Are you really using only 10% of your brain?

in #steemstem5 years ago
I love folklore, I am a Pagan so it comes with the territory. What I do not like is when people confuse myths with reality and facts with fiction. Unfortunately, the result is often the undermining of their or other peoples abilities. Sure, I too have seen people that seem like they are not using their brain at all but that does not change the fact that they actually are, I just don't like the way they are. You are using more than 10% of the brain and as much as I have enjoyed the Lucy movie, it is just that, a movie.

CC0 image, Pixabay, author: Tumisu
Today I will help you to separate facts from fiction once again and remind you that you are more special than you think so do not let anyone undermine your natural abilities. Your brain is an amazing organ and by saying that you are using only 10% of it is kind of insulting it and yourself. You are more powerful than you realize and it was never about not using your brain but instead the way you were using it.

We do not know for certain exactly when and where the myth about 10% started but we can trace it back to 1970s when psychologist and educator Georgi Lozanov proposed the teaching method of suggestopedia and suggested: "that we might be using only five to ten percent of our mental capacity". The method is mostly used for learning languages. Ever since then, the 10% thing found its way into popular culture and became a part of many movies and books.

You are using 10% only if you are brain damaged

Brain scans have shown that no matter what you are doing, most of the brain areas are always active. Some brain areas are sometimes more active than others but positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow us to see the activity of the living brain and reveal that even during sleep, all parts of it show some level of activity. Only when there is brain damage are some areas not working. The mapping functions onto areas of the brain show how there are distinct regions for different kinds of information processing but no function-less areas have been found.

The words we use are important. Saying how people use only 10% of their brain is not the same as saying that people have the ability to learn more or do more than they currently do. The capacity of the brain is huge and no, we are not using it to its full potential in terms of learning as much as we should. I agree with that. We can always learn more but it is not because we have only 10% of the brain to work with. It is because we choose not to learn more. Instead of saying that humans use only 10% of their brain, we can say that some humans choose to use their brain abilities and potential less than they could have.

The human brain weighs 1.4 kilograms and has about one billion neurons with each of them forming about 1,000 connections to other neurons. This amounts to more than a trillion connections. Keep in mind that one neuron does not mean one memory, oooo no no. Every neuron helps with many memories at a time, and that exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to around 2.5 petabytes. There is still a lot to learn about the brain and I always say how some of the money (all of it) from the military should be invested in science that actually helps and not destroys humanity. You can check an interesting research that debunked the 10% myth here:

The Human Brain in Numbers: A Linearly Scaled-up Primate Brain by Suzana Herculano-Houzel

Coding in 0s and 1s? Nope.
A brain cell uses 26 different ways to code its "bits."

When we read, write, talk to someone or think about anything, we are also creating new memories. Everything that you can remember, from knowledge about differential equations to how your first date looked like, is a memory or a piece of data that your brain has. The "binary message" from a neuron (to fire or not to fire) can produce 26 different sizes of neurons. The amazing thing when comparing a brain to a computer is that a computer requires 50 million times more energy to do the same task as a human brain. The research suggests that the human brain may be able to hold as much information in its memory as is contained on the entire Internet. You can read about it here:

Nanoconnectomic upper bound on the variability of synaptic plasticity by Thomas M Bartol Jr, Cailey Bromer, Justin Kinney, Michael A Chirillo, Jennifer N Bourne, Kristen M Harris, Terrence J Sejnowski

The research is amazing and shows how our biochemical pathways are quite efficient. Brain truly is a remarkable organ that is working all the time and with all its parts, many many parts. Think about this next time someone says that you are using only 10% of it.

We have already covered how the brain has the capacity to store an immense amount of information at the synapses between nerve cells. This next research that I want to bring to your attention tells us how those memories are stored. Neurons in the brain are connected by synapses and when chemical signals move across them, information is being transmitted through the brain. When we have a new idea or come in contact with some new information, millions of brain cells communicate with one another and release neurotransmitters across synapses.

The balance between shrinking and enlarging...

The hippocampus, critical to memory, was studied using electron microscopy. The researchers were expecting to see the synapses enlarging but some were also getting smaller. One of the scientists noted how these findings make sense because if the synapses only grew larger we would eventually run out of storage space or reach our limit. By varying the size of synapses, more of them can actually be stored and the capacity of the brain increases.

Understanding plasticity processes in the hippocampus is very important for understanding the biology of memory. This research demonstrated how the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) increases the storage capacity of synapses in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. After LTP, the information storage capacity of dentate synapses was much lower than in a different part of the hippocampus, area CA1. The question of these rapidly occurring changes persisting during the maintenance phase of LTP will hopefully be answered in some other future study. You can read this one here:

Long-term potentiation expands information content of hippocampal dentate gyrus synapses by Cailey Bromer, Thomas M. Bartol, Jared B. Bowden, Dusten D. Hubbard, Dakota C. Hanka, Paola V. Gonzalez, Masaaki Kuwajima, John M. Mendenhall, Patrick H. Parker, Wickliffe C. Abraham, Terrence J. Sejnowski, and Kristen M. Harris

We use all of our brains. It is how we use them that is different from one human to another. We are all born (not including genetic defects and injuries) with the same potential so why do some create wonders and others do not? Because some realize how big that potential is and some do not.

