The myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains has been completely debunked. Perhaps this idea persists because it is so tempting to believe that you can become a genius simply by learning how to tap into your dormant 90 percent. In reality, no part of your brain can keep up with demands, and your brain is always switched on, even when you're asleep or not thinking at all.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that your brain uses the same amount of energy while daydreaming as it does when you're concentrating. We've all experienced the feeling of being mentally exhausted after concentrating on a difficult problem. It certainly feels like a lot of work to think about it in detail, but is it really? The answer is more nuanced than you might think.
It is true that the brain is a starving organ. “It's the most energy-intensive part of your body,” he says. Nili Ravi At University College London. It makes up about 2% of your body weight, but consumes about 20% of your energy at rest.
Most of this energy is used to maintain varying levels of electrical charge across the neuron's membrane. This unbalanced state must be restored after the neuron fires the signal. “That requires a lot of fuel,” he says. Ewan McNay at the University at Albany in New York.
Interestingly, when it comes to energy use, the brain doesn't differentiate between tasks we traditionally think of as “difficult” and tasks that come more naturally. This was the first…
Source: www.newscientist.com
