|
Drewwyann
Slayer of ticks



Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 4,077
Loc: Atlantis
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
|
We only use 10% of our brains?
#7873225 - 01/13/08 12:39 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
heres what Bill Nye has to say!
Quote:
Dear Bill, Is it true that we only use a fraction of our brain? What's the rest of it do? Can we train ourselves to use this other brain mass to get super-smart?
-- Big Brainer
Dear Big Brainer,
Many people hear that we use only 10 percent of our brains and presume it's true. If you think (with your brain) about this claim, I hope you agree that this small percentage notion is crazy. How could we manage any other major organ that we use only 10 percent of? Oh yes, people get by with one kidney. That's 50 percent of their kidneys. People get by without an appendix. That would be 100 percent of an appendix, but barely 2 percent of your intestinal tract. People keep going after heart attacks, but few people get by with 10 percent of a heart. By few, I mean zero.
Human Brain (Image credit: London Scientific Films/Oxford Scientific Films) Human Brain The nitty-gritty on noggins If this 10 percent idea were somehow true, how could the other 90 percent of your brain cells have gotten there in the first place? How could we be carrying around a 1.4-kilogram (3.1-pound) organ and not use 90 percent of it? Well, it wouldn't be reasonable from an evolutionary standpoint.
In the economics of biology, it's expensive to have a brain. We are animals on Earth. We came to be in the same worldwide ecosystem as everybody and everything else -- our fellow earthlings, eels, dolphins, giraffes, sea jellies and the like. As a run-of-the-Earth organism, you have to spend the metabolic energy to grow your brain, and you have to expend calories -- as much as 30 percent of all the calories you consume -- to maintain it. That would be all while you're dodging lions, tigers and bears, for example, let alone the challenges from members of your own species for access to food and a mate.
So if you were to let 90 percent of the energy you spend on brain matter go to waste, that would make you seem, if I may, at least 90 percent out of your mind. And, it's the potential for wasted brainpower that may be at the heart (er, the brain) of your question -- of this matter -- the gray matter (ha!).
The myth that we're not using such a vast amount of our brains may stem from our fear that we aren't thinking hard enough. Haven't you felt from time to time that you would be better off if you could just think more or think better? Maybe you could become "super-smart" if you could just figure out how to use that dormant part of your brain.
Left and Right Brain Functions (Image credit: © Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.) Left and Right Brain Functions Is early science to blame? But this myth may also have origins in science. Brain researchers from the 19th century and into the 1930s admitted that they couldn't figure out what as much as 90 percent of the cells in our cerebral cortex do. So it seems plausible that the 10 percent myth was created and reinforced by early brain research.
Scientists back then gave tiny electric jolts to the brains of dogs, for example. Then, they'd observe how the dog's muscles reacted or twitched. They did autopsies on stroke patients who had been able to understand words but not form words themselves. They removed tiny regions of rabbit and rat brains to see what tasks their subjects could still perform.
Functions of the Cerebral Cortex (Image credit: © Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.) Functions of the Cerebral Cortex Based on these studies, a few researchers agreed that a vast majority of brain cells in the cerebral cortex were "unresponsive." But not being able to identify what a brain cell does is not the same as concluding that the cell doesn't do anything. To be fair, the scientists didn't claim those unresponsive areas were not in use. But clever salespeople got many of us all aflutter over it, and they still do.
Charlatans hoping to make a buck got consumers worried that they weren't using most of their brains. These scammers convinced their customers to buy all manner of dietary supplements that were supposed to enhance one's brain function. The idea was that if only 10 percent of your brain's thinking zone was responsive to scientists' probing, that would mean only 10 percent of your mind was doing anything. So, why not get the remaining 90 percent working?
Structure of the Brain Stem (Image credit: © Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.) Structure of the Brain Stem Well, think about all the work your brain is already doing. Your cerebellum is commanding your thorax muscles to do the breathing; your heart is doing the pumping; your eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin are doing the sensing. Your eyes are connected right up to your visual cortex; they're moving back and forth across this screen. These happy patterns are being recognized and strung together into complete thoughts.
A large fraction of your brain is feeling emotions, keeping track of memories: what you saw and what you felt yesterday and yesteryear -- all while some significant part of your brain is given time to think. There's a lot going on up there all day -- and all night, even while you sleep. Not bad.
Positron Emission Tomography (Image credit: Dr. John Mazziotta ET AL/Neurology/Science Source/Photo Researchers, Inc.) Positron Emission Tomography Use it or lose it I've seen pictures of many brains (including my own) on positron emission tomography (PET) scans. There is blood flowing all over the place, flowing like crazy. Just by looking at these images, one should be skeptical of the 10 percent assertion. Of course such big magnetic field scans are pretty new as brain science goes. There was no PET scanning in the 19th century.
With that said, brain neurons are like so many other cells in our bodies. If you don't use 'em, apparently you lose 'em. If you stop thinking or doing mental exercises, you lose the ability to do the exercises. You lose the ability to think. So please use your brain, and think about this brain matter myth. You've got what it takes to do so. You've got 100 percent of your brain going flat out all the time. Think on!
--------------------
 Anyone need a glass pipe? : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002435158931 Love powerfully  
|
Anarleaf
Teotihualto



