It is called the 10% brain myth. But is it true we only use 10 percent of our brains or is it a 10% brain myth?The Scarlett Johannson movie Lucy is based on the idea that we use only 10 percent of our brains. Scarlett….
Scarlett’s hot but is it true we only use 10% of our brains?
To be honest, looking at your picture Scarlett I do feel like my brain goes on auto pilot and is no doubt NOT working to it’s maximum efficiency. However, even in this mesmerizing trance that your photo has sent me in my brain is still using more than 10 percent. Actually I’m using every bit of my brain even in this trance.
If this myth of 10% brain myth was true we would be close to dead.
When brains are scanned there is no part of the brain that is not being used.
You use much more than 10 percent of your brain. You use your entire brain
The 10% brain myth MAY have come from the pioneering work of neuroscientist Karl Lashley who removed parts of rodents brains and found that they could still navigate mazes that they had learned prior to part of their brain being removed. Then some may have taken this and applied to humans and said we have parts of our brains laying dormant and if we just accessed the rest we could do really amazing things like bend spoons.
HOWEVER—> “It turns out, though, that we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time,” Johns Hopkins University neurologist Barry Gordon explained to Scientific American in 2008.
Think about it. If we needed only 10% of our brain then brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s or dementia would be no big deal. We’d almost be invulnerable to them. Instead, as brain researcher Barry J. Beyerstein noted in a 2004 Scientific American article, destroying far less than 90 percent of the brain can have a catastrophic effect, and there doesn’t seem to be any portion of the brain that a person can lose without experiencing some sort of loss of function.
Here is a crazy story though. A talented french horn player was diagnosed with a brain tumor and it was feared he would never play again. Dr Susan Bookheimer a neurosurgeon at UCLA medical school had him undergo an MRI while reading sheet music and fingering an instrument so she could take note of the spots of the brain he was engaging. During the surgery the surgeons avoiding these areas and he was back playing the french horn in months.
When I look at the picture of Scarlett Johannson my brain does go into a trance and even then I am using more than 10% of my brain. So the movie may be enjoyable but it is not based in science. You are using your entire brain. The 10% brain myth is indeed a myth
