. As such, each of us (sans brain damage) uses 100 percent of our brain (each part of the brain does what it is "physically" designed to do in a normally-functioning individual). But if we are looking at the brain's "potential," we seldom use more than a small percentage (usually referred to as 10 percent, although no one really knows what the full potential of the human brain is, so even 10 percent is an arbitrary figure). Skeptics can't seem to grasp the concept, so they try to refute it with a one-dimensional argument. Personally, I think we use less than 1 percent of our brain's potential. Maybe even less than that. So who is right--skeptic or Spiritualist? They both are.

Thanks Randall, that was a great way of putting it!

Truth is, we know so little about the brain that we really haven't got a clue aboout what percentage of it is used, or even really how it works. Although there are definitely localizable areas that are correlated with specific sensory and motor functions, no one has identified where "higher thought" (creative thinking and intuition) occurs, so there's no way to measure that at all, as you say. And even the localized functions don't appear to be "hard-wired" to the specific brain areas that they are typically found ... in cases of brain injury, it is often the case that the person is able to recover over time by re-locating the control to a different area of the brain. There is even a fair amount of medical literature about people who have had a hemispherectomy (surgical removal of half the brain due to extensive head injuries) who were able to recover most of their sensory and motor skills, with no apparent loss of intelligence!

Makes you wonder!

Love,
Greg

Hi Everyone!!!

Well, they talked a little bit about this in my psych class last semester, and here's what my teacher said. We do use ALL of our brain, that is, we use every area of our brain and all the areas connect to assist eachother... However, we only use a percentage of each of those areas. That's the way I understood what she was telling us anyway... Hope that helps!!!

*hugs* for all!!!
Carrie

The human brain is definitely the least understood of all the organs. Most of the modern brain research has been on mice (and to a much lesser extent, other primates). I once saw a film in a college psychology class which showed electrodes attached to the brains of mice. By sending electrical impulses to different areas of the brain, researchers could make the mice sleep, eat, and have sex, and the scientists could even almost remote control their every movement. I didn't think much of it at the time. I just felt really bad for the mice.

I also saw a lobotomy performed on a patient who was wide awake. He requested it, because he had trouble holding down a job! Geez! Not sure who was crazier--him or the so-called psychiatrists! Local anesthesia was given at the scalp (as they used an electric saw to cut into the skull), but the human brain itself has no pain receptors. Didn't miss that class when it was over!

Welcome back Randall!

I dont know about how much of our brain we use..but I also dont think we use even 10 percent of our "soul"..

So when I typed in "10 percent of our brain" some urban legend site came up..LOL
http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/10_percent_of_brain.html

and
http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/10_percent_of_brain_sighting.html

Howdy, Aries!

http://www.csicop.org/si/9903/ten-percent-myth.html

Can't say I agree with what they say, but they sure say it well!

I'm eventually going to be studying neuropharmacology in the future, so over the past few years I've been reading everything I could about it.

Actually, we do use 100% of our brains. There are no "secret areas" in our brains or anything, at least as far as we know. But that doesn't really matter. What we DON'T have that much of are the connections between the individual neurons of the brain.

Each neuron sort of "decides" what brain function it's going to help perform, and groups of them work together to perform that function. And, like Greg said, is part of the brain is damaged, in some cases the neurons can sort of "regroup" to replace the lost functions.

The connections between neurons are sort of like highways. They're important basically for the same reason that highways are important. You could drive from Maine to Florida by taking weird back roads, but it would take you forever. Or you could simply hop on an interstate and just drive down that for the entire trip.

So, when they say we don't use 100% of our brains, they're right, in a way. Most of us don't have connections between each and every one of the billions of neurons contained in the brain. Making these connections requires experience and conscious effort. Conscious evolution!

Great responses guys!! Rusty, that highway vs backroads analogy is wonderful. Made me cringe a bit because I am bad for this. I'm the type of person who basically insists on driving, and then everyone comments that I always take the longest route & when they try to suggest shorter routes, I tune them out because I like knowing the way I'm going for sure and certain. Oh geez. . .I've always thought this was rather a cute and harmless manifestation of my control freakish-ness, but perhaps now I'll try to be more flexible in my driving. I really only do know ONE way of getting each place in my city. It takes a lot to get me to change routes. It takes construction trucks, burst fire hydrants, detour signs. Gee.

Lots to think about-- I like the idea of better, tighter wiring, faster connection speeds in the brain. Hmmm. This is fascinating. I must say I'm kinda glad I dropped Psych 1001 because it was breaking my heart ( one of the first things I learned about was sleep paralysis, which almost 'scientifically' explained away my ability to astral travel and I dropped the course.
I've always wondered why the Lexi of the word BRAIN has RAIN in it? A RAIN BIN? A BAR? A RIB? A BARN? I RAN IN RAIN? And hahahaha the numerology adds up to 11, which Linda describes as. . .oh, I believe a fool with a knapsack headed in the wrong direction. . .torn between two choices makes the wrong choice. . .is that right? And yet,11 is a master number. . . kinda makes sense ( split between right and left brain hemispheres...) Imagination versus Wit! That old 18th century debate-- Is Imagination nothing but the often erroneous association of ideas?

