You use 100 percent
For some reason, the widespread myth that we only use ten percent of our brain persists. And it doesn’t help that Hollywood keeps giving a central place to this myth in many movies. Take the movie Lucy from 2014, where we meet Scarlett Johansson as the 25-year-old Lucy, who gets a new drug sewn into her abdomen. While the drug is released into her system, the audience sees how she constantly uses her brain’s untapped potential.
We use all of our nerve cells
From a neuroscience point of view, this is a myth. Fortunately, 90% of the brain is not untapped. We use 100% of the brain. If not, our brain, with its high energy consumption, would hardly have evolved. But the fact that we use all of our nerve cells doesn’t mean the brain doesn’t have more potential to be used. The nerve cells can be used in thousands more grids than they are used in today. The synapses also have the potential to be more effective.
The brain is not a finished hard drive we get at birth. It has nearly 100 billion constantly changing nerve cells. The brain structures and restructures itself in response to new experiences and new knowledge, and stores the information we have gained through experience, training or education. So you can always learn new things and improve your brain power.