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Guess what? This isn't true! Although clever copywriters might lead you to believe otherwise, most neuroscientists and brain specialists these days agree that the widespread 10% factoid is myth, based on misinformation. The first result of our "web page" search on 10% brain was a site titled "Neuroscience for Kids - 10% of the Brain Myth, which thoroughly refutes this false assumption. The author, a University of Washington anesthesiologist, speculates on the origin of the misconception: It may have begun with a misquote from Albert Einstein or with flawed interpretations of
the work of 19th-century French physiologist, Pierre Flourens, a pioneer in mapping localized functions in the brain, or the later work of Karl Lashley (1890-1958). Lashley, an innovative neuropsychologist, tried to find evidence of the localization of memory in laboratory animals. Instead, he found that brain-damaged lab rats were able to route around their injuries to relearn specific tasks. Nevertheless, as Dr. Chudler explains, brain damage in small, specific areas of the human brain can have devastating effects on ability and behavior. There is evidence that if we don't exercise mental skills and capacities they tend to atrophy, just as muscle does, hence the use it or lose it argument. It seems also that there are sequential stages and optimal ages for learning and development of particular mental skills, such as language. Although brain-injured individuals can sometimes compensate for disruptions, as Dr. Barry Beyerstein explains in an article titled The 10% Solution, this hardly proves that the rest of us are functioning with 90% of our minds unused. That's either wishful thinking or urban legend.
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