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"Humans only use a fraction of their brain...Reply"

Bill Saidel saidel at crab.rutgers.edu
Thu May 17 19:36:38 EST 2001


Years ago (maybe 12 by now) I posted a message asking this question
on a fledgling neuropsych listserver. I asked where such an idea
originated from and received a few answers, none of which directly
answered the question. 
   One answer from McCarthy of AI fame was that in 1939 or so (he
was not sure), he read the famous myth in a self help book.  At
least two others suggested Wm. James and Karl Lashley as possible
sources. 
   Lashley's work with rats and cortical lesions seems the most 
"logical" source if I had to invent one, but his work on this 
subject for many reasons (as is the myth) is odd because he seemed
to have ignored the cortical literature arising from the 60 years
previous to his (ca.) 1929 Science review paper. 
   Anyway, much work in the last 50 years tends to support cortical
functional localization which Lashley apparently ignored. The myth then 
arises, in my interpretation of an urban legend, from studies
based on mistaken notions of the homogeneity of the majority of
cortex. 
   However, one can take this statement de novo and ask what
does it mean? I wonder if the question even has meaning?

Is it similar to "A radio only operates at a miniscule of efficiency
because it is only receiving one station at a time?" or
"Computers are inefficient because many of the virtual switches
are closed at a given instant of time?"  
   I think the %10 question is invalid at least because it does 
not specify the nature of neural information. Is information only
conveyed by active neurons? Surely not! Just think about any 
topographic system requires the "inactivity" of most neurons to 
permit specification of a specific item within the topography 
(and I use "inactivity" to mean uncorrelated, not silent).
   Not to belabor the point, and I sure anticipate both cogent and 
flamed responses, despite the ubiquitous "knowledge" that humans
use only 10-15% of their brains, that knowledge is bogus.

Bill Saidel
Biology, Rutgers University
saidel at crab.rutgers.edu




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