Studies of brain damage: If 90 percent of the brain is normally unused, then damage to these areas should not impair performance. Instead, there is almost no area of the brain that can be damaged without loss of abilities. Even slight damage to small areas of the brain can have profound effects.
Brain scans have shown that no matter what one is doing, all brain areas are always active. Some areas are more active at any one time than others, but barring brain damage, there is no part of the brain that is absolutely not functioning.
The brain is enormously costly to the rest of the body, in terms of oxygen and nutrient consumption. It can require up to 20 percent of the body's energy—more than any other organ—despite making up only 2 percent of the human body by weight.[14][15] If 90 percent of it were unnecessary, there would be a large survival advantage to humans with smaller, more efficient brains. If this were true, the process of natural selection would have eliminated the inefficient brains. It is also highly unlikely that a brain with so much redundant matter would have evolved in the first place; given the historical risk of death in childbirth associated with the large brain size (and therefore skull size) of humans,[16] there would be a strong selection pressure against such a large brain size if only 10 percent was actually in use.
Brain imaging (neuroimaging): Technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow the activity of the living brain to be monitored. They reveal that even during sleep, all parts of the brain show some level of activity. Only in the case of serious damage does a brain have "silent" areas.
Localization of function: Rather than acting as a single mass, the brain has distinct regions for different kinds of information processing. Decades of research have gone into mapping functions onto areas of the brain, and no function-less areas have been found.
Microstructural analysis: In the single-unit recording technique, researchers insert a tiny electrode into the brain to monitor the activity of a single cell. If 90 percent of cells were unused, then this technique would have revealed that.
Synaptic pruning: Brain cells that are not used have a tendency to degenerate. Hence if 90 percent of the brain were inactive, autopsy of normal adult brains would reveal large-scale degeneration.
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xamy_sx
9 years ago
You can sometimes only be using 10% of your brain capacity at one time, for instance; at rest. That does not mean that the other 90% is unused. For instance, whilst reading a book, you will use different parts of the brain than you do at rest.
Therefore you need all portions, you just don't use all portions at the same time.
It's really not that complicated.
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Strazdamonas
9 years ago
90% of brain is normally unused at some tasks, but it is used for other tasks. we dont have all brian being used all the time.
Also there were cases where people had accidents to the point of having 5 inch pole rammed through their heads AND LIVED. they were still conciuos and remmebered who they are and what happened. Future studies shown that the mood and some factors (like risk aversion) were damaged, however. however these people managed to live on for decades quite normally, well, as much as you can live normally with a head deformity.
You are completely wrong about brain scans, not all areas are active at the same time. in fact our knowledge of brain activity stems precisely from this - we track brain network activity based on different tasks to know which part is responsible for what.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
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raf-33
8 years ago
Dude, 3 people before you in this thread have already stated exactly what was said in the movie, we do use 100% of our brain but not all of it all the time, we use between 5% and 25% with the median being about 10-15% so both the film and the previous posters are completely correct...
Yet, you posted this dollop of nonsense about "If that were true then most brain damage would have no effect" again reiterating the original myth that we only use the same 10%
Are you stupid, incapable or deliberately trying not to comprehend what people are saying? We DO need our entire brain, but at any one moment we can be using as little as 5% of it. Try to get that through your incomprehensible head.
There is proof, it's called a functional MRI scan or fMRI, it can highlight in real time which neuronal bundles are firing at any time and depending on what we are doing the vast majority of our brain will be dark, because they will serve no purpose during the current task being carried out.
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov
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