We Only Use 10% of Our Brain myth

Do We Really Only Use 10% of our Brain?

There is a common misconception that humans only use 10% of their brain and that the other 90% contains untapped potential. This is a myth and is off by about 90%.

The average human uses 100% of the brain on a daily basis, and there is no “silent areas” of a normal healthy human brain.

Throughout an average day, evidence suggests humans use most of, if not all of their brains, just as they use most, if not all their muscles. At certain points in the day parts of the brain may be less active, and some tasks may only require some areas of the brain to perform them, but no part of the brain is “unused.”^[1][2][3]

It is likely that this myth is an extension of the idea that we used to think that parts of the prefrontal cortex were “silent areas.”

Today we can prove, with the advent of the modern methodologies of molecular neuroscience and functional neuroimaging, that “activity” can be demonstrated in all brain areas, even in those areas which previously were believed to be “inactive”. Even the most passive areas aren’t “inactive.”^[4]

The brain, like all organisms, conserves power when it can. Thus, some parts of the more passive and less active parts of the brain were only detected with recent technology.

TIP: Just because we don’t have unused portions of our brains doesn’t mean we don’t have potential. Our neural networks have near limitless untapped potential; it is a matter of neuroplasticity and not unused space.

FACT: We don’t use 10% of our brain, but we do spend up to 30% of our days daydreaming. If you aren’t daydreaming about interesting stuff like this factoid, then you are wasting a different type of untapped potential.

For more information see: Humans Only Use a Small Part of Their Brain.

1. The Ten-Percent Myth
2. Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains?
3. Do We Use Only 10% of Our Brains?
4. ARE THERE ANY SILENT PARTS IN THE HUMAN BRAIN? YES