Humans Brains Capacity

The myth that we only use 10% of our brains comes from early 1800s psychologists who were trying to figure out why injuring different parts of the brain caused disabilities in people. In reality, all of our brains are used most of the time.we only use 10 of our brains so this is

Smart the creature

size doesn't matter you can't prevent a

stroke

no that's not true that's very not true

actually hi i'm dr santoshi bilakota i'm

a clinical assistant professor in

neurology at the nyu grossman school of

medicine i'm dr brad kamitaki i'm a

neurologist and assistant professor at

rutgers robert wood johnson medical

school and today we'll be debunking

myths about the human brain the bigger

the brain the smarter the creature

size actually does not matter when it

comes to the brain because there are

creatures out there with bigger brains

than us but probably not as complex your

brain is really determined by your body

proportion right so when you think of

like a big brown bear that's way bigger

than us their brain is going to be

bigger but that doesn't necessarily mean

that they are smarter than us we don't

know that for sure because it hasn't

been fully studied but we've seen that

in instances such as chimpanzees they do

have smaller brains but we do know for a

fact that chimpanzees are probably as

smart as we are certainly it's not the

size of the brain that matters but

probably how complex it is and how well

developed certain areas are certain

areas in humans are for example our

language centers are just much more

developed than a cow or even a

chimpanzee yeah that's important in

determining intelligence rather than the

size itself and also how do we measure

intelligence that also becomes tricky

because not everyone is intelligent in

the same way non-cognitive factors.

The myth that we only use 10% of our brains comes from early 1800s psychologists who were trying to figure out why injuring different parts of the brain caused disabilities in people. In reality, all of our brains are used most of the time.we only use 10 of our brains so this is

Smart the creature

size doesn't matter you can't prevent a

stroke

no that's not true that's very not true

actually hi i'm dr santoshi bilakota i'm

a clinical assistant professor in

neurology at the nyu grossman school of

medicine i'm dr brad kamitaki i'm a

neurologist and assistant professor at

rutgers robert wood johnson medical

school and today we'll be debunking

myths about the human brain the bigger

the brain the smarter the creature

size actually does not matter when it

comes to the brain because there are

creatures out there with bigger brains

than us but probably not as complex your

brain is really determined by your body

proportion right so when you think of

like a big brown bear that's way bigger

than us their brain is going to be

bigger but that doesn't necessarily mean

that they are smarter than us we don't

know that for sure because it hasn't

been fully studied but we've seen that

in instances such as chimpanzees they do

have smaller brains but we do know for a

fact that chimpanzees are probably as

smart as we are certainly it's not the

size of the brain that matters but

probably how complex it is and how well

developed certain areas are certain

areas in humans are for example our

language centers are just much more

developed than a cow or even a

chimpanzee yeah that's important in

determining intelligence rather than the

size itself and also how do we measure

intelligence that also becomes tricky

because not everyone is intelligent in

the same way non-cognitive factors.

