Debunking the ‘Humans Use 10% of Their Brain’ Myth
By: Richard Thomas Scott
Tags: Neuroscience, Learning, Life Hack, Brain, Thinking

Every time one of my clients mentions the idea that humans only use 10% of our brains, it activates a feeling of resistance inside of me. When I reach for a way to express this feeling I see the visual imagery of a vampire turning up his fangs and claws as the slightest bit of sunlight that barely grazes his or her body.

I knew that the common understanding of this 10% brain function was not at all accurate, but, I didn’t have the language or the understanding to explain why.

Whether it was purely intuition or that mixed with what I do know about the brain and brain activity, I wanted to end it.

Let’s assume that it is true. Every time that you say it, you affirm that it is true and you do yourself a disservice.

You are telling yourself and everyone around you that you are only 1/10 of the smart that you could be. No matter what your understanding of reality, there’s no way that can be helpful to your psyche.

Well… get ready. This is going to be a ‘quantum-leap’, if you will, in immediate activation of brain activity. Hold on to your seat!

It’s simply not true.

Can you feel 90% of your brain activating? Hehe. If you actually can, don’t disregard it as your imagination. Experiences like this are becoming more and more real for us collectively. Believe it or not, I have been able to feel my brain waves since 2013.

You probably want more of an explanation, I bet.

Alright, here goes.

Where did this urban myth and massive misunderstanding of human physiology originate?

It comes from a time, many moons ago when we were first understanding the body through the science of histology, which is the study of the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue, or the cells that make up organs.

A histological study of the brain showed us that 10% of the brain was made-up of neurons & 90% was made of supportive or connective tissue which we call glial cells.

Back when this data was collected The Neuron Doctrine or the basic common understanding of neurons is that they were the basic anatomical, and physiological unit of the nervous system & glial cells were more or less just support.

It is easy to see how it’s probable that one eager-to-understand scientist who knew he was reaching levels of knowledge not-yet-known, would conclude that we are only using 10%. Because the other 90% was just holding the neurons together, connecting and supporting them physically & nutritionally.

(Wouldn’t have been the most efficient of Divine Design, hehe. Imagine if 90 % percent of our body simply transmitted food and held things in place. Initially, it may seem like that is almost true, because of the digestive system and such. However, when you give it a little bit more thought every single part of our body not only has a function that is working 24 hours a day for our lifetime (under ideal circumstances of course), but I cannot think of a part of the body that only serves just one function.

With the exception of the appendix, but there is controversial debate and alternative theories to that. Also, I’m pretty sure that it’s proven that even in fit’s current state, it has some detoxifying abilities.

(I didn’t look into the appendix for this article so if I am wrong or right, please share with me in the comments)