Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Who Said Human Brain Just 10 Percent in use?

Baltimore, The human brain is very complex and is the source of all feelings, behaviors, experiences, and the warehouse of memory and consciousness. But is it true that humans only use 10 percent of his brain?

The brain is very mysterious, and an additional one other mystery is the assumption that humans only use 10 percent of his brain. And if everyone could use another 90 percent of the brain, maybe everyone can be a scientist and has the power telekinetik.

"Though an interesting idea," 10 percent myth "is absolutely untrue, and very amusing," said Barry Gordon, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, as reported from ScientificAmerican, Wednesday (05/12/2010).

According to Gordon, a myth derived from the concepts of people about his own brain. This group saw itself as a lack of evidence that gray matter (cerebral cortex which contains the nerve cells of the body) has not been maximally utilized.

This is a false assumption. It may be true, at certain moments in one's life, such as when to rest and relax only use only 10 percent of the brain. But this does not apply to other conditions.

"It turned out that we use almost every part of your brain, and the most active brain almost all times. The brain represents three percent of body weight and needed 20 percent of the energy body," added Gordon.

The average weight of the human brain about three pounds (1.3 kg) and consists of the cerebrum, cerebellum and brain stem.

The cerebrum is the largest portion and do all the higher cognitive functions. Small brain responsible for motor functions, such as coordination and balance movements. And brain stem function is dedicated to breathe.

Most of the energy consumed by the brain is the initial force to trigger the firing millions of neurons (nerve) to be able to communicate with each other. Scientists think that the firing of nerves and connections that lead to the higher brain functions.

And the remaining energy is used to control other activities that are not recognized as heart rate, or a conscious like driving a car.

While it is true that every moment does not hit all parts of the brain simultaneously, but researchers using brain imaging technology to show that the brain as well as the muscles of the body, which continued to be active for 24 hours.

"Evidence shows that use 100 percent human brain," says John Henley, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn..

Even according to Henley, in a state of sleep though, there are areas of the brain remains active, such as the frontal cortex that control things such as high-level thinking and self-consciousness, or somatosensory areas that help people recognize the surrounding environment.

As a simple example, when we poured the coffee in the morning, the active part of the brain is the occipital and parietal lobe, sensory motor and sensory motor cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum and frontal lobe. Neural activity occurs in almost all brain within just a few seconds.

"This does not mean that if the brain is damaged, we can not perform everyday tasks," says Henley. He says that someone who suffered wounds in the brain or some brain has been deleted, can still live fairly normal. But this is because the brain has a way berkompensasi and ensure that the remaining parts of the brain can take over the task activity.