What percentage of your brain do you use? - Richard E. Cytowic
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TEDEd Animation
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Two thirds of the population believes a myth that has been propagated for over a century: that we use only 10% of our brains. Hardly! Our neuron-dense brains have evolved to use the least amount of energy while carrying the most information possible -- a feat that requires the entire brain. Richard E. Cytowic debunks this neurological myth (and explains why we aren’t so good at multitasking).
The spiny anteater, echidna, has massive frontal lobes but isn’t very smart. If our frontal lobes were proportionally as large, we’d have to carry them in front of us in a wheelbarrow. If relative brain size doesn’t make us smarter than mammals that have much larger brains than we do—a point that has been argued for well over the past century—then what factor(s) might account for our relatively superior intelligence and flexibility?
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Richard E. Cytowic
- Director Hector Herrera
- Producer Pazit Cahlon
- Narrator Addison Anderson
