We don't use the 10% of our brains

Two thirds of the population believes a myth that has been propagated for over a century: that we use only 10% of our brains. Hardly! 

Our neuron-dense brains have evolved to use the least amount of energy while carrying the most information possible  a feat that requires the entire brain. 

Richard E. Cytowic debunks this neurological myth (and explains why we aren't so good at multitasking).

   

* The human brain is so sophisticated it takes nearly 20 years to mature

* In the womb, humans grow 8,000 new brain cells every second

* By the time humans are born they have all the brain cells they will ever need

* The human brain is the "most sophisticated thing" in the known universe

* New-born babies can recognise their mother’s face after just a few hours

* Babies can see in the womb but only in black and white. However their eyes are sensitive enough to detect the dim light passing through their mother’s belly

* Humans blink up to 20 times every minute. Each blink lasts around half a second. But add them together, and humans are living in the dark for more than an hour every day

* Each brain cell will make, on average, 10,000 connections with other brain cells

* Learning to balance and co-ordinate your body is so complex the area of the brain devoted to this task contains as many cells as the rest of the brain put together

* Young divers in Thailand have taught their eyes to focus underwater by making their irises contract rather than dilate. All children can develop this skill if they start at a young enough age


Scholeio.com