The idea is so common that we take it for granted. How much of that is reality? Is it true that we only use 10% of the brain? Is it true that some kind of music can stimulate our intelligence?
65% of people believe that we only use 10% of our brains. The idea is attractive. What would happen to the other 90%? Science fiction cinema sometimes explored this line of thought. John Travolta too phenomenon (1996) or Scarlet Johanson, who becomes an expert in martial arts, in Lucy (2014).
Breaking Myths
However, this idea is far from true and professionals are tired of explaining it. Still, the myth of using 10% of the brain has survived for generations. The Canadian psychologist Barry L. Beyerstein, for example, refuted this idea on seven important points.
For example, through studies on brain damage. If most of our brains weren’t used, most brain injuries would have no consequences. On the other hand, all brain injuries more or less lead to loss of skills, he explains.
Among other things, the scientific review of the overall use of the brain based on brain images by tomography is also striking. They enable us to observe that all of our parts of the brain are active even when we sleep.
Where does this myth come from? Some attribute this idea to 19th century American psychologist William James, others to Albert Einstein. Ae does not exactly know its origin. But it is one of the premises that determine the currents of American self-help literature. A clear example of this is the mention of this idea in the 1936 book How to make friends and influence peopleby Dale Carnegie.
There are other myths about how the human brain works. For example, regarding the separation of the hemispheres of the brain between the and the right.
“Both hemispheres are physically and functionally linked. They are joined by a band of nerve fibers known as the corpus callosum, ”explains Francisco Mora Teruel, doctor of medicine and neuroscience.
This means that the brain works as a unit. A person’s tendency to be more interested in art or math is much more related to their socio-cultural context.
Smart music
Another classic myth is the Mozart effect. In 1993 the journal Nature published research from the University of California. He claimed that students who listened to Mozarte for 10 minutes “temporarily increased their intellectual abilities significantly”. The impact has been such that to this day many new parents bring their children to sleep using classical music to stimulate their neural skills.
In 2007, however, the journal Nature published a new article entitled “Mozart does not make you smart”. He referred to a study that the federal government had carried out to determine whether the “Mozart effect” was real. “The report determines the death of the Mozart Effect,” says the text, but the myth continues.
