The brain myths…

The Dr. Pedro Maldonado talked to us about myths related with the brain, like: “the brain works like a computer, and have determinate areas responsible for certain tasks”; or “we just use 10% of our cerebral capacity”; or “with more size, more capacity and more functions”; or “the true reality isn’t what we see”.

I would dig a little deeper about the two first points.

It doesn’t know how brain works exactly, yet. We know today, some areas are predominantly related with specific tasks, but we can’t say with certainty that one part in particular is charged of one function, but we can say: to do any task is necessary an interaction between different parts of the brain. And that is the principal difference with a computer, we can see like one piece do one specific task, but if that part failure the computer runs out of that function and maybe “die”. When we talk about brain is not like that in all cases. If we have an injury in a part of the brain, maybe another part take that function or part of that function, not totally.

We don’t use just the 10% of our brain capacity, we use more than that. Even when we sleep or when we try put our mind in blank, our brain still works. To do any task, like talk, move or think, is necessary the interaction between different areas, like I said in the previous paragraph. And is for that what we can’t use only the 10% of our brain.

At least, with those tow points I can say that topic is very important to my and my career, physical therapy, because understanding how brain works we can understand the pathologies and how we can fix it.
To finish, I must say it was interesting the presentation made for the Dr. Maldonado, and I hope this area will continue to develop much more in the coming years.

Bye!