we only use 10 of our brains so this is

not true the bigger the brain the

smarter the creature

size doesn't matter you can't prevent a

stroke

no that's not true that's very not true

actually hi i'm dr santoshi bilakota i'm

a clinical assistant professor in

neurology at the nyu grossman school of

medicine i'm dr brad kamitaki i'm a

neurologist and assistant professor at

rutgers robert wood johnson medical

school and today we'll be debunking

myths about the human brain the bigger

the brain the smarter the creature

size actually does not matter when it

comes to the brain because there are

creatures out there with bigger brains

than us but probably not as complex your

brain is really determined by your body

proportion right so when you think of

like a big brown bear that's way bigger

than us their brain is going to be

bigger but that doesn't necessarily mean

that they are smarter than us we don't

know that for sure because it hasn't

been fully studied but we've seen that

in instances such as chimpanzees they do

have smaller brains but we do know for a

fact that chimpanzees are probably as

smart as we are certainly it's not the

size of the brain that matters but

probably how complex it is and how well

developed certain areas are certain

areas in humans are for example our

language centers are just much more

developed than a cow or even a

chimpanzee yeah that's important in

determining intelligence rather than the

size itself and also how do we measure

intelligence that also becomes tricky

because not everyone is intelligent in

the same way non-cognitive factors also

play a role like what's your social

intelligence what's your emotional

intelligence all of that i think is very

complex and really difficult to measure

iq tests are always an accurate measure

of intelligence so

this is false there's so much that goes

into intelligence normal intelligence

tests might measure things like

executive function or planning verbal

skills reading skills things like that

but it's only an approximation of what

you can do and highly influenced by the

conditions of the test how you're

feeling at the time of the test your

educational level it'll be nice to say

that there's one test or one way that we

can determine how intelligent someone is

but there's so much that goes into

intelligence that one test or even

multiple different tests can't measure

that very well so the popular iq test

was developed in the early 1900s and it

was a way to determine which french

students were cognitively delayed so we

could offer them better resources that

got adopted in america at stanford where

for all the reasons brad laid out it

doesn't take all of those things into

account so i think although it is nice

to say hey i am smart i did well on an

iq test really don't think that means

too much neither of us were born being

doctors right we had to learn and

develop those skills under many years of

training i think that education is the

best way to kind of make that happen

education very broadly that might not

necessarily be school for everyone

definitely some people are savants some

people are prodigies it's really hard to

say what determines that they might be

better at certain things but not

necessarily good at others we're all

individuals we all have different

talents and different aptitudes for

different things so iq tests just kind

of measure your intelligence in that one

specific area not how overall

intelligent you are we only use 10 of

our brains so this is not true we

actually use all of our brain not all of

the time but most of the time we're

using some percentage of her brain this

myth came into fruition i think in the

early 1800s where people were trying to

figure out why injuring different parts

of the brain caused disabilities in

people so a bunch of psychologists came

up with the theory that we only use

about ten percent of our brains versus

people who are smarter who use more now

we simply know that that is not the case

we know that because we have something

called a pet mri and a functional mri

study we have the frontal lobe which we

use for a lot of different purposes

motor function language function

executive functioning or planning

activities behind that our parietal lobe

here which is our sensory cortex in the

back of the brain we have the occipital

lobe which is our visual processing

center and then here on the side we have

the temporal lobe which is involved in

memory language comprehension on the

left side so to give you an example if

you are reading something you're going

to be using your temporal lobes for

comprehension you're going to be using

your frontal lobes for comprehension

you'll also be using the back of your

head where your visual cortex sits

because that's where information from

your eyeballs travel and your body kind

of makes sense of it that way and then

also if we

take the brain apart a little bit we

have our brain stem over here which is

kind of our lizard brain it's our

primitive brain that controls things

like level of arousal breathing

respirations heart rate blood pressure

we have some deep motor functions here

in the brain as well another part of the

brain that we have is our cerebellum

kind of on the bottom which is also

involved in motor control and motor

planning in doing one task you could be

using multiple parts of your brain but

you're not using everything at the same

time video games rot your brain so this

is a myth video games in and of

themselves don't actually rot your brain

it's something that i definitely heard a

lot when i was younger from my grandma

my mom a lot of our literature has shown

that video games especially the ones

that focus on team building on solving

riddles solving puzzles building

strategy are actually pretty good for

you they actually do build up those

centers of your brain especially when

you're a child you know games can be

used for other purposes for example our

colleagues in surgery when they do

scopes they practice those skills with

things like video game simulators

looking at the trials no one has

actually defined what too much video

games is every literature study that

i've looked at quotes between 12 hours

to 90 hours a week is okay i feel like

90 hours might be a little excessive but

i think in reality the bigger signs of

someone withdrawing from social

activities and wanting to just stay at

home and play video games and they'd

prefer to do that then do other things

that's more of a red flag i always say

everything in moderation like if it's

affecting your social life if you're

just stuck in front of the tv all day

that's not good psychologically memory

gets worse as you age so this is false

in fact there are some types of memory

that improve as you get older for

example things like semantic memory your

vocabulary reading procedural memory for

example people that are very good at

musical instruments like can play the

piano often will retain those skills

some people will notice some changing

memory that's often things like episodic

memory which is kind of our memory of

recent events episodic memories

basically like the who what where and

when so where did i put my keys where

did i park my car those kind of things

do tend to decline and i think a lot of

it is because we just aren't as focused

on things it's not necessarily something

that's pathological or suggests dementia

not everyone will get dementia but that

risk does increase as you get older

right now we don't have any medications

or treatments that can prevent someone

from getting alzheimer's disease there

are some environmental risk factors that

if you address can prevent you from

getting dementia or at least prevent

your memory from getting worse so some

of those things include just general

health eating healthy foods taking care

of your heart moderate exercise making

