7 Myths About the Human Brain: What You Thought You Knew

Throughout history, mankind has developed sets of beliefs around things that it doesn’t understand or that science cannot or has yet to explain. Unfortunately, these beliefs often lead to thought patterns and behaviors that can last for generations and have negative consequences for society.

Out of my mixed bag of academics and a career in defense communications, analysis, and science and technology capability integration emerged a strong desire to bridge the gaps between our understanding of science and society, and is what led me to found Veritas Alchemy LLC. It also convinced me to finally take the leap to pursue doctoral research in Biomedical Engineering at Old Dominion University (ODU) in concert with the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics beginning this fall.

In making that decision I met with the BME Program Director, Dr. Dean Kusienski, who also happens to direct the Advanced Signal Processing in Engineering and Neuroscience (ASPEN) Lab. While my academic research interest is in another area, his work developing various applications through analyzing and decoding neural signals touches on many of the areas of emerging science and technology that Veritas Alchemy recognizes as having the potential to make a significant impact on society. As such, I thought it appropriate to take a look at the amazing and complex brain, our lack of understanding of which has led to numerous myths over the years that are no longer – or have never been – supported by science.

Myth #1 Bigger is Better

While perhaps true for some other organs, a bigger brain does not necessarily equate to a better one. That is, a larger brain does not always make an animal – including human – smarter. The table below gives a glimpse of this by relative ratio of encephalization (amount of brain mass, E, related to an animal’s total body mass, S). Looking at a sperm whale’s brain, for example, one can see how little truth there is to this myth. Whales are, of course, intelligent animals, but with a brain nearly six times larger than that of a human’s, their cognitive skills pale in comparison to our own.

Species	E/S ratio	Species	E/S ratio
small ants	1/7	frog	1/172
small birds	1/12	lion	1/550
human	1/40	elephant	1/560
mouse	1/40	horse	1/600
cat	1/100	shark	1/2496
dog	1/125	hippopotamus	1/2789

Myth #2 Alcohol Kills Brain Cells

Had a good time last night and now you’re concerned about sabotaging your GRE/GMAT/LSAT score? Don’t worry. A 1993 study by Jensen and Pakkenberg at the Neurological Research Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark and others since have demonstrated that alcohol (in the concentrations found in most alcoholic beverages and in the amount one can typically consume) doesn’t actually kill your brain cells. While varsity athletics and a lifelong commitment to good health generally kept me from hitting the sauce as hard or as often as my companions did, I admit this myth was certainly a contributing factor in my decision to largely abstain. Before you go cracking open a cold one as part of your breakfast routine, however, know that although alcohol does not kill brain cells, it does cause brain damage and interferes with the brain’s ability to convey messages between neurons. Alcohol damages dendrites, which are extensions at the ends of nerve cells that conduct electrochemical stimulation from another cell to the receiving cell body, inhibiting the ability of your brain cells to talk to one another.

So, while you can no longer rely on your college binges as an excuse for your poor math skills and inability to balance a check book, it might not be such a bad idea to continue to perpetuate this myth among your teenage children, and for those occasions when they decide to ignore your warnings, you can rest assured that, thankfully, the damage is mostly reversible.

Myth #3 Drugs Physically Degrade the Brain

Similar to #2, drugs don’t actually eat holes in the brain or turn it into “mush.” Prolonged use of some drugs can permanently change the brain’s functionality and structure, which typically determines biological drug addiction vs. abuse, depending on that particular drug’s effects on neurotransmission. The only thing that can really put a hole your brain, however, is physical trauma. Lucky for you that you have one hundred billion brain cells – right?

Myth #4 We Have 100 Billion Brain Cells

Wrong. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until a 2009 study by Azavedo et al. at the Brazil Institute of Biomedical Sciences that scientists determined that the true number was likely closer to eighty six billion. This might at first seem to be a relatively small difference, until one considers that those fourteen billion neurons actually make up the entirety of the baboon brain. To give greater perspective to those numbers, consider that one million seconds is twelve days, while one billion seconds is thirty one years. A fourteen billion relative difference in neurons doesn’t seem so small after all, now does it?

Myth #5 We Only Use 10% of our Brain

Most movies and sci-fi books, until questioned in this summer’s highly anticipated film “Lucy” (is it just me…?), would have us believe that humans can only use around ten percent of our brain’s capacity. This, too, is nonsense. Thanks to modern brain scanning technology like GE Healthcare’s Revolution CT™ scanner, we have evidence that shows that humans use their whole brain all the time, just not necessarily all at once. For instance, while you are exercising, the parts of the brain associated with movement are more active than other areas. There is no part of the brain that simply doesn’t do anything. While we could all name a few individuals who would have us question these findings, the brain represents three percent of the body’s weight, but accounts for twenty percent of the body’s energy use. That’s a busy brain.

Myth #6 We Use One Side of the Brain More than the Other

You may have been convinced that if you are more logical and analytical, then you’re more left brained, and if you’re more creative and intuitive then you’re more right brained. This is simply not true. While different sides of the brain are indeed used for specific functions (e.g. the left hemisphere supports language function while the right hemisphere helps to read emotion), studies on thousands of individuals like the one published in 2013 by Nielsen et al. have found no evidence of a left or right dominance in humans. In other words, people use both sides of the brain equally.

Myth #7 Humans Have 5 Senses (Unless you Count that Elusive “6^th Sense”)

Contrary to what were always taught, humans actually have more than five primary senses. In fact, you have several, including nociception (the sense of pain) and proprioception (the sense of how our bodies are positioned), and the sense of balance, temperature and passing of time.

While this myth-buster may seem to offer some fun facts, it draws attention to the impact of persistent knowledge gaps in of one of many areas of science. Misunderstandings about the structure and function of the human brain can create unnecessary fear, hinder the advantageous development of medical therapies, and as we’ve seen with attempts to use research findings to draw erroneous conclusions about “gender differences”, lead to the development of negative value perceptions that contribute to stereotyping that persists for decades.

Veritas Alchemy believes in the importance of public knowledge to building a better society. That’s why it works with educators and institutions to identify and deliver timely and accurate information and analysis regarding developments in science and technology relevant to those it serves.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the best ways to get the latest scientific research findings into classrooms, as well as what type of research you believe to be most relevant at various ages. Write to us using the Contact page tab above, or email us at info@veritasalchemy.com.

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ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

1. ASAP Science
2. General Electric’s Global Research Centers
3. Kuhlenbeck, H. “Central Nervous System of Vertebrates”. Vol. 3, Part II, New York, NY: Arnold-Backlin-Strasse, 1973, p. 735.
4. Seid, M. A.; Castillo, A.; Wcislo, W. T. (2011). “The Allometry of Brain Miniaturization in Ants“. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 77 (1): 5–13.