The 10% myth? Pls help

Let's not forget about Amber Ramirez. Had the left side of her brain completley removed and she is only lacking a few skills.

I was also wondering about the 10% myth. After much research of theories (since no one really knows or can prove) about this topic, it is my belief that an average person only uses 10% of thier brain. One of the most commonly used defenses against this is that if we only use 10% of our brains, then why doesn't the other 90% take over when part of that 10% is damaged. The thing is that the parts of your brain have become adept at certain tasks and are able to funtion in that certain aspect quite well. So, it really isn't plausible to believe that just because a portion of that 10% of your brain you are using is damaged that your other 90% can take over. It takes time. Sometimes people who are older may not be able to recover as well as those who are younger because the brain has relied on that functioning part for so long that it is too hard to relearn the task. Besides, if we used 100% of our brain, then we would not be able to learn new things or make new memories because there would be no room for new connections to be made. Also, if we all used 100% of our brains, then we would ALL be skilled at everything. No one person would be better at something than another. None of this has really been proven, this is only my opinion. I don't mean this to slam anybody or their opinions, I'm just stating things as I precieve them. I also think that your religion has a great impact on your views about this.

[edit on 1-2-2006 by litfreak]

This question came up in the Mensa magazine several years ago; the author even offered a several-hundred dollar reward if anyone could support the 10% claim.

No one could provide anything - except one good explanation: only 10% of the brain cells are nerve cells, the ones that do the "thinking". The other 90% are glial cells ; they're just supporting actors in this play. Still important, but they don't contribute to cognitive capabilities.
news-service.stanford.edu...

So ... the 10% myth is sort of true. But it doesn't mean we can really get smarter just by figuring out a way to use the rest.

On the other side, we all have more or less similar organs. Similar eyes, ears, livers, lungs, kidneys, etc. don't we? Then we could assume that our brain, or at least our mental capabilities, are also more or less similar.

But then how comes that some of us are living in a dream, in a rat race, running home from work and to work from home, using ideas we picked up from someone else ( we use 10% ! No, it's a myth! Life is hard! You have to work more! Good education is necessary for a successful life! etc. ) as our own thought?

And some of us are having bright ideas of their own. They see endless possibilities in everything. They can quickly find a solution for any problem and so on... Then maybe the first ones actually do not use their full mental potential?

Another myth could be about the fact that we are born with left or right hemisphere dominating. We do not have one kidney, lung, eye, ear, nostril, leg, etc. dominating over the other. Same is with our brain. It is known that most Personalities in history could equally well use both their left and right hand.