Gray Matter - 90% or Perhaps More of Our Brain Cells May Be Sleeping on the Job
CAROL HUEBNER,a reader in Hacienda Heights, has asked me to explain how the brain functions. She says she recently heard a “keynote speaker” say that human beings use less than a 10th of 1% of their brain power.
Ms. Huebner is confused because she believes that she has heard the figure is less than 10%--not a 10th of 1%. The difference between 10% and 1/10th of 1% is a lot of brain power. I think Ms. Huebner’s basic mistake is in believing the so-called experts. If you listen to all the experts on any subject, you’ll find that they are much further apart than the difference between 10% and a 10th of 1%.
I make it a point not to read any books by experts and not to attend luncheons or dinners at which there is to be a “keynote speaker.” I have been a keynote speaker several times myself, and at none of those occasions did I have the slightest expertise about the subject of the day, nor did I ever attempt to address it.
As I have observed before, if one listens to the experts, one will hear on the one hand that cholesterol is good for you, and on the other that it will destroy your liver, heart and other useful organs. The best thing to do with cholesterol is ignore it.
As for brain power, it is obvious that some people are smarter than others. Some people spend hours on end playing slot machines when the odds are obviously against them.
A few weeks ago, when the lottery was up to $56 million, two men in Northern California went in together on the purchase of $20,000 worth of tickets, evidently not considering that the odds were still about 14 million to 1 against any ticket winning. Of course, they did not win the jackpot.
Now if those two men were using as much as 1/10 of 1% of their brain power, they could have found some safe investment that would have returned a tidy profit on $20,000, and they wouldn’t now be $20,000 out.
Ms. Huebner wonders how she can tell whether accepting an intellectual challenge will awaken some previously dormant cells or simply tax the already overworked minority. She recalls reading recently in this magazine an article on how to protect oneself from excessive stimuli.
“But how can there be too much,” she asks, “when most of the brain cells are lying around twiddling their thumbs? They ought to be glad for some diversion.”
All my life I have heard that one drink of spirits destroys millions of brain cells. Depending on how you look at it, that means either that my brain is already dead, or I had an excess of cells to begin with.
Also, when I had my heart bypass surgery a few years ago, several well- meaning friends told me that I probably suffered some brain damage when my heart was stopped and blood was circulating to my brain by machine.
I have been looking for signs of a diminished mental capacity ever since, and it isn’t hard to find some. I seem to be having a hard time with names. Recently I couldn’t think of the name of the Statue of Liberty. Not long ago, I went to a black-tie reception at the Natural History Museum and I saw Merlin Olsen talking with a group of other people. I told my wife, “That’s Merlin Olsen. You know. The football player.” She said, “I know,” sounding slightly put out that I would think she didn’t. Later that evening, I saw Merlin Olsen again, and I said, “What’s that guy’s name?” I had forgotten it.
Now that suggests a loss of some brain power. But when you do lose it, does the loss come from the part you use, or the part you don’t use?
If you only use a 10th of 1%, then losing some of the part you don’t use wouldn’t be any great loss. What worries me is that on same evening I saw George Allen, but I couldn’t remember his name either.
“What’s that guy’s name?” I asked my wife. “Used to coach the Rams.”
She replied, “You mean George Allen?”
DR, Ad McCauley
