Do We Really Only Use 10% Of The Brain?

It is often said that human beings are unable to use more than 10% of their potential; centuries of human evolution and we have only managed to develop a fraction of our brain capacities. It’s really true? Just at the thought we are assailed by numerous questions about what would happen if we were able to use the brain in its entirety or how we could activate the functioning of all these apparently dormant areas.

Origins of the 10% myth

Yes, in fact, it is just a myth and, therefore, a completely erroneous idea. This concept originated in the late nineteenth century following some tests through which the brain activity of some people was analyzed. It was, however, a rudimentary method with which it was possible to observe the functionality of only some structures, which constituted just 10% of our brain.

That’s not all: at the time this number was also associated with the total number of neurons that make up our brain mass; but this is not true: 10% are neurons, but the other 90% are gial cells, directly involved in learning and mediating their activity with neurons.

Another aspect to take into consideration concerns the figure of Albert Einstein. Someone said that the famous scientist used 90% of his brain capacities, as a genius and as an eminent figure in science. The rest of the people with respect to his intellectual potential remained in a ratio of 9/1. A completely wrong idea, because Einstein did not use his brain potential at all more than the others, the difference concerned the efficiency of the latter. This means that “gifted” individuals use brain circuits more intensely or effectively,  it is not a question of turning on the switch of a single part of the brain; it turns on everything, but with greater or lesser intensity.

We use a lot more than 10% of our brains

We can give many, many, proofs of this. Let’s start with some simple demonstrations:

-Let us think of all the people who have been affected by a brain accident, a traumatic injury, a disease … If we used only 10% of our brain, it would mean that the remaining 90% would be completely empty and useless. S offering a lesion in one of these inert parts, therefore, would not harm our performance at all. Is that so? Obviously not. When we have a stroke, we can lose abilities of any area of ​​the brain, the temporal, occipital, parietal, etc. Sometimes a simple bump can cause the loss of smell or part of our memory. The idea of ​​10% is completely invalid.

– Our brain needs 20% of our energy to keep itself in good shape. It is the organ that requires the greatest energy consumption. If we only used 10% of our capacity, it would make no sense to offer so much energy to such a poor machine.

-Technologies such as tomography or resonance allow us to see our brain activity. It’s incredible! The brain is always active, even when we sleep, all areas are in constant motion, none are turned off or inactive. 

-When doctors perform autopsies and analyze the brain, they can perfectly see the activity of each area. If we used only 10%, there would be an evident degeneration of the other areas, which, being irreversible, would only constitute inert matter. However, this never happened.

The 10% myth, then, is just that, a false story that often appears in our society as a 19th-century legacy, wholly without basis. Our brain is a great machine that is always active, and to further enhance it depends only on us, on our curiosity, on our desire to learn and innovate. This creates more intense connections. Here lies the real secret.