Every child has the potential to become a genius

There are two methods of storing information that are used the most. One is by repetition and is most frequently used and the other one is with strong emotional influence. When you see something that produces a strong emotional response in you (good or bad) you will either remember it or forget it as a way of the coping mechanism but we all learn by repeating. Every repetition strengthens the synapses in charge of it, from learning how to walk to remembering up to fifty digits of PI, we learn by repeating. We are different when it comes to additional aids needed with that repetition. Some need sound and some need colors but repetition is the key factor here and keep in mind that the more things you associate with the information (sound, image, emotion etc) the more easier you will remember it. The first thing every human should learn is that new information is fun, good, beneficial, important and valuable. If we learn our children to love learning and if we teach them how to learn, we have done the biggest job. The rest is up to them.

Every human being is amazing and that includes you too. Play with your brain and see if I am telling the truth. Pick up a new thing to learn, anything, and repeat that something (action, sentence, behavior) a couple of times every day and see if you learned it by the end of the week. You have the ability to learn and no, you are not only using 10% of your brain. Your brain is working just fine but it is about what is it working that matters. Are you using it to its fullest potential? You could be. The hidden storehouse of your untapped brain power is right there inside you. It is called passion. Passion for knowledge, growth, progress, love, and improvement. Passionate curiosity is the hidden truth you are looking for. Be curious, always be curious.

If you are interested in learning more on this subject, check out these REFERENCES:
What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain? from scientificamerican.com
What percentage of our brain do we use? from medicalnewstoday.com
The Human Brain's Memory Could Store the Entire Internet from livescience.com
The Brain's Storage Capacity can Expand from labroots.com
Your Brain's Capacity Is 10 Times Greater Than Previously Thought from forbes.com
Ten percent of the brain myth from wikipedia.org

Until next time,
KEEP YOUR SMILE ON!

Image sources AND LICENCES in order of appearance:

- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- titles are made with the CC0 image from Pixabay that can be found here
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- my bitmoji avatar was created on https://www.bitmoji.com/, visit the site to create yourown

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I always wondered where the 10% myth came from. Like many urban myths I heard that Einstein was the source. It seems like when people repeat these things they look for added credibility by just ascribing them to Einstein. As if it can no longer be questioned since Einstein said it. Great article. Thanks for sharing.

I am glad you have enjoyed it. hahahaha, yeah Einstein seemed to said a lot of things according to internet :)

Great post.
Aaah, it would have been such a good one for StemQ! 😋

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hahahahaha, yup, yup. Run some salt over the wound now why don't you? :D

First thing I have to say about this is, you pack your posts with information but it never feels like overload. It's obvious you care about what you write. That makes it interesting, makes us want to read.
Passion for sure makes the difference, in using the brain and in experiencing life. You bring this to your writing. Lucky us. Lucky you :)

Thank you for such a kind feedback. I put a lot of time and effort into my posts, read a lot of data to prepare myself, and edit every photo and every title. I am very happy to hear that it has not gone unnoticed. You are very lovely to take time and provide your thoughts on it, thank you again 💚💚💚

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I thought this myth was much older than that. For some reason, it is a strong myth still repeated in many many places. Note that I had never considered the 'you are using 10% of your brain of your brain is damaged' part. That is a cool sentence I will definitely reuse! :D

Hahahahaha, ok but please take notice that some people might get offended by that :D

In this case, they may deserve it :D

Brain absolutely is a great invention from God. But not all people are able to well use. Thanks for sharing

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Thank you for you post! Very interesting.

The "binary message" from a neuron (to fire or not to fire) can produce 26 different sizes of neurons.

Not sure I understand this. How can a binary message (to fire or not) can produce 26 different ... what? This I also don't understand. Can you explain it in little more details? Thank you.

It is not exactly binary, that is why I put it in the quotation marks. The binary message from a neuron (to fire or not to fire) can create 26 different sizes of neurons means that there are 26 different neurons that may get produced. Usually, binary means that yes is 1 and no is 0 but here yes means 26 different things. Did I help at all with this answer?

Yes, thank you, it is a bit clearer now. But I still struggle with this "production of neurons" thing. I thought that a message from a neuron just goes to another neuron through synapses, not produces a new neuron. Or that just means that the source neuron can be in one of 26 different (activation) states?

Neurons could come in 26 different sizes. Neurogenesis talks about the creation of neurons, the last thing I have read about it was this: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-the-adult-brain-really-grow-new-neurons/

Thank you! As always - the post is at the height and useful!

Thank you for such a nice feedback 💚

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