Is True That Most People Only Use 10% Of Their Brains?
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Neurology contributes to the majority of the understanding people have about the human brain. Despite the contributions, some myths challenge the study to dig deeper into its principles and experimentation to make people aware of whether it is true that most people only use 10% of their brains in their lifetime. Sufficient evidence are backing the fact that humanity only uses 10% of their brain in the course of their life. One of the evidence is based on the movie “Lucy” released in 2014. The movie confirms that a human being can only use 10% of their brain at the normal stage. The movie exhibits what would happen suppose human beings used 100% of their brain capacities. At a certain percentage, they cease to exist and changes from a physical form to an invisible form. The movie shows how much data the human brain could carry within the earth’s period of existence, which is too much for the human brain to comprehend, store, and it needs additional storage such as external units to store the data. At 100% brainpower, we cease to be human beings but supercomputers of the future. Another evidence of the myth is Clifford himself, who suggested that humanity only uses about 10% of their brain. Despite the efforts by (Hughes et al., 2013) to debunk Clifford’s myth, it still holds ground since Clifford was one of the most trusted scholars and the greatest contributors to Psychology and academics. A study by (Dekker et al., 2012) indicated that over 50% of teachers across various cultures believe in this myth and have, at one time, talked about it as a reality.
There is a sufficient amount of evidence that exists to support the myth. Most of them are in article forms and video forms. The only challenge that some of these forms appear to be mythical and video choreography is intended to attract human curiosity and expand the myth rather than state the reality about the myth (Chudler, 2006). In pursuit of reality, we turn to neurology and the various tools neurologists use to study brain activities. One of the tools is the PET (Positron Emission Tomography); this machine uses radioactivity to study human brains’ activity. The machine works by injecting radioactive materials into the human brain in the form of glucose. The brain metabolizes these materials, and positrons are emitted. The machine sensors then identify the positrons using gamma radiations, then it develops a 3-D model of the human brain. The brains should partially show some activities from this machine while the dormant part should be dark when printed in the slides. However, this is not the case since the blue lining shows the human skull accompanied by various circles of colors indicating human brain activities. Based on this experiment and machination, then the human brain is fully functional and not partially functional because if we were using only 10% of the brain, then most of our brains would be idle and dark when printed on slides (MacDonald, 2016). The evidence for humanity only using 10% of their total brain is sufficient to meet the level of the myth that currently exists. The challenge with this evidence is that majority of them are under scrutiny with some people arguing that they are manipulated to attract attention rather than inform; secondly, there is no hard, physical evidence to support their true existence.
Based on these studies, human capabilities are currently operating at minimal levels, but various scientific studies show the opposite. During rapid eye movement, experiments indicate that human beings use more than 10% of their brains. According to REM, we use 60% of our brains. Besides, REM scientist uses evidence based on brain electrical stimulation to debunk the myth and confirm that the human brain operates more than 10%; this is because electrical stimulations show that the brains do not have any dormant areas. Based on these studies, suppose we were using only 10% of our brain, we would not have been creative as we are currently (Crane, 2015). Human creativity has transformed the world to the current levels meaning that the brain operates at full capacity and, if possible, can operate further to increase thinking capacity while fostering deep creativity. It takes more than 10% of the human brain to function because scientists have never discovered any part of the inactive brain.
References
Chudler, E. (2006). Myths about the brain: 10 percent and counting. Everything Blog. Retrieved August 30, 2008, from http://everyravlik.blogspot.com/2006/10/myths-about-brain-10-percent-and-counting.html
Crane, T. (2015). The mental states of persons and their brains.
Della Salla, S. (Ed.). (2007). Tall tales about the mind and brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hughes, S., Lyddy, F., & Lambe, S. (2013). Misconceptions about psychological science: A review, Psychology Learning, and Teaching, 12, 20-31. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/plat.2013.12.1.20
MacDonald, F. (2016). This man is missing 90% of his brain yet lives a normal, healthy life. Business Insider. Downloaded from http://www.businessinsider.com/missing-90-percent-of-brain-neuroscience-2016-7
William James (1907). The Energies of Men First published in Science, N.S. 25 (No. 635), 321-332. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/energies.htm