Earthsky FC_MonsantoATS, Interviews
Jay Giedd on whether humans use only part of the brain
06-09-2008 - Health
_Pamela Zamora_: Why do we use such a small percentage of our brains?
That was Pamela Zamora from Secundaria Ovalle Monday. And with an answer …
_Jay Giedd_: Thanks, Pamela. It’s a very good question because it allows me to address one of the most common misunderstandings about our brains. I’m Dr. Jay Giedd, chief of brain imaging at the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. The truth is that we use 100% of our brains, even when we’re sleeping. Maybe the idea behind this notion that we only use a small percent of our brains – is that we all have the potential to learn more and accomplish more. And I think that’s basically true. But it’s not because a large part of our brain is not being used.
Giedd said even simple tasks, like pushing a button, involve almost all the parts of the brain.
_Jay Giedd_: It’s never a matter of one part of the brain being active and the others being inactive, or asleep. It’s always a matter of some more active than others, depending on what tasks we’re doing.
Our thanks to Pamela Zamora and Dr. Jay Giedd.
Our thanks to the Monsanto Fund, bridging the gap between people and their resources.
Our thanks to:
Dr. Jay Giedd
Chief of Brain Imaging
National Institute of Mental Health
Wikimedia Commons
thanks for the cool info.please endavour to write more about the brain.
I find the question very interesting. There has always been the idea that we only use a small percentage of our brains.
As for the answer, I would like, if possible, some further information. I understand that we use 100% of our brains in every task we perform. Then my question would be: Why do people who have had a stroke cannot perform all their physical functions? Isn’t it true that every hemisphere of the brain is used to perform certain tasks?
I hope my questions can be answered.
As for Pamela Zamora, I am very proud that a mexican teen-ager is interested in this matter. Congratulations Pamela!!!
Perhaps we could use our brains to develop a comprehensive list of human-caused global challenges to life as we know it and the integrity of Earth. Any assistance from members of the Earth & Sky community is sure to be appreciated.
Let us take a moment to identify global challenges that are emerging and converging in our planetary home. Of course, this is a partial list to which other threats to human and environmental health can be added.
1. Unregulated human overpopulation of Earth
2. Unwelcome human-induced effects of global warming in particular and climate change in general
3. Human-driven pollution of Earth’s environs
4. Reckless dissipation of Earth’s resources by the human species, with particular attention to the challenges posed by peak oil and peak soil.
5. Relentless expansion of the unbridled global political economy.
These distinctly human activities appear to be overspreading the surface of Earth on such a gigantic scale and at so astounding a growth rate that scientists can make projections indicating a noticeable risk to life as we know it and to the integrity of Earth, perhaps in these early years of Century XXI. That is to say, Earth cannot much longer sustain unrestrained human population growth, unrestricted per human consumption and unchecked economic globalization without running the risk of precipitating some kind of global ecological catastrophe.
Gee, Steve, way to highjack a thread! Let’s see if I can help you out on this one:
<i>1. Unregulated human overpopulation of Earth”</i>
Without meaning to sound harsh, if this is that big a problem, you could do your part and leave.
<i>2. Unwelcome human-induced effects of global warming in particular and climate change in general</i>
Lots to unpack on this one. Let’s start with “unwelcome” effects on global climate. Are you saying that the climate as it existed two years ago, or five years ago, or 100 years ago was the best of all possible climates, and that any deviation from this is undesirable? Dr. Pangloss and Goldilocks share your feelings on this one.
“Human-induced” effects…ever heard of sunspot cycles, or volcanos, or solar wind? Were all previous secular shifts in the earth’s climate (e.g. the Little Ice Age, the Medieval Warm Period, the Ice Age and so on) also anthropogenic in nature? Is it just the least bit possible that our current bout of “global warming” is pretty much a function of the recent short period, highly active sunspot cycles with only slight, perhaps insignificant, contributions from human activity, and that with the current lengthening of the period of the current sunspot cycle we may be on the cusp of dramatic “global cooling”?
<i>3. Human-driven pollution of Earth’s environs</i>
Since your concern expressed in #1 above has not yet prompted some personal sacrifice on your part, could you demonstrate your commitment on this one with an explanation of the following?
a) Do you own or ride in someone else’s automobile? (Cars are horrible polluters, you know.)
b) Do you ever fly? (Worse than cars!)
c) Do you use electricity? (Coal, natural gas, and don’t even get me started on nukes!!!)
d) Do you consume any food that you have not raised yourself in an organic garden plot? (Transporting food any distance causes terrible pollution.)
<i>4. Reckless dissipation of Earth’s resources by the human species, with particular attention to the challenges posed by peak oil and peak soil.</i>
You are aware that the Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones, aren’t you? For the rest of this point, see #1 above.
<i>5. Relentless expansion of the unbridled global political economy.</i>
OK, you got me on this one. I understand every word of this sentence fragment by itself, but taken as a whole it makes no sense whatsoever.
I think what you are trying to say at the end is that we humans are a destructive virus on the body of poor Mother Gaia or something. I pity you. It must be a terrible burden to view yourself the way you do.