IUBio

"Humans only use a fraction of their brain"

Robert Gurk bob.g at gmx.de
Sat May 19 05:21:50 EST 2001


Matt Jones wrote message
news:b86268d4.0105181412.29df at posting.google.com: 

... the definitive answer to the ever so popular question 
whether humans use only a fraction of their brain.

While I agree that the question that forms the subject of this 
thread that got rather emotional rather soon, is quite stupid 
and therefore does not deserve an answer, I still don't think 
that there aren't any good questions about the *way* we use our 
brains.
Ironically, these questions might event touch the point of the 
amount of neurons we use for certain tasks. Take memory as an 
example: There are a lot of elaborate strategies out there to 
improve your memory. Many of them use some sort of 
visualization. If you didn't visualize the things you wanted to 
buy at the supermarket before, these strategies will actually 
help you. And from the neurophysiological view, they will 
actually make you use a greater fraction of your brain for that 
given task. Of course this does not imply, that you didn't use 
the vision related areas of your brain before. You just did not 
use them for that specific task.
So, while the statement "Humans only use a fraction their 
brain." is complete nonsense, the statement "A lot of people use 
only a fraction of their brain to remember their shopping 
lists." is quite right. Suddenly you have a statement that is 
open to scientific inquiry. Use a PET scanner or FMRI to prove 
it.
OTH, I think that the human species is the world champion in 
using all sorts of strange fractions of their brain for tasks 
that were completely unrelated to those fractions before. Many 
people use their language and motor areas to simply write their 
shopping lists on a piece of paper. This might seem trivial, but 
I guess it is the most brilliant way to use your brain (for that 
given task).

Awaiting your flames and rants,

Bob




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