Karl Self wrote:
>> There is a popular conception, AFAIK spawned by a Church of Scientology
> ad quoting Albert Einstein, that humans only use a fraction of their brain
> (10% or one third, I do not remember).
> I remember reading an article ages ago which explained what originally
> meant by his statement; if you have this information, I would be grateful
> if you could post it to this newsgroup.
> I am asking because I am currently taking a course where this idea is
> being heavily debated; allow me to emphasize that I neither subscribe to
> this idea nor advocate the Church of Scientology.
AFAIK humans (and any other animal) use 100% of their brain.
I mean, all functional tests (EEG, fNMR, microelectrode
recording) reveal that neurons are active across the brain.
Their level of activity can be increased (or decreased)
while actively performing certain tasks, in certain regions.
I think the myth comes from the assignment of functional
roles to cortex areas: motor, sensory, language etc. Large
areas were labelled "associative", with a warning of
"unknown function", notably the prefrontal cortex. This has
been misunderstood by many, who have assigned whatever weird
functions or capabilities they have imagined. Actually, they
are 100% used when we 'think' or 'introspect'. But nobody
knows what 'think' really is, in electrical and biological
grounds.
I do not know the article you mention. Probably the first,
introductory, chapter of Kandel/Schwartz/Jessell 'Principles
of Neural Science' (by Kandel himself) would be worth
reading.
Enrique