> > > It's a nice thought, except for one tiny detail - there's no such thing as the untapped huge percentage of the human mind.
> > >
> > > Sorry about that.
> > >
> > > Pa"trust me, I'm nearly a psychologist"ul
> >
> > I think instead of "percentage," Jeff might mean "potential"?
> >
> > Brunnen-G
>
> ...yyyyeeeaahhh.....that's what I meant alright.
>
> --Actually I couldn't remember the exact percentage that I always hear about. "We only use 10%/15%/20% of our brains" or some facsimile thereof.

The urban myth typically cites that "we use only 10% of our hidden brain potential," as if the visible part of our neurology were some sort of floating iceberg or something. Sorry. Paul's right: in actual fact, we all use something close 100% of our cerebral capacity.

We simply don't use everything all at once -- and a large part of the brain is constantly devoted to doing the real important mundane stuff, like all the autonomic processes that keep you breathing, digesting, balanced on your feet, alert, etc.

The brain's structural support cells, like glial cells, are the "scaffolding" which helps prevents your jelly-like brain from caving in on itself. Although you can't think with them -- as Paul says -- they are important as a kind of organic "trellis" upon which your neurons creep up and disperse themselves. Studies suggest that Einstein had *more* glial cells in certain parts of his brain than normal, which perhaps allowed him to form greater interneural networking.

The true picture of our cerebral potential comes to us from research over the last 10 years, where we now have the ability to observe the metabolism of glucose-utilization in living human brains. We can visually image what happens in the brain when we smile, cry, do math, listen to music, or identify pictures of friends. It's really quite amazing. Studies evaluating the aspects of "expertise", suggest that the greater the mastery you have in a subject, the *less* you use of your brain in solving a problem in that area! Quite paradoxical and completely contrary to the 10% myth. Indeed, it's as if you are more efficiently using your cognitive resources.

Wolfspirit

P.S. Oh yeah, on another note, this just in from Princeton U.: looks like brain cells *do* have the ability to regenerate by neurogenesis, and regrow during our lifetimes, so we're not "really" in an irreversible slide to slow decay by losing whatever X million neurons every day.
That is soooo cool.
It also just blows all my own hard-earned neurosurgery research (of the last 8 years) totally out of the water...