Do we actually only use 10% of our brain??

The human brain is complex. Along with performing millions of mundane acts, it composes concertos, issues manifestos and comes up with elegant solutions to equations. It's the wellspring of all human feelings, behaviors, and experiences as well as the repository of memory and self-awareness. Over the past decade individuals believing it to be fact have spread the "10 percent myth" unconsciously. Their sense of belief perseverance has allowed the myth to spread through word of mouth and even a few media creations! This a great example of an extraordinary claim that has little to no evidence supporting it and for this type of claim to be valid, it requires more rigorous evidence than a less remarkable claim. When thinking about this claim we must think to ourselves whether this claim runs counter to many things we know already and, since this does, we can classify it as an extraordinary claim. To further support my position about this claim, there has been a vast array of experiments and techniques that allow us to see that we truly use more than 10% of our brain. For example, there are brain imaging research techniques such as PET scans, which we learned about in class, which yield a picture of neural activity throughout the different regions of the brain and they clearly show that the majority of the brain does not lie in a dormant state. Many individuals may believe this claim to be true because it is constantly showing up in social media in many advertisements, and additionally the brain is a very complex part of the human body with much of the information about it being unknown by the typical American citizen. Therefore, the concept of many of the large parts of the brain remaining unused, and subsequently being "activated" for conscious use could seem believable for many people and lead to the popularity of this myth. The truth is that this myth has been refuted by many experiments and it "so wrong it is almost laughable" says neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. Extraordinary claims surface each day, but we most use critical thinking strategies and approach them in the correct manner.

Radford, Ben. "The Ten Percent Myth." A Center for Inquiry Affiliate. Volume 23.2/ April 1999. 9 October 2011.