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The 10 percent of the brain myth is the widely perpetuated urban legend that most or all humans only make use of 10 percent (or some other small percentage) of their brains. It has been misattributed to many people, including Albert Einstein. By extrapolation, it is suggested that a person may harness this unused potential and increase intelligence. Changes in grey and white matter following new experiences and learning have been shown, but it has not yet been proven what the changes are.〔University of Oxford (16 October 2009). Juggling Enhances Connections In The Brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved 30 May 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091016114055.htm "We've shown that it is possible for the brain to condition its own wiring system to operate more efficiently.〕 The popular notion that large parts of the brain remain unused, and could subsequently be "activated", rests in popular folklore and not science. Though mysteries regarding brain function remain—e.g. memory, consciousness—the physiology of brain mapping suggests that all areas of the brain have a function. ==Origin== One possible origin is the reserve energy theories by Harvard psychologists William James and Boris Sidis in the 1890s who tested the theory in the accelerated raising of child prodigy William Sidis; thereafter, James told audiences that people only meet a fraction of their full mental potential, which is a plausible claim.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://bigthink.com/videos/debunking-common-brain-myths )〕 In 1936, American writer Lowell Thomas summarized this idea (in a foreword to Dale Carnegie's ''How to Win Friends and Influence People'') by adding a falsely precise percentage: "Professor William James of Harvard used to say that the average man develops only ten percent of his latent mental ability".〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url = http://www.cyberspacei.com/englishwiz/library/friends/how_to_win_friends.htm )〕 This book was not the first to use the 10 percent figure, which was already circulating within the self-help movement before then; for example, the book ''Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain'' includes a chapter on the ten percent myth which shows a self-help advertisement from the 1929 ''World Almanac'' containing the line "There is NO LIMIT to what the human brain can accomplish. Scientists and psychologists tell us we use only about TEN PERCENT of our brain power." In the 1970s, psychologist and educator Georgi Lozanov proposed the teaching method of suggestopedia believing "that we might be using only five to ten percent of our mental capacity".〔Larsen-Freeman, Diane (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. ''Teaching Techniques in English as a Second Language'' (2nd ed.). Oxford. Oxford University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-19-435574-2.〕〔http://lppm.dinus.ac.id/docs/m/Suggestopedia:_How_Does_It_Accelerate_Language_Learning1.pdf〕 The origin of the myth has also been attributed to Wilder Penfield, the U.S.-born neurosurgeon who was the first director of Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University.〔("Do we use only 10 percent of our brain?" ) ''Psychology Today''〕 According to a related origin story, the ten percent myth most likely arose from a misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of neurological research in the late 19th century or early 20th century. For example, the functions of many brain regions (especially in the cerebral cortex) are complex enough that the effects of damage are subtle, leading early neurologists to wonder what these regions did. The brain was also discovered to consist mostly of glial cells, which seemed to have very minor functions. Dr. James W. Kalat, author of the textbook ''Biological Psychology'', points out that neuroscientists in the 1930s knew about the large number of "local" neurons in the brain. The misunderstanding of the function of local neurons may have led to the ten percent myth.〔Kalat, J.W., ''Biological Psychology'', sixth edition, Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 1998, p. 43.〕 The myth might have been propagated simply by a truncation of the idea that some use a small percentage of their brains at any given time.〔 In the same article in ''Scientific American'', John Henley, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota states: "Evidence would show over a day you use 100 percent of the brain".〔 Although parts of the brain have broadly understood functions, many mysteries remain about how brain cells (i.e., neurons and glia) work together to produce complex behaviors and disorders. Perhaps the broadest, most mysterious question is how diverse regions of the brain collaborate to form conscious experiences. So far, there is no evidence that there is one site for consciousness, which leads experts to believe that it is truly a collective neural effort. Therefore, as with James's idea that humans have untapped cognitive potential, it may be that a large number of questions about the brain have not been fully answered.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ten percent of the brain myth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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