10% of Brain Power?

Is the claim we are only using 10 per cent of our brains fact or fiction?

Self-improvement gurus, advertisers and possibly even Albert Einstein have stated that 90 per cent of our brains are sitting idle. The idea has proved popular in Hollywood too, with Luc Besson's latest film Lucy using it as a major plot device.

In the film Samuel Norman, a fictional neuroscientist played by Morgan Freeman, says: "It is estimated most human beings only use 10 per cent of their brains' capacity. Just imagine if we could access 100 per cent."

A 2013 survey by the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research found almost two-thirds of Americans believe we only use 10 per cent of our brains but exactly where the idea comes from is hard to pin down.

Behavioural neurophysiologist Eric Chudler, the executive director of the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, says the theory was popularised in the early 20th century by psychologist William James in an influential 1907 essay "The Energies of Men".

There is also evidence to suggest that the work of brain researchers in the first half of the 20th century helped popularise the idea. Karl Lashley, elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1929, did experiments on rats which found they only needed small amounts of the brain to conduct a range of tasks including running a maze.

Ashley Bush from Melbourne's Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health says "awareness" such as thoughts and calculation might indeed only represent 10 per cent of the complex operations of the brain at any one time.

But Professor Bush says the rest of the human brain has plenty to do and is constantly performing unconscious processes. "The brain is constantly vigilant but we are not aware of this... Even when asleep, most of the brain is active," he says.

The brain regulates everything from our heart rate and our senses to our dreams and emotions - so the brain is kept very busy. Professor Bush says the idea that we can tap into a dormant 90 per cent is "hogwash".

Con Stough, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, says we make new connections in our brains when we learn. Professor Stough agrees there's "no truth" to the 10 per cent claim. But he also says the brain does have "some redundancy" in it.

Dr Chudler says people can always learn new ideas and new skills, but not because we are tapping into some unused part of the brain - what's actually happening is that we are forming new or stronger connections between nerve cells. Dr Chudler, who has written extensively on the subject, says the claim is simply a myth.

From:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-11/do-we-only-use-10-per-cent-of-our-brains/5648810
Extra Info:
http://brainconnection.brainhq.com/2013/04/17/myths-about-the-brain-10-percent-and-counting/
https://www.msu.edu/~brains/brains/human/index.html

Spoiler Alert; Featurette from the movie 'Lucy' disc about brain power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oed3WLnhF6c

Hmmm, things to ponder

The way I heard it was that we use the whole brain, but only around 10% efficiency...as we learn we form more neuroconnections and stronger ones. Certain functions are semi autonomous (we have some control over them) some functions are completely autonomous (we have no control over them) the brain regulates both with little to no effort and still has room to handle all the other functions we throw at it... not being a neurologist or having studied neurology/neurobiology leaves me having to take their word on it......in any case the brain/mind is really an amazingly wonderfully powerful thing....if we learn to use/control every part of it who knows what we could do...

Minds and brains ... that would confuse the hell out of a bunch of hungry zombies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4fpyDDfcfQ

We use all of our brains, and they use us back. It's all fair ...

Yes, a silly myth that gets perpetuated, and repeated despite evidence to he contrary.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth

Makes you wonder what faith ends and superstition/delusion begins.

Makes you wonder what faith ends and superstition/delusion begins.

As hard as it is to believe, people who perpetuate this stories are the some ones who don't check "snopes.com" before reposting that story "you just can't believe" on Facebook, :lol:...

The pass it along, figuring their friend has done their homework and that, even if wrong, they didn't say it was true, lol...

It isn't "superstition/delusion", but rather lack of updated information...

The old mindset has yet to be completely dropped...

Incredible "facts" like to keep going... lol...

It's a complete myth that started when scientists found out mice only need 10% of their brain to find cheese, proving only one thing: that mouse brains can do more than find cheese.

When it comes to humans, I'm pretty sure there were no trials ever.

ren wrote: It's a complete myth that started when scientists found out mice only need 10% of their brain to find cheese, proving only one thing: that mouse brains can do more than find cheese.

When it comes to humans, I'm pretty sure there were no trials ever.

And yet, we do find cheese ...

Alexandre Orion wrote: And yet, we do find cheese ...

We sure do

*gazes dolefully at belly*

The bigger the brain, the more energy it consumes, the more cheese we can eat without becoming morbidly obese... It all makes perfect sense now... :silly:

Jestor wrote:

Makes you wonder what faith ends and superstition/delusion begins.

As hard as it is to believe, people who perpetuate this stories are the some ones who don't check "snopes.com" before reposting that story "you just can't believe" on Facebook, :lol:...

The pass it along, figuring their friend has done their homework and that, even if wrong, they didn't say it was true, lol...

It isn't "superstition/delusion", but rather lack of updated information...

The old mindset has yet to be completely dropped...

Incredible "facts" like to keep going... lol...

Haha. That's so true (or is it false in this context?).

It's amusing when my wife will show me an outrageous story from her FB feed and people are all up and arms and ready to do the worst based on a fictitious hoax that 2 minutes searching for it on snopes would disabuse them of their righteous alarm.