What percentage of our brain do we use?

It is very likely that at least once you have heard that we only use 10% of our brain. It is one of the most popular and accepted neuromyths of all, however, you will only see people who do not know about the subject, advertisers, pseudopsychologists, etc.; you will never hear it from a health professional. This fallacy has become so widespread that there are those who claim to know how to boost the percentage used, taking into account that their logic is based on the fact that the rest of 90% of the brain is "unoccupied".

In this lesson, we will clarify this issue for you.

The Myth

The origin of the myth is erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein; but the most certain thing is that it actually arose at the end of the 19th century, when research carried out by scientists showed that they could only find cognitive functions for 10% of the human brain. It also spread the idea that this part of the brain was only activated at a specific time.

Moreover, brain cells, neurons, occupy only 10% of the brain, while glial cells make up the rest. The latter are involved in processes related to learning.

As mentioned above, this is a neuromyth that is popularly assumed to be true. Also, many sectors have appropriated it to defend their ideas or sell products. For example, in the marketing sector, we find advertisers who rely on this myth to sell products through advertisements or advertising campaigns.

Reality

So, what percentage of our brain do we use? We use 100% of our brain, but because it is such a powerful organ, it consumes 20% of the body's oxygen and 50% of the glucose.

The brain, however, cannot be activated in all its areas at the same time, because as we explained above, if all areas were used simultaneously, the energy expenditure would be very high, leaving us without strength to perform more actions in a long period of time.

For this rule there is an exception, and that is that thanks to techniques such as neuroimaging, we know even for hours, the brain is activated in its entirety to perform certain tasks. In tests such as positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, it was found that when we are asleep all areas of the brain are active.

However, if injuries occur, or for any other reason, the brain suffers severe damage, some parts of the brain become disabled, which is detrimental to the individual's performance and quality of life. Therefore, from what we have seen above we can sustain the following arguments:

• The human brain functions as a whole and not divided into small percentages. If this organ is seriously affected, and certain areas are temporarily or permanently damaged, the well-being of the nervous system in general will be compromised, disabling a series of functions.

• The brain is such a powerful organ, that in the case we were talking about before, if it suffers damage in a certain area, it makes the neurons migrate to that region to use this capacity profitably. Let us see the above with a practical example: an accident causes an individual to lose the ability to hear; the brain in this case enhances skills such as vision, considerably improving its quality, allowing, for example, the person, now deaf, to be able to read lips with dexterity.