Registered: 01/19/07
Posts: 156
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Drewwyann]
#7873241 - 01/13/08 12:44 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Wow, I did not know Bill Nye was such a well informed guy.
|
Tomandjerry58
Stranger
Registered: 01/27/03
Posts: 5,212
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Anarleaf]
#7873261 - 01/13/08 12:50 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
10% for thought process... the other 90% is telling ur body how to function.... with evolution and all.. if it isn't needed it wouldn't be there. so im sure its there for a reason. just like skin and eyes have a purpose
|
Veritas


Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Tomandjerry58]
#7873351 - 01/13/08 01:21 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
10% for thought process... the other 90% is telling ur body how to function
No. A very small portion of the brain is devoted to involuntary bodily functions. The greater percentage, by mass, is devoted to emotions and higher thinking.
|
Tomandjerry58
Stranger
Registered: 01/27/03
Posts: 5,212
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Veritas]
#7873408 - 01/13/08 01:39 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
i seriously disagree with that.. im not a doctor or a scientist.but our bodys are built with cells,bones,organs millions of different things to help us function and i don't tell my heart to beat my brain does.. just in theory though i would think that the 10% would be actual thought process the rest would be used to operate this machine im in.
|
magikgrl
~Inevitable~



Registered: 02/04/06
Posts: 4,566
Loc: Michigan
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Tomandjerry58]
#7873414 - 01/13/08 01:42 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
I also just saw a special on 20/20 on how its a myth.
--------------------
"In the 60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal...go figure." Becoming human was not part of the plan... I wish I could be as high as my tolerance-danlennon Reality is a crutch for those that can't cope with drugs.
|
Viveka
refutation bias


Registered: 10/21/02
Posts: 4,061
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Tomandjerry58]
#7874622 - 01/13/08 06:02 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Ok, then how does a deer that has a tiny brain complete all the same functions of life and body maintanence that you are so sure just must require the majority of a large, human-sized brain?
|
HELLA_TIGHT
Madge the Smoking Vag



Registered: 08/19/03
Posts: 84,387
Loc: Afghanistan
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Tomandjerry58]
#7874636 - 01/13/08 06:05 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
preschooler said: im not a doctor or a scientist.quote]
Then your opinion doesn't mean shit, preschooler.
--------------------
|
Veritas


Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Tomandjerry58]
#7874882 - 01/13/08 06:52 PM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Yes, your brain does tell your body what to do, it just uses the oldest and most-efficient portion to do so. This portion is small compared to the rest of the brain.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/intelligence/MacLean.htm
|
the universe
Harbinger ofEldritch Despair


Registered: 03/10/99
Posts: 1,456
Loc: Under your bed
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Veritas]
#7876731 - 01/14/08 12:45 AM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that more of your brain is used for cognition, memory, language, emotions, and all that than is used for breathing, and such. An ant has a way smaller brain than us, and they everything they do is involuntary. We developed a larger brain for the evolutionary purpose of understanding our environment better, and also for higher socializing. I saw a show on TLC, or Discovery that explained about the time in our history where our brains got way bigger very quickly, an they think that was mainly for keeping up with advanced socializin and keeping up with larger social groups we were forming, in comparison to other primates. Think about it, the average person can keep track of (to a certain extent) what hundreds of individuals are doing. We can remember several hundred people if not more throuout our lives. We are incredibly social people, and therefore very competitive, so it's good to be smart. What I find funny is these people who think we only use 10% of our brain, and the other 90% is for hidden psychic abilities, like telekenisis, and reading minds. Isn't the world amazing enough without dreaming up fantastic supernatural abilities? But I digress.
-------------------- "If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'Fuck you' signs in the world."- J. D. Salinger
|
RonaldFuckingPaul
Our Dear Leader



Registered: 10/31/07
Posts: 13,617
Loc: Straight Outta Compton
Last seen: 9 years, 5 months
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: the universe]
#7876851 - 01/14/08 01:30 AM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Bill Nye is the shiznit
--------------------
|
Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea


Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Drewwyann]
#7877235 - 01/14/08 07:14 AM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
92% of statistics are made up on the spot!
10% seems like a myth or bad science to me. Thats not to say you can't increase the power of any aspect of your mind, its clear that you can.
When scientists brain scanned monks that had been meditating most there lives they found that the areas of the brain that controlled calmness and contentedness were much more activated than in the average non-monk.
|
mycopsycho
Tit Inspector.



