How Hard Does Your CPU Work?
Michael asked what my opinion was of the following statement: “human’s only use 10% of their brain”.
On his blog he answered his own query with a well reasoned post focused on this article which he linked to.
Excerpt:
“What data were used to come up with the number - 10%? Does this mean that you would be just fine if 90% of your brain was removed? If the average human brain weighs 1,400 grams (about 3 lb) and 90% of it was removed, that would leave 140 grams (about 0.3 lb) of brain tissue. That’s about the size of a sheep’s brain. It is well known that damage to a relatively small area of the brain, such as that caused by a stroke, may cause devastating disabilities. Certain neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease, also affect only specific areas of the brain. The damage caused by these conditions is far less than damage to 90% of the brain.”
I disagree.
I think of the brain as something like the CPU of a computer…a gross simplification I know…but keep reading. With most versions of the Windows operating system you can check to see how hard the processor is working by clicking on the Performance Tab on the Windows Task Manager.
When I check the performance tab on my home machine I can see that most of the time the processor is only running at about 3-5 percent of its capabilities. Of course there are blips that go up to 100% and if I give my computer a particularly difficult task the processor can be running at 100% for minutes at a time but most of the time it runs at the constant 3-5 percent.
I think peoples’ brains are like that too. My brain is working a lot harder when it is being used to write a post to my blog than it is when I’m watching The Wiggles with my kid. Of course it has to use more of its potential capacity when I have to concentrate on the many complex dance moves I need to remember when Corryn wants me to dance with her while we are watching. It then has to work even harder to do this while at the same time processing the pain coming from my stupid weak ankle! As soon as I return to the sedentary position on the couch my brain isn’t working as hard and it returns to using only a small percentage of its processing power.
Just like your brain, your computer wouldn’t work very well if you removed 90% of its possible processing power. The simplest task would lock it up. That doesn’t mean that 100% of the processing capacity of the CPU is being used at all times…it just means that the extra ability is there if it is needed.
I think that if you were to take an average of the possible percentage of processing power being used by the average brain throughout an average day it would probably be around 10%…maybe even lower. Of course that would be pretty difficult to measure but I still think that on average Humans only use less than 10% of their brain.
(Special thanks to Mabot.Com for the cool brain image!)
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Jeremy Manning? once of Mt. Green UT? I hope so. Email me if you are. I have some exciting news for you.
Comment by Wendy Poll — October 22, 2003 @ 2:40 am
Wow, who’s Wendy?
Interesting correlation of the brain to a CPU. Before I found this link I was thinking the brain had a lot of storage capacity too.
It records everything, but can not be recalled all the time. It acts as a local storage unit…I’m going to post more on this.
One problem, when you have a rouge thought, can you “End Task” before you get a headache?
Sorry about the ankle. I feel partially responsible.
Also, when I watch the Wiggles with Corryn, I am in a loop processing: “This is too silly.”
Comment by Michael — October 22, 2003 @ 7:42 am
I meant a rogue process.
Comment by Michael — October 22, 2003 @ 8:04 am
Ya this is not what i was looking for this suxs bye!
You make me mad!
Comment by Puu — February 6, 2004 @ 3:39 pm
Your argument is interesting yet flawed. The measurement of brain activity is measured by Electrical impulse activity, some is low level some is high. The average activity based on the volume of possible electrical activity is 10%.
Also to say that if 90% of the brain was tissue was removed would we still function is a little foolish as a question and train of though. Obviously the functions of the brain are distributed across the entire mass, motor skill, speech, imagination, logic, creativity etc. so removing 90% of brain tissue would not prove anything. Apart from the fact that you would now have engrossing and witty conversations with a garden cabbage of the white leaf variety.
Comment by Nabiseer — October 25, 2004 @ 9:40 am