Ohhh...is that why we're dumb?

Apparently we only use ten percent of our brains. Most people find this to be true, blaming the fact that we aren't all savants on the inability to tap into that other 90%. Even Albert Einstein believed we only use ten percent of our brains. Sorry, Al, but you're wrong.

While it would make sense that we only use 10% of the brain while at rest or when thinking, the rest of the brain isn't sitting there twiddling its thumbs and waiting for the active parts to take a nap. We use 100% of our brains all the time; different parts do different things. The other parts are subconsciously keeping you alive. You don't consciously think to yourself One, two, three, BREATHE! but that doesn't mean it isn't happening; coordination of movement and balance, breathing, and heart rate are all unconscious functions performed by the brain. The brain is constantly making sense of the millions of pieces of data that are sent to it from the neurons all over the body. We have self-awareness and understanding of our environment because the brain's regions are active.

If we really didn't use the other 90% of our brains, brain damage would not be an issue but rather a mere inconvenience. Instead, there is no area of the brain that can be damaged without the loss of abilities.

In the years of mapping the brain, there have been no areas found that do not have a function.

The brain requires up to 20% of the energy that our bodies have, especially in terms of oxygen and nutrient consumption. If we didn't need that "extra" 90%, then there would be a huge advantage for humans with smaller, more efficient brains - it would help them survive. If this was true, natural selection would have gotten rid of the inefficient brains.


Inevitably, here we are, brains running at 100 miles per hour to stay up to date. Every part of our brains are active, keeping us alive and functioning. Sorry, Albert Einstein. At least you still have the theory of relativity and E = mc^2.