science Do We Really Use 100% Of Our Brains?

[Muffinnz 3,219]

What if we used 100% of our brains?

[Ganondox 899]

Then nothing for would change as we do use 100% of our brains already...

[Here No Longer 5,270]

We already do use 100% of our brains... The whole "we only use a small percentage of our brain" myth has been disproven repeatedly by brain scans showing that we do indeed use all of our brains...

Edited September 30, 2019 by Angus Delaney

[Splashee 28,537]

I predict the brain will be obsolete by 2020. With the new LED technology, USB powerbanks, and MP3 codec, we will all advance to the next stage in evolution. Less power, more percentage and better for the environment!

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

16 minutes ago, Muffinnz said:

What if we used 100% of our brains?

Sorry, but the theory that we only use a certain percentage of our brains was debunked quite some time ago. We actually do use all of our brains.

[SharpWit 2,472]

1 minute ago, Splashee said:

I predict the brain will be obsolete by 2020. With the new LED technology, USB powerbanks, and MP3 codec, we will all advance to the next stage in evolution. Less power, more percentage and better for the environment!

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but the brain's been obsolete for centuries and we couldn't be bothered to do anything about it, hence the number of exponential malfunctions we've come to witness in recent decades. Evidence for this can be found via any clip from America's Funniest Home Videos.

[Prospekt 10,984]

If you aren't using most or all of your brain, then either there's some significant brain damage or you're dead. No areas of the brain are ever left unused as long as there isn't any damage.

[Zenchi 35]

Maybe the misconception came from the fact we hold within us, around 98.8% 'junk dna', or DNA we simply dont use. However, recent studies and efforts to decode this massive mound of information, reveals more. Such as, its necessary for evolution, holds certain 'switches' for other aspects of the genome, and is part of an ongoing process of evolution. Mutating genomes, that your DNA either incorporates, or disregards. It is literally information accumulated over millions of years

We are only 3% different from orangutangs. I wonder what would happen if one were to 'activate' this, and potentially change 98.8%. 

Cant claim to understand it just passing along interesting thoughts. Who knows, maybe it is pure potential 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Zenchi

[Venomous 18,813]

@Muffinnz

Tweaked this thread’s title a bit ~

[TBD 17,228]

Here's a diagram of how we utilized our brain.

Spoiler

 

[Ganondox 899]

3 hours ago, Angus Delaney said:

We already do use 100% of our brains... The whole "we only use a small percentage of our brain" myth has been disproven repeatedly by brain scans showing that we do indeed use all of our brains...

Going to elaborate on that. Sometimes people share FMRI images as evidence that people only use a portion of the brain at a time. However, the images being shown don't represent absolute activity, it's just the difference between it and a baseline state. The raw data shows all of the brain is used 100% of the time, it's just that blood flow and levels of activation change with different activities. 

[Treeglow Flicker 13,030]

I've never really believed that all human beings use 100% of their brains. Some are missing a crucial percentage.

[Pentium100 2,056]

8 minutes ago, Treeglow Flicker said:

I've never really believed that all human beings use 100% of their brains. Some are missing a crucial percentage.

They are using 100% of their brain, it's just that their brain may be missing some pieces, but the remaining parts are used 100%.

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

When it comes to problem-solving and such, I only use like 10% of my brain imaooo 

[Anneal 2,194]

4 hours ago, Ganondox said:

Going to elaborate on that. Sometimes people share FMRI images as evidence that people only use a portion of the brain at a time. However, the images being shown don't represent absolute activity, it's just the difference between it and a baseline state. The raw data shows all of the brain is used 100% of the time, it's just that blood flow and levels of activation change with different activities. 

Mythbusters also did an episode on this myth and they have proven that even while sleeping at least 20% of your brain is "active" to keep your bodily functions working. That doesn't mean that the other 80% is doing nothing, but that it's just dormant until you wake up. 

