Myths About Your Brain

I was driving to the Y one morning and Jer from KYXY was talking about some of the myths about the brain. It got me interested in reading more, and so I went home and found out that much of what we think about the brain is untrue or only partially true. Here are some of the myths about the brain.

1. Listening to Mozart makes you smarter. There is no scientific evidence of this. However, studies done in the 1950's showed that listening to Mozart might increase one's performance on certain spatial-temporal tasks. Dr.
Frances Rauscher, the scientist that originally tried to prove this, said that money spent to continue to study this would be better spent on music programs in the school. After all, there is scientific evidence that playing a musical instrument improves concentration, self-confidence, coordination and math skills.

2. The human brain is the biggest brain. This, of course, is not true. Whales have a 17 pound brain. Humans do have the biggest brain in relation to the size of their body. We have the largest cerebral cortex relative to our size and weight, and this part of the brain is what is responsible for higher functions of memory, communication and thinking.

3. Once you lose brain cells, they're gone forever. This is another false statement. Accidents or strokes which may cause the loss of brain function, are not permanent. Brain cells can regenerate. Brain cells that are lost through the use of drugs may be able to be reversed. This is still debatable.

4. You only use 10% of your brain. Another falacy. This myth was perpetrated many years ago by Albert Einstein and Margaret Mead. They both stated that we use just a small portion of our brain. This statement later said that we used 10% of our brain. Researchers tried to show that people with psychic abilities were tapping into the other 90% of their brain. This is not true. There is still much to learn about the brain, and researchers don't know exactly how much of our brain we really use.

The brain is one of the most complex organs in the body, and as much as we think we know about it, we are constantly learning new things. Regardless of what we know about the brain so far, it certainly is any amazing thing.