How much % of the brain is used ?

[Howling Star]

Hello I had a discussion about this with some people. I already heard we humans only use 30% later I hear 10%. Then I heard 5% ? What actually is it you know. It does not have to be really accurate but around how much ? Thanks for your time. ^^

[Finvarra]

Well, Humans dont use thier brains as much as they should.
They rely on other things.
So i would say, 5-10%.

[Kitanoru]

It is said that humans use 10% of their brain out of the 100% of it that they have.

[Sobriquet]

Humans use only 10% or less of their brain.

[Azel]

Humans use only 10% or less of their brain.

Actually, that is a misconception. Every part of the brain has a known function.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain#Popular_misconceptions

[Darc Satos]

mature 17+ use about 20-25% of thier brains, depending on wich side of your bran you use the most. for teenagers, i think maybe it would be around 12-20%.

[Eris]

All healthy humans use 100% of their brain.

At any given moment, only about 10% is used. But that 10% shifts around to cover the whole brain.

[Sagat]

I might actually commit vehicular homicide on the next person who says we use only 10% of our brains.

Look what I found, it is perfect for some of your people thinking this:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

Neuroscience for kids. It's only a paragraph. Should make for some moderate to heavy reading for some of you, but it is well worth it to help alleviate the continuing ignorance of this belief.


mature 17+ use about 20-25% of thier brains, depending on wich side of your bran you use the most. for teenagers, i think maybe it would be around 12-20%.

Oh that's just perfect. I am especially interested to hear your sources on this, considering modern medical science states the exact contrary.

[Guerrera]

Azel and Eris are scientifically correct. Humans use 100% of their brain, just not all at once. The "10%" thing is somewhat accurate, but it's just an approximation. It depends on what activities you're performing at the time, and that's when the percentage is shifted.

Listen' t' meh bein' all smartsy an' stuff x]

[Tenchi Masaki]

I might actually commit vehicular homicide on the next person who says we use only 10% of our brains.

Look what I found, it is perfect for some of your people thinking this:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

Neuroscience for kids. It's only a paragraph. Should make for some moderate to heavy reading for some of you, but it is well worth it to help alleviate the continuing ignorance of this belief.



Oh that's just perfect. I am especially interested to hear your sources on this, considering modern medical science states the exact contrary.


I read the article and now I feel enlightened. Thanks for providing that information Sagat.

I always felt that the 10% brain theory was a little shady but glad to see that it's finally cleared up. Now I feel this thread coming to a close since the mystery has been solved.

We use 100% of our brain, end of story.

[███]

What about all the people that don't know how to spell, what about their grammer and punctuation? I would say they only use 10%.

[Wio]

What about all the people that don't know how to spell, what about their grammer and punctuation? I would say they only use 10%.
Spelling and grammar are only data which is stored in the brain. People who don't learn spelling and grammar certainly do learn other stuff from experiences. I don't think your brain needs to be packed with information for a greater percentage of it to be used.

Anyway, "what percentage of our brain is used?" is a vague question.

[OminousCloud]

Azel and Eris are scientifically correct. Humans use 100% of their brain, just not all at once. The "10%" thing is somewhat accurate, but it's just an approximation. It depends on what activities you're performing at the time, and that's when the percentage is shifted.

Listen' t' meh bein' all smartsy an' stuff x]

See you started off well, agreeing with the 100% thing but then you ruined it with the approximation talk.

Humans use 100% of their brain and pretty much use 100% all the time.
The neurons in the brain are always receiving signals from other neurons. These signals result in what we call postsynaptic potentials. Postsynaptic potentials have the function of initiating or inhibiting action potentials. These action potentials are messages that tell the other parts of the body what to do. Now even if the postsynaptic potentials do not generate an action potential, they are still actively receiving messages.

To put it simply, your brain is a group of people, at any given time, some of the group are off doing a particular action. The others that are not needed for the action/s sit and politely chat amongst themselves. So in comparrison, the ones doing the action are more active that the ones sitting and chatting. But it is important to note that the ones chatting are still active.

[International 4-8818]

of course we use 100% of or brain, we use all parts us all parts of the brain to control all of our emotions, motor, and other skills of our body. The 10% thing seemed dumb when i first heard it.

[Wio]

I don't even see how you can give percentages to the brain. There are so many factors of the brain that could be given a percentage.

[Jose]

All healthy humans use 100% of their brain.

At any given moment, only about 10% is used. But that 10% shifts around to cover the whole brain.

Yes that is how our brains work Train