Vanessa Lopez

YOU’RE WRONG ABOUT YOUR BRAIN

Humans only use 10 percent of their brain. Despite what the movies and shows might say, without operating at 100%, we would be dead.

FACT: Using fMRIs, which monitor brain activity, we can see that most of the brain is in use even during mundane activities, even during sleep. We have observed neurons firing along their synapses, the connection points between them, at all times. Particularly during REM, or rapid eye movement, part of the sleep cycle.

FACT: The human brain is 3% of the body’s weight, yet uses 20% or the body’s energy. That should give scale to the amount of activity truly going on in the brain. Imagine how much mental coordination it actually takes just to flex one's hand, and send action potentials down afferent neurons to pull and stretch on skeletal muscles.

FACT: If we only use 10% of our brains, a small circle would light up on PET scans while the rest would stay entirely dark. This would be hard for us, especially if the energy is not dedicated to life-sustaining brain structures like the medulla (heartbeat, breathing), pons (breathing, movement), and reticular formation (consciousness) of the reptile brain.

In conclusion, we use nearly 100% of our brains during the day, without which it would be much more difficult to move, breath, and still process information at the same time. Levels of activity may flux, especially during different states of consciousness, but nonetheless we are more than capable of using it all.