Do we use only ten percent of our brains?

Someone has robbed most of your brain, perhaps even without you knowing it! Well he did not take your brain specifically, but decided that you would not use it.

It is that old myth that I heard time and time again about people using only ten percent of their brains. And while that may be appropriate for those who repeat this saying, but for us-wise people-we use our whole brains happily!

When answering a question: Do humans use ten percent of their brains? We must make it clear that there is no scientific evidence for that. And in other words, this saying is completely wrong to say from a scientific point of view, but rather a myth, we use our brains completely!

Now let us look at the possible origins on which this myth is built and evidence that we are using all of our brains.

Where did the ten percent myth begin?

The origin of the belief that we only use a small part of our brain is unclear. Perhaps that belief was derived from the controversy that took place in the early nineteenth century. Between those who believed in the possibility of locating and pinpointing brain functions in specific areas of the brain. And those who believed that the brain works as a whole cannot be divided.

This controversy began from the days of Franz Josef Gall (1757-1828) Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832) who developed the field of phrenology. A science that reveals that certain human behaviors and characteristics can be inferred from the pattern and the size of the bumps in the skull.

Of course, not all scientists were convinced of the opinion of Gal and Spurzheim, for example, Mary Jean-Pierre Florence (1794-1867), an outspoken critic of phrenology, believed that although the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and brain stem all had separate functions. But, all of these regions work together as a whole (isotonic) unit. Florence supported his theories with experiments in which he removed areas of the brain (often in pigeons) and showed that behavioral deficiencies were increasing with the size of the excised part.

Although the research of Gustav Fritsch (1838-1927), Edward Hetzig (1838-1907), Paul Brocka (1824-1888) and Karl Wernicke (1848-1990) in the late nineteenth century provided us with powerful data to counter the theory of  (equipotentiality). But, some scientists emerged in the early twentieth century who favor the idea that the brain functions as an integral whole.

Meanwhile, a number of celebrities have referred to the idea that we use only ten percent of our brains. American psychologist William James wrote in 1908: "We use a small portion of our potentially mental resources," and some celebrities who are not specialists in neuroscience like physicist Albert Einstein and anthropologist Margaret Mead. They are credited with quotes about humans using only a small part of the brain.

Regardless of the origin of the myth, the saying that we use only ten percent of our brains has been promoted by popular media for years. And in fact many advertisers have taken advantage of that saying to sell their products exclusively through these ads and say for example: "if you bought products or tools or Programs-which they are promoting- you will be able to take advantage of your unused brain energy to enrich your life and transform it for the better".

Why does this myth continue?

As we mentioned, somehow, somewhere, somebody started this myth and the popular media continued to repeat this wrong saying, and everyone soon believed it was true regardless of the evidence.

And according to the belief of the believers in this myth, if we use more of our untapped brain powers, we can obtain supernatural memory. And possess many distinct mental abilities, and even move things just by thinking about it! Again, no data is available to support any of these allegations.

What does it mean to use only ten percent of your mental abilities? What data was used to determine this percentage (10%)? Does that mean that you will be in good shape if you remove 90% of your brain? !! And if the average human brain weighs 1400 grams, and we remove 90% of it, then what remains is no more than 140 grams of cerebral tissue, which is close to the size of the brain of the sheep!

It is known that harming a relatively small area of the brain, such as that caused by a stroke, may cause devastating disabilities, and some nerve strikes such as (Parkinson's disease) affect only specific areas of the brain and cause very bad symptoms, although the damage from these conditions is much less than that of 90% of the brain.

Various pictures from the famous rumor

This myth is not merely a misinformation with fixed features, but rather it is multiform and this adaptive feature gives it a much longer life span than it deserves in its basic form, where the myth claims that years ago one of the scientists discovered that we are really using only ten percent of our brains. And is represented the second picture of the myth is that only ten percent of the cerebral regions were planned. And therefore this fact was misunderstood that we only use that ten percent!

And there is a third pattern described by Extraordinist Craig Karsges, which sees that the brain is carefully divided-in a way-into two parts: the conscious mind that all people use for ten to twenty percent of the time, and the subconscious (the unconscious) in which the rest of the brain lies (80-90%) in the form of untapped potential, and this description shows a deep misunderstanding of research conducted on cerebral functions.

Part of the reason the myth survives for so long is that if one of its forms can be proven wrong. The believer can simply attribute the reason for his belief in the validity of a saying (10% of the brain) to another form of it while the belief itself remains intact.

Therefore, for example, if you told one of them that radiography emission of electrons depicts activity in all parts of the brain, He may continue to claim that the ninety percent is referring to the subconscious, and therefore the ten percent is still true in the first place!

Regardless of the image in which the myth appears, the myth is spread and repeated by both goodwill and pranksters alike. And therefore the belief that remains is what psychologists have called (psychological fact) or a belief that is taken as true even though it is not backed by conclusive evidence, because its constant repetition changes the way the mind processes life experiences and forces it to submit to superstition.

Those who sympathize with this belief will repeat it over and over until certification of their speech occurs on a large scale. As happened with the warning of the danger of swimming immediately after eating.

Action potentials: evidence

When people use the ten percent statement, they may mean that one out of every ten neurons is necessary or that they are used at any given time. But, how can such a ratio be determined? Even if the neurons do not release action potentials, they may be involved in receiving signals from other neurons.

Certainly, there are many nerve pathways that perform similar functions, for example there are several central means used for vision, and this concept is called abundance (Redundancy) and is found throughout the nervous system, and there may be multiple ways to perform the same function One of the safety mechanisms that is used in the event of failure of one of the common methods used.

In addition, functional brain imaging studies have shown that all parts of the brain work, and even during sleeping the brain remains active, it is still being used. But, it is only in a different state of activity.

And in the end it seems that the saying (use or lose it) applies completely to the nervous system, during growth, many new nerve connections (synapses) are formed, and in fact some nerve connections are removed later during growth, and this period of growth and removal of synapses continues for (fine tuning) the distribution of nervous system fibers.

And many studies have shown that if the inputs of a particular nervous system are removed, then the neurons in this system will not function properly. And this has appeared quite dramatically in the visual system. Then, complete vision loss occurs if visual information is prevented from alerting the eyes and brain during a period Early growth.

Hence it is reasonable to suggest that if 90% of the brain is not used, many nerve pathways will lose their function. However, it does not seem that things are going like this.

On the other hand, the brains of young children have a high adaptability. The function of the damaged region of the young child’s brain can be performed by the remaining brain tissue. And there are surprising examples of such recovery in young children whose large parts of their brains have been removed to control seizures.

However, this (miraculous) improvement after comprehensive brain surgery is quite rare in adults.

Therefore, the next time you hear someone say that we use only ten percent of our brains, you can directly confront them and say to him, "It is not true, we use 100 percent of our brains".