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HOW MUCH OF OUR BRAIN DO WE ACTUALLY USE?
So, how much of our brain do we actually use—only 10 percent? Perhaps the source of this myth is that, at any given moment, you only use a fraction of your entire brain. But throughout the day, you do use all of it.
If you’re sitting down, you don’t need to use the modules required to get you walking or running. If you’re in a quiet room reading a book, you don’t need to use your music-processing modules.
Your brain functions pretty efficiently. So you don’t require the use of every module in your brain at every moment. Think of driving a car. You don’t use your car’s accelerator at every moment, nor the brakes, horn, radio, signal lights (some drivers never use them!), and so on.
You don’t use all of your brain all of the time, but you certainly do need all of the modules in your brain. You do use all of them. Otherwise, they would not have evolved in the first place.
Brain modules are adaptations—necessary units of biological function—that evolve in response to selective pressure.