ORigins of the myth
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In the foreward to the influential 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Lowell Thomas wrote, "Professor William James of Harvard used to say that the average man develops only ten per cent of his latent mental ability ", though there is no corroborating evidence that William James, a psychologist studying IQ and intelligence, ever articulated an exact percentage.
There is very little evidence for the myth. An additional contributing reason could be the misinterpretation of the classic brain stimulation experiments conducted by Canadian neurosurgeon, Wilder Penfield. In the 1930s, he stimulated the brain surface of epilepsy patients undergoing surgery. In some brain regions, stimulation had no visible effect on the patient - thereby leading people to believe that some of the brain has no function and is therefore redundant. This myth is widely held across society. It continues to be used in films, such as Limitless and Lucy in recent years. Further, psychotherapy and self-improvement courses often refer to the myth to unlock our hidden potential. |
evidence against the myth
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1) Thousands of scans of people's brains at rest show waves of activity all over the brain, even when they're asked to sit still and think of nothing. Therefore, there is no 'silent' brain region.
2) Brain damage caused by strokes or trauma to very small but specific regions of the brain can have devastating effects on behaviour. This would be unlikely if 90% of the brain was unused. 3) The brain requires 20% of the body's resting energy needs yet accounts for 2% of total body weight. From an evolutionary point of view, it's highly unlikely that such an energy-hungry organ in the body would be running at 90% redundancy. Further references: 'Do People only use 10 percent of their Brains?' Scientific American, 7 February 2008 'Great Myths of the Brain' Christian Jarrett (2013) Wiley-Blackwell Press. |