Scientific Myth of Fact? Humans Only Use 10% of Their Brains!

The origins of the 10% myth are not all clear. Dr. Barry Beyerstein, of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, has traced it back to the early part of the twentieth century. Even a recent article in New Scientist magazine writes that Albert Einstein could have been the starter of this myth.

In 1998, a national magazine had an ad for the United States Broadcasting that humans only used eleven percent of their brain, and in July and 1998, a comedy show featured a screen blurb that men used ten percent of their brains. The whole “Humans use 10% of their brain,” got out in the public when psychics began to explain to audiences that if the scientists did not know what the other 90% was used for, it was obviously for psychic abilities!

The myth has existed for so many years because it stems from peoples origin of seeing their own flaws as evidence of this false speculation.

“It turns out though, we use virtually every part of the brain, and that it is almost all active all the time,” Neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine says. “Even in sleep, the frontal cortex uses much more than 10% activity of the brain.” Dr. Eric H. Chudler, of University of Washington says, “It seems reasonable to suggest that if 90% of the brain was not used, many neural pathways of the brain would degenerate…however, this is not the case.”

Yes, some certain minor functions may only use a small part of the brain at one time, any intricate set of activities well use many parts of the brain. People don’t use all their muscle groups at one time, and they also don’t use all of their brain at once.If this myth would be true, the brain damage would be improbable, from all people having severe neurological disabilities, like Parkinson’s Disease, to severe strokes. So the myth has been busted! We use 100% of our brain everyday!