Page 142 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysteries of the Mind 123

ne myth about the human brain is the
claim that humans use only about 10
percent of their brain capacity. Medical
Odoctors and psychologists insist that the
statement is not supported by any scientific evidence.
It is likely the myth that humans use only about 10
percent of their brains arose during 1930s research The Unused Brain
when scientists were uncertain regarding the func-
tions of large areas of the cortex. In recent years,
Sources:
researchers have been able to “map” the functions of Czerner, Thomas B. What Makes You Tick? The Brain in Plain
different areas of the brain. English. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
Nolte, John. The Human Brain: An Introduction to Its Functional
The neocortex, by which higher thinking is per-
Anatomy. Philadelphia: Mosby Publishing, 2002.
formed, consists of a sheet of cells about 2.5 millime-
Restak, Richard M., and David Grubin. The Secret Life of the
ters in thickness. Without the neocortex, conscious-
Brain. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2001.
ness, would not exist.
Although the neocortex is a large part of human
evolution, it does contain cavities without any brain
cells, as well as considerable amounts of cere-
brospinal fluid, white matter, blood vessels, blood, and
“non-thinking cells.” However, scientists say these
areas should not be constituted as the mythical
unused 90 percent of the brain.

tion of creative processes. The act of dream- Although the experiment itself had a strik-
ing, that most personal and subjective experi- ing effect on the academic world of physiology,
ence, may well be a key to humankind’s hid- the manner in which the idea came to Loewi is
den powers. Many artists, writers, inventors, perhaps even more astounding. It is conceiv-
musicians, and other creative people have able that ideas can be transferred from one
received inspiration in their dreams or have mind to another during sleep, but when such
used their dreams as problem-solving catalysts. ideas are not in the mind of another person,
from where could they possibly arise? Before
All through Easter Day in 1920, Dr. Otto his death in 1961, Loewi stated that he could
Loewi, research pharmacologist at the New not possibly answer this question. Perhaps no
York University College of Medicine, pon- one can, but it is certain that Loewi’s dream
dered a strange dream that revisited the provided the key to subsequent research that
details of an experiment that he had discarded eventually gained him the Nobel Prize.
17 years before. Acetylcholine, the chemical
that he had used in the experiment, had first Solving problems via the dream state is as
been isolated by Dr. H. H. Dale, Loewi’s close old as humankind itself. Thomas Edison
friend, in 1914, but the new test inspired by (1847–1931), the “Genius of Menlo Park,” it
Loewi’s dream brought about an abrupt is said, had the habit of curling up in his roll-
change in the theory of muscle stimulation. top desk to catch brief naps that sometimes
Loewi and Dale shared the Nobel Prize for constituted his entire sleep schedule. After
physiology and medicine in 1936. such a nap he would emerge with the answers

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