wat percentage of brain does a normal person use and how one can find abt his?

Answer 1

Mantis.... the few post above mine has a great answer in my opinion.

The brain consist of not only the cerebrum which most people misinterpret as it is. It consists of all other involuntary control centre such as the Hypotalamus, Pituitary Gland, Cerebellum, Medulla Oblongata......

Most involuntary actions are controlled by them and they are being "used" every single second. So, in general, I would say that is is close to impossible that we are only using around 10% of our brain; maybe 10% of our cerebrum. You should be using close to 100% of what your brain consists of.

Answer 2

While I agree that our brain can perform multi-tasking operations, it does not mean we are using 100% of its capabilities. My reason is based on the actual performance levels of individuals
with higher functioning/processing skills. Have you ever noticed how some people are able to eat, watch a movie, listen to a radio talk host, as well as listen to Howard Stern and a police scanner all at the same time? And can tell you what was going on with each? Try it sometime. I am not talking about IQ levels, but the actual level of performance the brain performs given a range of specific tasks within a set parameter and time sequence. If I had to make an example, I suppose it would be a computer. It
has a lot of capabilities and a lot of memory and storage, but it
doesn't utilize all of it at once. As far as a guestimate of human usage, I would venture no more than 20% on average. This does not mean there aren't spikes and valleys....just on average.

Answer 3

The 10-percent myth has been around for a long time. It is not certain how this falsehood began, but it has been strengthened over the past century by misinterpretations of neuroscience discoveries and unsubstantiated quotes by both scientists and laypeople alike.

The truth is that we use virtually all of our brain every day.

Let's say, for example, that as you are reading this, you are eating a sandwich. As you are reading, the frontal lobes in your cerebral cortex are engaged in thinking and reasoning. You are enjoying your delicious sandwich thanks to your parietal lobes, which are responsible for taste, texture and smell of food. The occipital lobes help to process how you see the words on this Web page, and the temporal lobes help you process what you hear -- like the click of your mouse.

Meanwhile, you just blinked because of your motor area, and it is because of your cerebellum that you are able to hold the sandwich in one hand and read this article on your computer, as well as anything else you're doing right now that calls for balance and coordination -- like sitting.

Without having to think about it, you are breathing, digesting your sandwich and circulating blood, thanks to your brainstem. Your metabolism and hormonal functions, like the ones that control the water and sugar levels in your body, are currently being controlled by your pituitary gland. And if you're sitting on a park bench on a cold wintry day, your hypothalamus is responsible for that fact that you're shivering.

You'll remember what you're reading due to your hippocampus, whose job it is to transfer short-term to long-term memory. It also enables you to remember that the point of this elaborate example is that you use much more than 10 percent of your brain. :)

Answer 4

The myth that we only use ten percent of our brains is exactly that - a myth. We all use 100% of our brains, but some of us are just plain smarter than others. You can find out more about by typing "neurobiology" into your search engine.

Answer 5

You use 100% of your brain every day, just not all at once

Answer 6

Do we really use only a small portion of our brain? If the answer to this question is yes, then knowing how to access the "unused" part of our brain should unleash untapped mental powers and allow us perform at top efficiency. Let's examine the issue and attempt to get at the truth behind the myth.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The 'hidden nine-tenths' of your mental strength lies buried... discover, release and use it to gain new success, personal happiness—a fuller, richer life."
- advertisement for The Magic Power of Your Mind, W.B. Germain, 1956

"They say you only use 10% of it."
- advertisement for database software, 1999

"You only use 11% of its potential."
- advertisement for digital TV, 1999

"It's been said that we use a mere 10% of our brain capacity."
- advertisement for an airline, 1999


Advertisers believe it. The popular media promote it. Do we use only a small portion of our brains? If the answer to this question is Yes, then knowing how to access the "unused" part of our brain should unleash untapped mental powers and allow us perform at top efficiency. But is it true that we only use 10% of our brains? Let's examine the issue of brain use and attempt to get at the truth behind the myth.


Myths About the Brain - Page 2
Where Did the 10% Statement Begin?

The origin of the belief that we use only a small part of our brain is unclear. Perhaps the belief is derived from debates during the early 1800s between those who believed that brain function could be localized to particular regions of the brain and those who believed that the brain acted as a whole. These debates centered around Franz Joseph Gall (1757-1828) and Johann Spurzheim (1776-1832) who developed the field of phrenology: the idea that specific human behaviors and characteristics could be deduced by the pattern and size of bumps on the skull. Not everyone agreed with Gall and Spurzheim. Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens (1794-1867), an outspoken critic of phrenology, believed that although the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and brainstem had separate functions, each of these areas functioned globally as a whole ("equipotential"). Flourens supported his theories with experiments in which he removed areas of the brain (mostly in pigeons) and showed that behavioral deficits increased with size of the ablation. Although the work of Gustav Fritsch (1838-1927), Eduard Hitzig (1838-1907), Paul Broca (1824-1888) and Karl Wernicke (1848-1904) in the late 1800s provided strong data to counter the theory of equipotentiality, some scientists in the early 1900s appeared to once again favor the notion that the brain acted as a whole.

One prominent researcher who promoted the theories of equipotentiality and "mass action" was Karl Spencer Lashley (1890-1958). Lashley believed that memory was not dependent on any specific portion of the cerebral cortex and that the loss of memory was proportional to the amount of cerebral cortex that was removed. His experiments showed that the ability of rats to solve simple tasks, such as mazes and visual discrimination tests, were unaffected by large cerebral cortical lesions. As long as a certain amount of cortex remained, the rats appeared normal on the tests he administered. For example, in 1939 Lashley reported that rats could perform visual discriminations with only 2% of the visual thalamocortical pathway intact. He even estimated that this behavior required only 700 neurons. In another experiment in 1935, Lashley found that removal of up to 58% of the cerebral cortex did not affect certain types of learning. It is possible that overinterpretation and exaggeration of these data led to the belief that only a small portion of the brain is used. For example, although Lashley's rats may have been able to perform the simple tasks, they were not tested on other more complicated paradigms. In other words, the brain tissue that was removed may have been used for tasks that Lashley did not test. Moreover, Lashley was interested primarily in the cerebral cortex, not in other areas of the brain. Therefore, these data should not be extrapolated to other parts of the brain.

Several public figures have made reference to the 10% brain use statement. American psychologist William James wrote in 1908: "We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources". Some famous people without training in neuroscience, such as physicist Albert Einstein and anthropologist Margaret Mead, are also attributed with statements regarding human use of only a small portion of the brain.

Regardless of its origin, the statement that we use only 10% of our brains has been promoted by the popular media for many years. Indeed, many advertisers have jumped on the statement to sell their products. According to these advertisements, if we buy their products, devices, or programs, we will be able to tap into the brain's unused powers and enrich our lives.

What does it mean to "use only 10% of your brain?" Does this statement imply that only 10% of the brain's neurons is active at any one time? If so, how could this be measured? Does the statement assume that only 10% of the brain is firing action potentials at one time? Even if this was true, the discharge of action potentials is not the only function of neurons. Neurons receive a constant barrage of signals from other neurons that result in postsynaptic potentials. Postsynaptic potentials do not always result in the generation of action potentials. Nevertheless, these neurons, even in the absence of generating action potentials, are active.

Answer 7

Go to google and type in what you are looking for and then go from there to find your information.

Answer 8

your asking that question on yahoo answers.... ;-)

Answer 9

nobody is really sure