How Much Of Your Brain Do You Use?

The age-old argument is, we only use 10% of our brain. But does that mean that removing the other 90% of the brain, we are still able to function properly? Of course not.

The following article proposes a new figure for using our brain: “10% of the Brain” Myth

No B.S. Take

For some things, you need it whole to have it work, but some parts of the whole just work harder. When Einstein said we used 10% of our brain, I believe he meant that we are consciously, actively using 10% of our brains at any one time.

As proposed by Dr Eric Chudler (in the above link), new “connections” or synapses are being formed with each new activity or experience. The brain is a treasure trove of memories, as proven scientifically. Some numbers to show what I mean:

Let’s say, you are now 25 years old, and you only vividly recall events since you were 5 years old. So that’s 20 years of “actively recorded” memories (of course, it has been scientifically said that the brain is able to remember everything, including things that you do not consciously recall yourself). Assuming that each day of your life, ten events occur, ranging from the soap you use in your bath, the size, color, type of clothes you wear, the food you eat, the drinks you take, where you play, whom you play with, what are your toys, phone numbers, addresses, what your mother was wearing, what type of fragrance she buys, how she cooked you dinner, etc. There is always something new to add to your memories everyday, so ten events is a conservative estimate.

20 x 365 x 10 = 73,000 events held in memory.

On the day you turned 25, you thought of your past. Question is, do you recall every single experience or event (assuming each experience = 1 connection) at one time?

Well, no. People normally recall in chronological order or where the events have some form of relationship with one another. We can handle thoughts at the speed of light, but we can’t handle 73,000 different events or thoughts simultaneously, because you would be confused - you may be thinking about your playmates by the lake, and your family having a picnic by the lake. That’s two separate events, but you can only think of one at a time. Superimposing the two thoughts will have your playmates and the picnic, all mixed together. Do you get the feeling that you’re going crazy already?

One after the other, but never together. That alone makes the claim of “10% of our brain” plausible. Of course, we need the other 90%. No one said the 10% had to be the same 10% of the brain mass at any one time. Go figure.