Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

The saying that only 10% of the human brain has been developed has been around for more than a century, but it is not only nonsense, but also hideously seductive and can lead us into the trap of pseudoscience.

/ tr. by Dean Burnett (Dean Burnett)

Translation | Jiang Na

Editor | Wen Jing

We may all have heard the saying that the brain uses only 10% of the gray matter for daily tasks, and the rest is idle, so our brains have unimaginable potential.

This statement is complete nonsense. However, because this statement always appears in the media, the Internet and people's gossip, even if many scientists have pointed out how absurd it is, it will not help. For this statement, we can not only regard it as a stupid idea, it will also make people dissatisfied with the current state of their brains and even do some ridiculous things. This is much more troublesome than the usual stupid idea, and it can be said that this statement is actually very dangerous.

This is a wrong view that has a history of more than 100 years. At present, we do not know the origin of this "science myth". Some people believe that because when nerve cells are initially looked at under a microscope, the staining method people use can actually only stain the dense arrangement of nerve cells, and these nerve cells make up only a small part of the brain; another possible reason is that there is a common view about nerve cells, that nerve cells make up only 10% of brain cells, while the rest are structural cells that play a supporting role (glial cells). Recent studies have shown that glial cells are not typical structural cells, they have other functions.

This "scientific myth" dates back to the 19th century. In other words, this misinformation has been circulating in modern culture for more than a hundred years. This also reflects from the side that it is dangerous and hasty to draw an one-size-fits-all conclusion based on very old research. No matter how accomplished, capable and professional scientists were in the 19th century, they did not have the level of science and technology and scientific knowledge that we now have. We have to treat their research carefully, just as we can't claim that "for some unknown reason, 90% of the things in every grocery store can't be sold just because a child goes to the grocery store every week for only 10% of the weight of all items in the grocery store."

Why is this view wrong? Although we don't know what the exact mechanism is, what is certain is that 100% of the brain is functioning. "using" the brain means that all parts of the brain are activated to perform specific tasks. If we think that we can accomplish such diverse and complex tasks with only 10% of the brain, it is a serious overestimation of the brain's ability.

At the same time, the brain's space is mainly occupied by nerve cells, leaving little space for blood vessels. This leads to a "lack of capacity" of the blood vessels responsible for transporting substances, so much so that we can only activate 3% of the brain at a time. We can think of the brain as a busy restaurant. The restaurant has 100 tables but only three waiters. The restaurant is full, or some of the tables are full, while the waiter can only serve up to three tables at a time.

It can be said that the "scientific myth" that "only 10% of the human brain has been developed" is wrong in both respects.

Not only that, but from another point of view, it can also be proved that "the brain has only developed 10%" is wrong. The brain is an energy-consuming organ. It accounts for only 2% of our body weight, and just meeting the basic need of being alive, the brain already consumes 20% of our body's energy.

If we use only 10% of the brain, then we will evolve to only 10% of the brain. Because if we have such a physically energy-intensive brain and use only 10% of it, it's like installing a giant supercomputer on a sports car, just to set the alarm clock and play music, which is obviously too extravagant.

Although this "scientific myth" is wrong in many ways, it still spreads to this day. What is more worrying is that no matter what people with ulterior motives say, no matter how ridiculous it is, this "scientific myth" will become a back road for them to excuse themselves.

Once we assume that all generally accepted neuroscience theories are based on the idea that the human brain is only 10% developed, then logically, any view that runs counter to these theories may be related to the other 90% of the brain. This is more convenient for the spread of all kinds of pseudoscience. The more people accept this "scientific myth", the more room they have for those with ulterior motives. This is too bad.

This article was originally published in Science focus, No. 8, 2023, "New findings-Neuroscience". "only 10% of the human brain has been developed? ".

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