When I hear that humans only use 10% of our brains, does that mean that 10% is the maximum one can use?

Question

And...why can't we use more than 10% of our brains? Then what's the other 90% for?

Don't answer the question if you can't even explain WHY it's false.

Answer 1

This is a popular misconception. It came about, I think, from early thermal images of the brain, which showed that only 10% was being used, what it didn't show was that different parts of the brain have different functions. Some parts control speech, movement, learning, science, art etc. etc. We might only be using 10% at a time.
We use all of our brain. The brain is an energy hog, it uses about 25% of our total body's requirements when at rest. If we were not using 90% of it, evolution, via natural selection, would have favoured a smaller brain, as a way of minimising energy use, particularly when food was more scarce.

Answer 2

The brain is truly the most powerful thing that one could possess. If one wants to create a sky, a sea, or anything else, one could easily do it almost effortlessly using one’s mind. The brain is so capable that it can hold both the sky and one’s self with ease. According to Dickinson in “To Make a Prairie It Takes a Clover,” all that would be necessary to make a prairie would be just “one clover, and a bee, and revery. ty of the sky could be very easily overtaken by that of the brain. The mind’s imagination alone would be sufficient in creating a prairie. It is very evident in her writings that she believes that the mind is a very majestic and magnificent thing which has absolutely nothing to hold it back from going further and further. The brain is capable of retaining vast amounts of information. There is nothing to which the brain can be accurately compared. There are no boundaries for the brain or for its capabilities to create and hold a variety and a large amount of information. There would be no need for a clover and one bee. The mind can create whatever it wishes, whatever it can think of, whether it is a prairie or even whole new worlds. The imagination has endless possibilities and there is nothing that can stop it from thinking and imagining. The brain may seem as endless as the sky, but there must eventually be a boundary to which the sky can go, some kind of end, but the powerful brain knows no limits. There is nothing existing that has as many abilities, as much capability to retain information, or as much imagination.

Answer 3

I think they are way off, personally. This is just a guess, but I believe that their claim is based off of the parts of the brain that are stressed when a person is asked a series of questions while in a CAT scan/MRI, etc. It has been shown that when people develop skills initially there is alot of brain activity, but as their skills become proficient there is less activity. I think this merely means that as a task becomes a habit, it requires less brain activity. It becomes more unconcious, which would give the discrepency that we are not capable of using all of our brain. It just comes down to this. The are no medically recorded moment where the entire brain functions as a whole, but there are infinate moments when the specific parts of the brain respond to certain stimuli, thus we are only able to elaborate on that moment.

Perhaps, if we placed some on a vibrating MRI with the person of their dreams in the room with them, completely exposed their mother waving a finger, their greatest mentor giving soothing words of wisdom, the doctor proding the persons feet with a cold metal pen, and the radio on an obsurdly annoying station...maybe then we will see near full brain activity. Or the person will go catatonic.

Answer 4

We do use the vast majority of our brains. THe larger portion 90% is actually for storage or memories. If you think about how much you see, touch, taste, hear and smell in a given day.....Imagine how much space that might take. The human brain is very efficient at storage but over a lifetime.........

Answer 5

The 90% are processes that we cannot control...like heart beat and stuff like that. The 10% is dedicated to things like learning and thought...things we DO control. So that claim is false. We used 100% of our brain.

Answer 6

We use 100% of our brains, but not all 100% 100% of the time.

Answer 7

i'n not sure what is the percentage of using our brains, but i think we use more than 10%

Answer 8

You hear wrong!! We use all of are brains. You have been seriously misinformed. Perhaps someone will come along and give you the proper web site.

Go here for proof. Your " thumbs down " do not overturn the truth!

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10 percnt.htm

Answer 9

We just hav'nt figured how to do yet it thats all

Answer 10

This is an old, and false, fable!