“Humans use only 10% of their brains” Is it really true??

I am sure you all have heard that humans only use 10% of their brains. So, how many of you all think so? I am sure many of you think it is true.

On our instagram account we did a poll to see how many people think that this is true. And 71% of people think that this is true.

Guys no, no, no. It's a myth, it's not true. The human body is such a complex system and the brain controls the system so do you really think only 10% of the brain can do that. There are 1 quadrillion synapses and 86 billion nerves in the brain that mean so many connections with the neurons. Do you think such high complexity can be there in only 10% of the brain? Further, there is no scientific research or literature that validates this theory.

So why do you think people believe this when there is no evidence?

This all began from the misquote of Albert Einstein as “we are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources”. Just from this quote, this myth stemmed. In the 1920s and 1930, Karl Lashey did an experiment to study this. He removed large parts of the cerebral cortex from the rat’s brain to see what it would have. But still, there were some specific tasks that those rats were able to perform. So, the myth began. But now we know it's not true. Because damage to a very small part of the brain can have devastating consequences. So, like in brain tumours, there are certain cases where certain parts are removed. So for that doctors carefully map which area to remove because brains are so complex.

The media keeps on spreading this false statement. I have seen so many fact pages on Instagram which still state it. People believe even though there is no evidence of it. And I think some movies are based on this myth. According to this myth, if a human starts to use 100% of their brain they will be able to control the matter and get super mental powers and abilities. Oh yeah, that movie Lucy which was released in 2014. If you haven't watched it I will tell you. A girl is given some very strong drugs and slowly her brain starts to activate and at last her, 100% brain activates and she can connect to the matter. You know what I remember when I first watched it. I was so fascinated by it. I was like oh my god that's so cool. But when I searched more about it I found it not true and that this 10% brain is a myth.

Also, we know about the” use it or lose it” principle. So, if it would have been true that we only use 10% of our brain, some parts or rather 90% of our brain would have become vestige like the human tail. If that would have been the truth so many neurons would have degenerated.

So guys next time anyone tells you that we only use 10% of our brains and what if we could use 100% of our brains? Tell them no bro that is not true.

Bibliography:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776484/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/

https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/karl-lashley

https://www.brainhq.com/news/use-it-or-lose-it-the-principles-of-brain-plasticity/#:~:text=The%20brain%20changes%20physically%2C%20functionally,or%20as%20new%20abilities%20emerge.