If I am to say that I use more than 10% of my brain, would this make me superhuman? The truth is, we all use more than 10% of our brain. I can prove this. Imagine yourself driving down a windy road. You drive a manual stick shift. So, while you are cruising along, your brain is performing massive calculations. You are shifting gears, putting different amounts of pressure on the pedal to conform to the windy road, turning the steering wheel, staying on the right side of the road (only for you American folks), and other tasks. The interesting thing here is that you are doing all this in a cruise control. Conscious will does not really play a role. You are not telling yourself, ‘Okay, now I must turn the steering wheel to the left ever so slightly, while I put a little pressure on the brake, while I go around this bend.” You are in this cruse control. Before I get to the point, I want to add a little more complexity to this riddle.
The information we notice is an executive summary of the material world. Only what is important. You will notice a car flying towards you, that’s in the wrong lane, that’s about to smack into you, (if you know what’s good for you, you will), but you won’t so much notice a speck of dust on the steering wheel in front of you. So, there is a filtration system. We can include this as another process of the brain. We are only receiving important information.
Next step we are going to analyze before we come to some conclusion is a problem in neuroscience that should forever squash this ‘I only use 10% of my brain’ myth, forever. The binding problem. (Keep in mind, we are still driving down that long, windy, lost highway). You look around out the window. You see these giant trees swaying back and forth. The texture of the trees, the color of the trees, the motion of the trees and the shape of the trees are all processed in different areas of the brain. Now, you can still see the road in front of you, with your peripheral vision. (This is not very safe by the way). Your frontal vision and your peripheral vision are processing information in different areas of the brain as well. Then it all binds together and gives you this coherent picture of the external world. Many different areas of the brain are used, just for this process alone. In this case, your sense of vision.
The moment you have all been waiting for. Our conclusion. Well, at least my conclusion. While you are driving down that road, we have already established, that you are for the most part, in a zombie state. Then, your cell phone rings. You pick it up. It’s work calling. As if your day couldn’t get any worse. There is a serious problem. You are aware of everything this person is telling you. You notice the sense of urgency in his voice. You begin to analyze the situation. You begin to think of solutions to this problem or just a quick fix, until you can get back to work, and fix the entire problem yourself. In this article we have covered the brain processing information, giving rise to somewhat of a zombie state. (Utilizing more than 10% of the brain, mind you). But! now you are aware of what this person is telling you and consciously seeking solutions. So, a much greater question is, “Why are some of my neurons conscious and some of them aren’t?” We already know that more than 10% of the brain is being used. The question should be, “Do we consciously use more than 10% of our brains?”