John Locke brought forth the notion that we are born clean slates, tabula rasa. . .Now, I know belief in reincarnation kinda negates this idea-- but what about the BRAIN? Is it tabula rasa at birth??? Is it really a repository of knowledge and memory only? Do new ideas, innovations come from beyond the brain? All spiritually inclined people would say YES, unequivocally. Ah, but perhaps in order for those new ideas to come through, the proper channel is needed and a brain wired correctly could get the information processed and manifested much sooner than a backroad kind of brain. Hmm? Rene Descartes, inspired by Locke's work went on to theorize that human emotion could be manipulated with music-- certain combinations of notes and octaves combined in just the right manner could move humans predictably. Math and music-- can also be correlated to the music of the spheres and the mathematical intervals between planets at perihelion and aphelion. . .music, math and the planets-- the music of the spheres. I wonder if ( and how) the brain relates to these? If the brain responds to rhythm and harmony and melody. . . hmmmm. . .hmmm. . .

Changing lanes. . .

Maybe the brain is kind of like a breaker? Makes sure only so much voltage gets through? Too much with weak breakers and the circuit blows? The lights flicker, the person is left in the dark-- blacked out? Maybe this is how so many people end up in institutions? Well, well, well. . . my mind is spiralling-- Does the brain spiral? Is the mind the same thing as the brain? Where is the mind if not? How does the brain pick up signals from the mind, or the soul?? Eh? Eh? ( Someone is sure to say electro-magnetically. . . but really, HOW?)

Maybe the reason human beings can only know so much is because the highways and biways of our brains have restricted access-- only certain size information packets allowed through ( the way heavy vehicles are barred from certain roads or bridges)

I do have a love of the backroads though. . .country roads there's so much more to see. . .

Hmmmm.

Love & Light,

Jennifer

Nice thooughts, Rusty.

TC, I personally think there's a lot to the idea of the brain being a "step-down transformer" to throttle down the infinite range of experience and intelligence available to us, to a level we can grasp and work with. At least that makes intuitive sense to me.

If you're really interested in the whole brain-mind thing, I would highly recommend that you read Karl Pribram, David Bohm and Ken Wilber. Pribram's a neurophysiologist, Bohm a physicist and Wilber a psychologist, and they all write from slightly different angles about the same understanding of the relationship of brain to mind, a view that sees the "mechanism" of the brain as essentially holographic (e.g., that information is stored and retrieved as standing waves formed by the relationships among neurons rather than "in" the neurons themselves), and that the brain is not the mind but is rather the "decoder" of intelligence that permeates the Universe, rather than being the source of that intelligence. Very, very fascinating ideas at the cutting edge of the disappearing line that separates science from spirit!

Love,
Greg

Thanks for the info, Rusty! I concur! As the years go by, neurons die off and are replaced by new neural pathways (dendrites). So, the longer one Lives, the sharper one's thoughts, memory processes, and reasoning abilities should become. As people "age," there is no reason to expect less mental function--they should expect more. But what about Alzheimer's? The whole problem with Alzheimer's is that it hampers those new pathways, prevents new ones from being formed, and blocks the electrical communication between them. Latest research strongly suggests this may be due to a protein (prion). I think we'll have a complete cure for this in the near future. And what is even more amazing than a cure is the fact that all the memories are STILL there; they just can't be accessed! So, once the missing link is found, the brain will quickly rebuild those pathways (like a road construction crew), and the person we once knew will be restored.

Hi Everyone!!!

Yeah Rusty!!! THAT'S what our teacher said... I knew it was something along those lines. That's what I meant really. The connections in the brain ARE the neurons and dendrites and all...

Hey Jennifer!!! So your teacher talked about the whole sleep paralysis thing eh? You know, I think that sometimes teachers can be incredibly biased. Furthermore, most sciences doesn't want to admit that there aren't things they can't explain. But you do realize that sleep paralysis has only to do with the body, not the mind... The brain paralyzes the BODY, not itself, and astral travel really is more of your MIND and SOUL traveling... Not your body. Futhermore, some people for some reason aren't always paralyzed. There are plenty of people who sleep walk!!! My brother did it... My future roommate apparently does it. lol. Keep in mind that some teachers like to OVERLOOK things... MY general psych teacher this past semester decided that she was going to disprove astrology. She was pleasantly surprised when more people in my class coincided with their sun sign than statistics and facts said was SUPPOSED to happen. The trouble with psychological studies on astrology is that astrology is a very subjective science. If you go only according to sun sign, OF COURSE you aren't always going to have people exactly match their sun sign... People who haven't studied astrology don't realize this though. Also, statistics in itself doesn't PROVE anything... It only shows CORRELATION.

So yes, it seems that the psychology teachers often like to play high and mighty when squashing peoples' "myths." I just remember that they can't explain everything, and often they don't show us all aspects of things.

Hey Goobergalaxy!!! Yeah... They show us a lot of those types of videos in class... There was this one video of how they stimulated one area of the brain and had a mouse eat itself to death and then one where they stimiulated a different area of the brain and it starved to death... *sigh* I felt bad for those poor rats too...

I remember having a dream around the time that I saw that video where I had become a researcher. I remember going into the lab and seeing this trail of blood going from the door to inside of the lab, and I just KNEW it was the blood of an innocent animal. That's when I knew that I couldn't ever become a researcher.

*hugs* for all!!!
Carrie

Enchantress, I guess such experiments serve a purpose in the overall scheme of things (maybe, maybe not), but I could never partake of them either.