The claim that we use only 10% of our brain capacity is a well-known myth. But if we actually use considerably more than 10%, is it possible to get close to maximum capacity? In other words: Is there a point where I have to say, “If I want to lean a new fact, I have to forget an old one to make room for it”?
In: Biology
The myth that we only use 10% of the brain purports that using more than that would make us smarter. This is false. The brain is segmented, certain parts control feelings, memory, senses, movement, etc. Usage of these segments varies depending on what you’re doing. It could be true that while idle, you’re only using 10% of these segments, but this doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent.
We currently do not know what the limit of human memory is. There has been no evidence or studies showing that memory is lost in order to make room for new memory. While it is true that we do forget things if they’re not used, this is not because we ran out of memory.
The most appropriate response to “we only use 10% of our brain capacity” is “just like we only ever use 33% of a traffic light.”
We only use a relatively small percent of our brain *at a time*, because each section performs a specific function.
The function you’re talking about is memory. Brain memory doesn’t work quite the same way as computer storage, so it’s hard to really put it in terms of “running out of space.” There’s probably a hypothetical limit, but it’s so high you’ll never reach it.
You’re asking multiple questions here.
The brain is like a house. Things are compartmentalised by senses and functions. For example, if you’re not imagining or seeing anything, there’s no reason for the visual cortex, the ‘seeing’ part of your brain, to do anything. It’s like running your washing machine with no clothes in it.
You generally use multiple parts of your brain at once, depending on their function, to coordinate together to do something. If you’re throwing a ball, you might use your touch + visual areas + motor areas to coordinate throwing it. But you won’t be using olfaction (smell).
Memory is a little special. You can divide memories into procedural and declarative. Procedural memories are pretty much never forgotten. They’re ‘motor’ memories or the memory to do something like riding a bike. Declarative memories are more like ‘use it or lose it’. You don’t forget something when you try to learn something new. You likely have already forgotten most aspects of it and need to ‘relearn it’.
Keeping this to ELI5. No you don’t ever have to worry about forgetting something so that you can learn something new. In fact, learning new things will help you remember old things.
You can imagine your brain having the worlds largest most efficient memory storage system ever. You will never live long enough to “fill” it.
The 10% of your brain thing is Mumbo jumbo nonsense that Keeps coming up in movies and stuff. If you only used 10% of your brain you’d be dead. You use all of your brain, sometimes some parts of the brain are in “more use” than other parts. Just like sometimes some parts of your body are in more use than other parts.
Brain plasticity is a thing… but to say ANY part of the brain can take over for ANY other part of the brain for be false. There are limits, and we just don’t know how to take advantage and force brain plasticity, to occur, although we have good ideas how it happens, it usually happens on its own.
The brain folds and grows throughout your whole life.
In theory you could “fill up” if your brain no longer had room to expand, but currently no creature lives long enough for that to happen.
We lose brain capability as we age not due to lack of space but due to cellular division losing tiny bits of dna with each division, gradually losing us the ability to sustain certain functions once the dna segment related to it is no longer able to be read fully.
In a way it’s like every time your cells divide you lose a single link of dna. And that resulting shorter dna strand is now the blueprint to build a version of you that is a little older than before.
This stems from the old computer-brain analogy, which really makes this confusion understandable.
“we only use 10% if our brain” is not remotely close to “your storage device is 10% full”. The 10% brain capacity myth is originally about how much data are we processing at any one time compared to how much data could the Brain POTENTIALLY process if all parts of it was working at the same time. This is closer to a processor’s max capacity than a hard drive. Memory is different, there is so far no known max capacity for memory, and there is no real way to measure this.
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