The Big Myth About The Human Brain You Need To Stop Believing

Maybe you've heard that humans only use 10% of our brain. The claim has been used time and time again in Hollywood movies like "Inception", which said we only use a fraction of our brain power, "Limitless", which involved a pill that allowed people to use their brains at 100%, and "Lucy", another fantasy about what it might be like if humans could utilize their full brain. The real truth is, though, that we already can and do so often.

The origin of this myth is hard to trace, though it's possible it started with Harvard psychologist William James and his theories on reserved energy, as explained by Scientific American. In an article he had written, James was not intentionally purporting that people only use a small fraction of brain power, but that people tend to reserve their energy and in doing so only reach a fraction of their mental potential. Eventually, the self-help movement grasped onto this idea and ran with it, but completely misunderstood the point James was trying to make. Over time, his ideas were boiled down to the myth that humans only using 10% of our brain, and it has been perpetuated ever since.

The brain is a complex structure made up of several different areas that all serve a function in our daily lives. Each structure has a unique purpose, such as the hippocampus which is involved in learning and memory, or the amygdala, which processes our fear response. These structures can all be working simultaneously in any given situation, as explained by the Association for Psychological Science. Brain scans show this to be true — that no matter what a person is doing, all parts of the brain can be observed as active, though some more so than others. This even includes while we are asleep.

The only instance in which a brain structure would not be functioning is when brain damage is involved. This is another point against the 10% myth since if it were true, brain damage to parts of the brain that went "unused" wouldn't cause difficulties. However, when brain structures are damaged and unable to work, this can cause immense problems in the person's functioning. The truth is that at all times, all parts of our brains are interconnected and working together as one unit.