Humans use only 10 per cent of ther brains

MYTH

 

Here are good news for all those who ever had a teacher or a parent say, 'If you would just apply yourself, you could learn anything! You are only using 10 percent of your brain!'

Actually, all those people were wrong. According to director at the University of Washington, Eric Chudler, 'If we did use only 10 percent of our brains we’d be close to dead, 'when recordings are made from any type of brain scan, there’s no part of the brain just sitting there unused.'

Where did the myth come from? Many sources point to an American psychologist of the early 1900s, William James, who said that 'the average person rarely achieves but a small portion of his or her potential.' Somehow, that was converted into only using 10 percent of our brain.

This seems really puzzling at first glance. Why would we have the biggest brain in proportion to our bodies of any animal if we didn't actually use all of it? Many people have jumped on the idea, writing books and selling products that claim to harness the power of the other 90 percent. Believers in some psychic abilities (such as ESP) point to it as proof, saying that people with these abilities have tapped into the rest of their brains.

Here's the thing, though; it's not really true. In addition to those 100 billion neurons, the brain is also full of other types of cells that are continually in use. We can become disabled from damage to just small areas of the brain depending on where it's located, so there's no way that we could function with only 10 percent of our brain in use.