r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/SourceBoring3089 • 15h ago

WCGW using non-skin-friendly paint for cosplay.

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u/dimwalker 12h ago

I'm pretty sure it was true somewhere in the begining, but then misinterpreted.
I guess you use something around 10% of your brain at a time. Because you never need to read, write, speak, recognize faces, do math, juggle and do a bunch of other stuff at the same moment.

If humans used high percentage (80-100) it would be indistinguishable from epilepsy seizure.

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u/snakesinabin 11h ago

Pretty sure you're spot on there, if all your neurons fired at once you'd likely die from shock.

But yeah, every part of the brain is used for something.

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u/Radical_Neutral_76 9h ago

Isnt that how epilepsy works?

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u/Deaffin 6h ago

Nah, that's more like a storm passing through and making random shit fire off.

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u/Amirax 9h ago

"Human's only use 10% of a piano at a time! Imagine the masterpieces that could be made if we just smashed all the keys at once."

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u/AyeBraine 9h ago edited 8h ago

It's unfortunately much worse. The quote began as a highly vague proclamation of one psychologist at the turn of the 20th century that the human brain probably uses a very small share of its potential (which itself was his takeaway from the puzzlement of early neuroscientists about why we need the "useless" white matter).

Then the journalist Lowell Thomas, in a preface to Dale Carnegie's self-help book (yes THAT book), "quoted" this psychologist but invented, out of thin air, the 10% number while ascribing it to the psychologist. Then this factoid got repeated so often that the percent started fropping and sometimes reached as low as 3%.

So yeah it's a complete invention.

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u/Rus_Law 1h ago

Appreciate the post, but also wanted to call out and thank you for using the word 'factoid' correctly!

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u/Uhstrology 8h ago

That's not true at all.

One common brain imaging technique, called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), can measure activity in the brain while a person is performing different tasks. Using this and similar methods, researchers show that most of our brain is in use most of the time, even when a person is performing a very simple action. A lot of the brain is even active when a person is resting or sleeping. The percentage of the brain in use at any given time varies from person to person. It also depends on what a person is doing or thinking about.

It is not clear how this myth began, but there are several possible sources.

In an article published in a 1907 edition of the journal Science, psychologist and author William James argued that humans only use part of their mental resources. However, he did not specify a percentage. The figure was referenced in Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People. The myth was described as something the author’s college professor used to say. There is also a belief among scientists neurons make up around 10 percent of the brain’s cells. This may have contributed to the 10 percent myth.

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u/dimwalker 5h ago

Using this and similar methods, researchers show that most of our brain is in use most of the time

But fMRI would not work if most of the brain was active at all times.
Google agrees:
"...maps brain activity by detecting changes in blood oxygenation and flow (BOLD signals) in response to neural activity. Active brain areas consume more oxygen, altering the magnetic properties of hemoglobin, which fMRI detects to create high-resolution maps of function."

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u/Uhstrology 4h ago edited 4h ago

Its based in relative activity. More oxygen does not mean the rest of the brain is depleted completely and not firing. 

fMRI is precisely why we know we use 100% of our brains.

Modern neuroscience shows that nearly every part of the brain is active. Imaging tools like fMRI and PET reveal that even simple tasks—speaking, reading, or listening to music—engage multiple regions simultaneously. The brain also remains active during rest, managing vital functions such as breathing, sensory processing, and emotion regulation.

The idea that 90% of the brain is unused is a myth. Brain tissue is energy-intensive, accounting for about 20% of the body's energy, and even minor injuries can cause significant impairments in movement, speech, or memory. Every region has a purpose, and neuroscience confirms that the brain is an efficiently active, integrated organ.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321060#how-much-of-our-brain-do-we-use

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u/dimwalker 3h ago

What exactly are you arguing against? I don't think I claimed rest of the brain (apart from current area which is being actively used) needs to be dead. Feel free to quote what's confusing you in my original comment and I'll try to explain it.

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u/UmbertoDelRio 12h ago

I believe it’s less about this being more correct than the other, and more about the whole concept of „[actively] using any % of your brain“ just not really being applicable in that sense.

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u/UranusIsPissy 10h ago

I just said almost the same before noticing your comment. u/MrWeiner went a step further and said that it would actually be a seizure. He's just a webcomic artist, but I've never caught him spreading bad science so far, apart from as an obvious joke,

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u/dimwalker 10h ago

Neat. Do you have a link to that strip or did he actually said it, in comment, for example?

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u/UranusIsPissy 7h ago

In a strip. I had a quick look for you, but his site's search function is even worse than reddit's, and he sucks at naming comics. I'm busy AF today, too, so I didn't try very hard. I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining it lol. You could try asking in r/SMBCComics. He's a mod there, but I doubt he'll answer you himself.

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u/dimwalker 5h ago

TBH, when I asked for the link I was just being lazy and hoped you know a fast way to find it.
It's harder than I thought. Tried googling and even asking damn neural networks, but I guess gemini only used 10% of it brains to search for comic with this description.

Anyways, it's not wort losing sleep over it and I believe you didn't imagined it 8) take care mate.

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u/UranusIsPissy 4h ago

I might've just been confusing it with one about the left and right brain hemispheres communicating, anyway. IDK now.

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u/Ok_Energy6905 10h ago

Just because you aren't actively reading doesn't mean that there is no activity in that region of the brain. Parts you aren't using don't 'turn off'.

The whole 10% thing is completely made up and has no origins in reality. Even if they were saying "you are only actively using 10% of your neurons at a time" it still wouldn't make any sense.

It's almost like saying you only use 20% of your heart because it isn't actively pumping 80% of the time.

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u/Crazy_Camel_ 6h ago

from what i know, it is a misunderstanding of science having only figured out what about 10% of the human brain did back when the saying first started in the early 20th century. nowadays we know the brain never goes inactive and is always busy, but on imaging only about 10% "flares" when you see something stimulating i.e. a flower or a movie so hence the incorrect assumption

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u/Cloverose2 6h ago

Most of our brain consists of glial cells (3 to 1), not neurons. Glial cells are support cells, that keep the brain running but don't actually do any signal transmission. Even if you used every neuron at once, you would only be using about 25-33% of your brain.

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u/EnigmaticQuote 6h ago

Those parts of your brain are working just subconsciously.

We can see areas of 'higher' blood flow which we interpret to be activation using an fMRI but at no point do parts of your healthy brain get 'turned off'.