Is it true that a person uses only a small fraction of the brain?

Personal growth coaches, “developing” the brain of the application and games claim that a person uses 5%, 10%, 20%of his brain neurons. They offer various algorithms and means to increase activity in order to use the brain by 100% and make us as effective as possible. We decided to check if these statements have a scientific rationale.

The idea that a person uses his brain not to the end, attributed Even Albert Einstein. According to another version, the author of this hypothesis is the American philosopher and psychologist William James, who formulated the theory of accelerated development of the child in the 90s of the XIX century. About this in the preface to the book of Dale Carnegie "How to win friends and influence people" He wrote Lowell Thomas: "Professor William James says people use only 10% of their mental abilities." Also a statement attributed Dr.-neurobiologist Wilder Penfield, founder and first director of the Montreal neurological institute at the University of McGill.

The average human brain weighs 1.4 kg. It consists of five departments: an oblong brain; the posterior, including a bridge, cerebellum and epiphyse; average; intermediate; The front brain, represented by large hemispheres. Each department of the brain has its own “zone of responsibility”, which is responsible for conscious or unconscious actions. Even when we sleep and do not think about anything, the brain gives commands that support and regulate our heartbeat, breathing and other internal processes. The brain is the most resource -fitting organ of our body. He Tr.eFucks At least 50% glucose. From the point of view of evolution, it would be impractical to contain such energy -consuming and at the same time effective only by 10% organ.

However, with individual pathologies, the functions of dead cells are able to take on neighboring ones. Presumably, the myth of 10% was Reinforced Researchers of Parkinson's disease. Indeed, with this disease, symptoms (tremor of the hands, instability when walking and dementia) appear approximately when 90% of the neurons of the brain are destroyed. Also indicative example A French man who, due to hydrocephalus, has lost 90% of the brain. Its IQ was not high, while he functioned normally: he worked civil servants, was married and had two children, but did not even suspect his feature until he came to the hospital with a complaint about weakness in his left leg. It was then that after the MRI, the doctors realized that most of its skull is filled with liquid, and not a brain substance. However, these cases are an example of high adaptability of the brain, and not the possibilities of its normal functioning.

MRI brain research Showthat even when a person clenches his fists, pronounces a phrase or thinks through a thought, in his brain there is actively much more than 10% of neurons. At the same time, in the picture itself, we see that only some of the regions glow red or orange, and this also gives the soil to myths that only these zones are used. Popularizer neuronauki Asya Kazantseva Explainsthat “a tomographic picture is not a photograph at all, it is the result of computer data processing, and it simply tints brighter those areas of the brain, the blood supply to which is currently significantly increased. But all other zones of the brain at this moment also work, of course. If they had not worked, we would die. ”

At the same time, all 100% of its cells are never used in the brain at once, otherwise the organ could not withstand such energy overload. “Only small areas of neurons that are constantly replaced are simultaneously involved in the brain - this is called the method of rarefied coding,” - Explains American neurobiologist Richard Saitovich. He adds that "if most neurons were not used, evolution would have long been getting rid of the unnecessary volume of the brain."

Thus, normally, a person really uses his brain 100%. At the same time, each neuron has its alternating periods of “labor and rest”, but not one of them eventually idle.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Teded: Richard E. Cytowic "What Percentage of Your Brain Do You Use?"
2. Asya Kazantseva "Material Brain"
3. The Lancet "Brain of A White-Collar Worker"