• Question: People say that we only use 20% of our brain power, do you think it is possible that we could do extraordinary things like read each other\'s minds or something like that if we used 100%?

    Asked by danielburton to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Maria on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Actually, we know quite a bit more about how the brain works than those stats suggest. We don’t use it all the time, but the function of each area is fairly well known. We don’t use it all the time because we only need to use the bit we need for each task! So, if we are walking we might use one bit, but if we are doing maths and eating, we might use other bits. Does that make sense?

    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      HI Daniel. This is a question that would stump even neuroscientists! You’re right- we don’t use all our grey matter and we don’t take advantage of all the potential neural connections that allow our thoughts to flow and our bodies live. No one really understands why this is the case. However, I don’t think we’d have the ability to perform supernatural feats like mind reading if we utilised more of these neural connections- all this underused grey matter probably does have a function but I just don’t know what! Im going to have to do some more research on this I think!

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