DK wrote:
> As I told the other fellow who pointed this out (by the way, I know someone
> who undoubtedly could dance a jig and type at the same time--but not very
> well), good point. I failed to think out what I myself was saying. As I
> added there, though, it just seems to me to reinforce the idea that no part
> of the brain is actually "dormant" as these 10% (etc.) theories have it.
Although the 10% figure was probably chosen because of its
roundedness rather than because of any scientific evidence,
I think it is plausible that most of us use only a fraction
of our brain's capacity.
Even if no area of the brain is "dormant", and all neurons get
regular workouts, there can still be vast unused synaptic
capacity. Vast numbers of possible memories, represented by
combinatorial activation of sets of neurons, just never become
activated.
I think we could all stuff in many more memories. It's just
not essential for most people's lives. Watching a concert
pianist always leaves me in awe of the learning capacity of
the human brain -- Mark
--
Mark James |EMAIL : mrj at cs.usyd.edu.au|
================- WEB: http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~mrj -=================