7 hours ago, Zenchi said:

Maybe the misconception came from the fact we hold within us, around 98.8% 'junk dna', or DNA we simply dont use. However, recent studies and efforts to decode this massive mound of information, reveals more. Such as, its necessary for evolution, holds certain 'switches' for other aspects of the genome, and is part of an ongoing process of evolution. Mutating genomes, that your DNA either incorporates, or disregards. It is literally information accumulated over millions of years

We are only 3% different from orangutangs. I wonder what would happen if one were to 'activate' this, and potentially change 98.8%. 

Cant claim to understand it just passing along interesting thoughts. Who knows, maybe it is pure potential 

The myth also stems from newspapers and other forms of media misinterpreting neural studies in the 20s and 30s. Around that time, neurological researchers had discovered that most of our brains are made up of glial cells and not just neurons. Journalists misinterpreted this as believing that only a small amount of your brain is actually "used", though neurologists have eventually discovered that those glial cells in fact play an important role of suppling nutrients to neurons and keeping them alive. 

[Jeric 46,835]

5 hours ago, Treeglow Flicker said:

I've never really believed that all human beings use 100% of their brains. Some are missing a crucial percentage.

Some 100%’s are greater than others ... just like some infinities are greater than others. Also that 100% routinely changes. 

[DubWolf 16,619]

100%? Are you implying my limit is at 100% ?

That may be the case with most people  .

[Prospekt 10,984]

A lot of "people only use (insert low percentage here) of their brain" talk I've heard is New Age pseudoscience:

Quote

One reason this myth has endured is that it has been adopted by psychics and other paranormal pushers to explain psychic powers. On more than one occasion I’ve heard psychics tell their audiences, “We only use ten percent of our minds. If scientists don’t know what we do with the other ninety percent, it must be used for psychic powers!” In Reason To Believe: A Practical Guide to Psychic Phenomena, author Michael Clark mentions a man named Craig Karges. Karges charges a lot of money for his “Intuitive Edge” program, designed to develop natural psychic abilities. Clark quotes Karges as saying: “We normally use only 10 to 20 percent of our minds. Think how different your life would be if you could utilize that other 80 to 90 percent known as the subconscious mind.”

This was also the reason that Caroline Myss gave for her alleged intuitive powers on a segment of Eye to Eye with Bryant Gumbel, which aired in July of 1998. Myss, who has written books on unleashing “intuitive powers,” said that everyone has intuitive gifts, and lamented that we use so little of the mind’s potential. To make matters worse, just the week before, on the very same program, correct information was presented about the myth. In a bumper spot between the program and commercials, a quick quiz flashed onscreen: What percentage of the brain is used? The multiple-choice answers ranged from 10 percent to 100 percent. The correct answer appeared, which I was glad to see. But if the producers knew that what one of their interviewees said is clearly and demonstrably inaccurate, why did they let it air? Does the right brain not know what the left brain is doing? Perhaps the Myss interview was a repeat, in which case the producers presumably checked her facts after it aired and felt some responsibility to correct the error in the following week’s broadcast. Or possibly the broadcasts aired in sequence and the producers simply did not care and broadcast Myss and her misinformation anyway.

Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-ten-percent-myth/

Whether or not ESP even exists is a whole 'nother debate, but I think it's safe to say that from what we know about the brain, it's remarkably good at using every bit of space it possibly can.

[Ganondox 899]

7 hours ago, Anneal said:

Mythbusters also did an episode on this myth and they have proven that even while sleeping at least 20% of your brain is "active" to keep your bodily functions working. That doesn't mean that the other 80% is doing nothing, but that it's just dormant until you wake up. 

The myth also stems from newspapers and other forms of media misinterpreting neural studies in the 20s and 30s. Around that time, neurological researchers had discovered that most of our brains are made up of glial cells and not just neurons. Journalists misinterpreted this as believing that only a small amount of your brain is actually "used", though neurologists have eventually discovered that those glial cells in fact play an important role of suppling nutrients to neurons and keeping them alive. 

I think recent research suggests that glial cells play a role in computation as well, as they help determine what synapses form and may have a role in pruning as well. 

[Muffinnz 3,219]

I use 0% of my brain everyday...

[Outnick 1,228]

1 hour ago, Muffinnz said:

I use 0% of my brain everyday...

so you would be dead now