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What Is the Capacity of Our Brain?

"We use only 10 % of our brain capacity" Is this information true ? (...)


Comment 1

I basically refer to the widely diffused fact which supports the idea that “we only use 10% of our brain”. This statement, undoubtedly wrong, contains one of the most interesting questions of our speciality: Who uses the brain? So as to make the question it is necessary to use a cartesian idea and think that the brain is an organ which uses mind like I use a computer. The idea of the ‘homunculo rector’ attacked by Dennet and other philosophers of mind.

Now why is this type of interpretation popular? A possible reason is that it structurally continues to be a “magic-religious” speculation about ontogenical problems and that its scientific counterpart (that of a modular brain, where its parts act like in an orchestra (sometimes so, sometimes not) ruled by the time factor (R, Llinás) is still very contradictory with the prevailing statement (paradigm) of the reading of the conscious phenomena where they constitute univoque and continuous phenomena. This “accessïbility” of the idea in experimental terms, determines its popularity.

Sergio A. Strejilevich Equipo de Investigaciones Clínicas Serv. Psicopatología,Argentina streji@satlink.com


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comment 3

Silvia Helena Cardoso, PhD

Copyright 1997 Universidade Estadual de Campinas