Common Myths about Human Brain

The brain is astonishing and complex to understand. But our lack of comprehending has resulted to a considerable variety of myths from ages. So I am going to share some myths that our brains believe they are facts.

Like "bigger is better"
Now, just compare a sperm whale brain to a human brain, which is almost 6 times bigger. By this yes, they are obviously intelligent animals. However, their cognitive skills pale when compared to our brains.

“Alcohol kills the entire brain cells “
Yeah it is a myth. Eventhough it does devastate and generate problems such as transporting messages between neurons, the damage can be treated. But it doesn’t mean overconsumption never harms, it does damage many parts of our body. Likewise, drugs do not basically create holes in your brain. Although, some drugs can forever transform functionally, physical trauma is the only thing that is capable of putting a hole in your brain.

“We have 100 billion brain cells””
Unfortunately, it was just a belief until 2009. Researchers discovered that the fact is something closer to 86 billion. So you probably think it is a small number some 14 billion neurons difference. But it is almost equivalent to the entire size of baboon’s brain.

“We use only 10% of our brain”
Although we know that they meant capability of brain, I just want to share it with you. Modern scientists made some brain scanning technology that tells us that we use the entire brain, yet not necessarily all at once. For instance, when we walk, some parts of brain that are responsible with the movement are more active than other parts. Nevertheless, there is no area of the brain that simply does not work.

“ We use one side more than the other”
We have been believing that if you are more logical, then you may use left side of the brain. On the other hand if you are more creative you may use right side of the brain. But it is not a fact. We certainly use different sides of the brain for specific functions. For instance, emotions are linked with the right side while language uses the left side. There is no dominance between left and right as studies on thousands of people figured out there no evidence. Therefore, we use both sides equally.

“ We have only 5 senses”
We are told from our childhood that we have only 5 senses which may be a myth. In fact we have many untold senses. Such as ! nociception , a sense of pain, and many for passing time, temperature, balancing.

Source: "Articles of GE's Global Research Centers"