Yeah...but all brains are not created equal, some have more loops than others.
The evolution of the brain is an interesting subject and one I know nothing
about! :-)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer r...@... wrote:
DO PEOPLE ONLY USE 10 PERCENT OF THEIR BRAINS?
By Robynne Boyd
Scientific American
February 7, 2008
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=people-only-use-10-percent-
of-brain
The human brain is complex. Along with performing millions of mundane acts,
it composes concertos, issues manifestos and comes up with elegant solutions
to equations. It's the wellspring of all human feelings, behaviors,
experiences as well as the repository of memory and self-awareness. So it's
no surprise that the brain remains a mystery unto itself.
Adding to that mystery is the contention that humans only employ 10
percent of their brain. If only regular folk could tap that other 90
percent, they too could become savants who remember ΒΌ to the
twenty-thousandth decimal place or perhaps even have telekinetic powers.
Though an alluring idea, the 10 percent myth is so wrong it is almost
laughable, says neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
in Baltimore. Although there's no definitive culprit to pin the blame on for
starting this legend, the notion has been linked to the American
psychologist and author William James, who argued in The Energies of Men
that We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and
physical resources. It's also been associated with to Albert Einstein, who
supposedly used it to explain his cosmic towering intellect.
The myth's durability, Gordon says, stems from people's conceptions about
their own brains: they see their own shortcomings as evidence of the
existence of untapped gray matter. This is a false assumption. What is
correct, however, is that at certain moments in anyone's life, such as when
we are simply at rest and thinking, we may be using only 10 percent of our
brains.
It turns out though, that we use virtually every part of the brain, and
that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time, Gordon adds. Let's
put it this way: the brain represents three percent of the body's weight and
uses 20 percent of the body's energy.
The average human brain weighs about three pounds and comprises the hefty
cerebrum, which is the largest portion and performs all higher cognitive
functions; the cerebellum, responsible for motor functions, such as the
coordination of movement and balance; and the brain stem, dedicated to
involuntary functions like breathing. The majority of the energy consumed by
the brain powers the rapid firing of millions of neurons communicating with
each other. Scientists think it is such neuronal firing and connecting that
gives rise to all of the brain's higher functions. The rest of its energy is
used for controlling other activities -- both unconscious activities, such
as heart rate, and conscious ones, such as driving a car.
Although it's true that at any given moment all of the brain's regions are
not concurrently firing, brain researchers using imaging technology have
shown that, like the body's muscles, most are continually active over a
24-hour period. Evidence would show over a day you use 100 percent of the
brain, says John Henley, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minn. Even in sleep, areas such as the frontal cortex, which controls things
like higher level thinking and self-awareness, or the somatosensory areas,
which help people sense their surroundings, are active, Henley explains.
Take the simple act of pouring coffee in the morning: In walking toward the
coffeepot, reaching for it, pouring the brew into the mug, even leaving
extra room for cream, the occipital and parietal lobes, motor sensory and
sensory motor cortices, basal ganglia, cerebellum and frontal lobes all
activate. A lightning storm of neuronal activity occurs almost across the
entire brain in the time span of a few seconds.
This isn't to say that if the brain were damaged that you wouldn't be able
to perform daily duties, Henley continues. There are people who have
injured their brains or had parts of it removed who still live fairly normal
lives, but that is because the brain has a way of compensating and making
sure that what's left takes over the activity.
Being able to map the brain's various regions and functions is part and
parcel of understanding the possible side effects should a given region
begin to fail. Experts know that neurons that perform similar functions tend
to cluster together. For example, neurons that control the thumb's movement
are arranged next to those that control the forefinger. Thus, when
undertaking brain surgery, neurosurgeons carefully avoid neural clusters
related to vision, hearing and movement, enabling the brain to retain as
many of its functions as possible.
What's not understood