sure that you stay healthy

cardiovascularly which is also going to

help your brain left brain people are

logical and right-brained people are

creative

i think this myth came from the 1800s

when as neurologists are trying to

figure out different functions of the

brain they discovered that the left side

of our brain and most people is dominant

for language verbal memory whereas the

right brain was much more of our visual

spatial functions but there's no

structural brain difference in people

who are more logical or versus more

creative rather it's more their

environment the way that they were

raised in neurology when we talk about

brain hemispheric dominance we typically

are talking about language and verbal

memory dominance where does that live

and for most people that's on the left

side of the brain so if you're

right-handed about 90 of the time you're

going to be left hemisphere dominant

which means a lot of your memory and

speech production and understanding

comprehension that kind of stuff is

going to sit on the left side of your

brain whereas if you're a left-handed it

can kind of go both ways so i think the

reality is we say that someone is left

brain dominant or right brain dominant

and it doesn't really mean that one

person is more creative and the other

one is more logical these are just

talents and sort of skills that people

develop whether inherently or through

their personalities but it really has

nothing to do with the side of their

brain that they use more you can't

prevent a stroke

no that's not true that's very not true

actually you can definitely prevent a

stroke how to do that is by really

addressing all the factors that could

result in a stroke we know very clearly

that things like high blood pressure

smoking high cholesterol diabetes

unfortunately increase your risk for a

stroke which is basically when there's

sign of blood flow going to your brain

because of a blood clot or bleeding in

the brain there's no quick and easy fix

again it's about maintaining your

cardiovascular and brain health over

time so that you never get into a

situation where a stroke will occur if

you do ever have symptoms of a stroke

and we often tell people this fast

mnemonic so facial droop arm weakness

slurred speech or language problems and

then t is time call 9-1-1 and get to the

hospital right away emergency medicine

physicians can give you plot-busting

medications to break up the clot that's

causing the stroke so there's things

that we can do to address it and prevent

it from getting worse and i think

there's a misconception that stroke is

an old person's disease we know this

isn't true anyone of any age can have a

stroke the reason why you're going to

have it is going to be different if

you're older versus when you're younger

but a big cause of stroke in young

people is brain bleeds if you have a

family history of aneurysm you should

definitely get screened i think that's

actually recommended eating fish makes

you smarter so i actually don't know

where this one came from but maybe it's

like an immigrant household thing but i

heard this a lot yeah yeah i mean in

asian households for sure this is tricky

because fish doesn't necessarily make

you smarter but it is good for you and

some fish more than others have omega-3s

which we know are good for heart health

good for brain health and just good for

your overall body health so i think

maybe that's why this one came into

place but i don't think it makes you

smarter what do you think yeah no i

think it was my parents way of getting

more efficient you do have to be careful

about eating too much fish we know that

certain types of fish have more mercury

than others like tuna you don't want to

overdo it i should add that fish is part

of a mediterranean diet which we

advocate for all of our patients

mediterranean diets are diets that are

rich in good fats like fish for example

olive oils vegetables healthy grains and

that is going to be helpful for stroke

prevention it's going to be good for

cholesterol for hypertension for

diabetes all kinds of stuff so fish as

part of a healthy diet is good for you

but it will not make you smarter you can

always trust your senses

i'd say that's a myth our senses can

play tricks on us and cause things like

illusions or even sometimes

hallucinations for example people with

schizophrenia might hear voices of

people talking that aren't actually

there our senses are not 100 objective

they're dependent on how well our brains

and you know eyes ears are functioning

at that time everyone is different my

pain tolerance might be lower than rats

or vice versa i don't think we have a

really good neurological way of

explaining why that might be that's

still something that we don't fully

understand also your senses can be

a little influenced by emotions and

memories i think if you see something

that reminds you of someone the way

you're going to react to it might be a

little different i don't know if what

i'm seeing is the same thing that

everyone else is seeing like how can we

ever it's like when they had that blue

dress and the black dress and people

were saying different things different

sexes have different brains

so no that's not true and i'm going to

rip it again because that was funny

i should start with saying that we're

all born with the same brain regardless

of what your gender identity is

regardless of what your sexual

orientation is there's really no

structural differences so if a

neurosurgeon was looking at two

different brains they wouldn't know who

was assigned male at birth and who was

assigned female at birth there have been

studies out there that have shown that

those have been assigned female at birth

might have more robust emotional

pathways versus those who've been

assigned male at birth are more

executive thinkers we now know that

that's not true as you get older if

you've been exposed to different things

how you relate to the outside world

that's what develops the structures of

your brain and the connectivity it has

really nothing to do with what gender

you were assigned at birth it's more

nurture it's not necessarily nature and

how you're made if you have a seizure

you have epilepsy no

i'm going to rip this a few times

because i want to make my point what a

seizure is is hypersynchronation of

brain cells so what is that your brain

talks to itself using electricity if

something goes wrong with electricity in

your brain you have a seizure basically

when all of your neurons freak out and

fire at once your body hyper

synchronizes and we have a seizure

seizures can be due to a lot of things

not necessarily epilepsy which is a

lifelong neurological condition you have

to have multiple unprovoked seizures and

that's the difference between a seizure

and epilepsy also if you have epilepsy

you have to take daily medication to

keep your brain from having seizures so

if you have had your first seizure of

lifetime or if you're someone with

seizures there are a few things that you

should do one definitely get checked out

by a neurologist there are tests that we

can order that can be helpful for you

one of them is an eeg we put stickers on

your head look at your brain waves and

see where the abnormalities are and the

second one is the imaging that we have

mris and pet mris are both used and if a

diagnosis of epilepsy is made the most

important thing for you to do is take

your medications and lastly keep

communicating with your doctor because

you're not going to get to that period

of seizure freedom unless you

communicate with your doctor you only

get one brain you're born with all the

brain cells that you are going to have

and it's up to you to take care of them

there's a grain of truth in a lot of

these myths but they're just not fully

accurate just make sure that you do your

research and take care of yourself