Registered: 06/17/04
Posts: 3,712
Loc: Going Nowhere Fast
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: Tomandjerry58]
#7877301 - 01/14/08 07:59 AM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
preschooler said: i seriously disagree with that.. im not a doctor or a scientist.but our bodys are built with cells,bones,organs millions of different things to help us function and i don't tell my heart to beat my brain does.. just in theory though i would think that the 10% would be actual thought process the rest would be used to operate this machine im in.
no, theres a little tiny bit of brain in the back that controls all involuntary actions such as heartbeats.
-------------------- I Am The Sickness. Diploid: I think adults have a right to make stupid decisions and it's nobody else's fucking business.
|
trendal
J♠



Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: mycopsycho]
#7877321 - 01/14/08 08:13 AM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
mycopsycho said: no, theres a little tiny bit of brain in the back that controls all involuntary actions such as heartbeats.
Actually, it's in the middle 
The old brain (called that because even reptiles have it) is responsible for all the automatic functions of your body. The neocortex is the part that makes us human...and it accounts for about 3/4 of the weight of your brain.
--------------------
Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
|
mycopsycho
Tit Inspector.



Registered: 06/17/04
Posts: 3,712
Loc: Going Nowhere Fast
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: trendal]
#7877329 - 01/14/08 08:18 AM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
thanks for the correction.
-------------------- I Am The Sickness. Diploid: I think adults have a right to make stupid decisions and it's nobody else's fucking business.
|
undergrounder
fluffy bunny



Registered: 11/10/06
Posts: 1,394
Loc: Sydney
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
|
Re: We only use 10% of our brains? [Re: mycopsycho]
#7877458 - 01/14/08 09:09 AM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
OK.. I know most of this has already been mentioned but to summarise the truth of it:
No we don't use 10% of the brain we use all of it.
10% of our brain isn't used for high level thinking either, the cortex accounts for the vast majority of mass.
The 'automatic' part of the brain, such as controlling all the internal organs is in the base, where the neck meets the brain. Its called the brainstem. It's the oldest evolved parts of the brain.
It is quite possible that meditating monks have larger parts of their brains devoted to calmness or whatever. Its called plasticity. Parts of the brain that are non-active might tend to be taken over by parts being exercised more. For example someone that has their arm amputated might have the part of the brain normally used for sensation in that arm invaded by the part used for another part of the body. That's why some amputees can feel their invisible arm whenever you brush them on the cheek or whatever.
For the example about a deer, they have small brains but they devote a much higher percentage of their brain mass to automatic and physical functions than we do. Their 'cortex' is not nearly as advanced, and their brainstem and middlebrains are bigger.

By far the coolest brain thing though is Split Brain Disorder. I won't get into it because its slightly complicated but the implications are amazing. Some theorise that all of us actually have two concurrent consciousnesses acting together like two eyes creating a single image. When people have a split brain procedure it splits these two consciousnesses and they can't communicate properly. One (the right hemisphere) can process information but can't verbalise it. So if you asked the right hemisphere (By showing it a question on the left-hand side of your field of vision... see link) an arithmetic question it would know the answer but you would never say it or comprehend that you knew you could say it. BUT if you asked it to write the answer down with the left hand, it would write the answer down and 'you' would have no idea what your left arm is doing. If you asked it to write the answer down with the right hand, your arm would stay still. And all of this without you actually having to think about it.
Quote:
Even more startling was Paul's ability to write answers to questions asked of his right half-brain. Instead of wondering whether or not Paul's right hemisphere was sufficiently powerful to be dubbed conscious, we were now in a position to ask Paul's right side about its views on matters of friendship, love, hate, and aspirations. 'Who are you?' He writes: 'Paul.' 'Where are you?' He writes: 'Vermont.' 'What do you want to be?' He writes: 'Automobile racer.' When the left hemisphere was asked this same question, he wrote (with his right hand), 'Draftsman.'"(1)
Crazy shit.
--------------------
RIP Bigger and bolder and rougher and tougher in other words sucka there is no other...
|
|