Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
1. We use only 10% of our brain capacity.
REALITY: Evidence against this is apparently overwhelming.
"Functional brain-imaging studies have consistently failed to turn up any region of the brain that is perpetually inactive. Moreover, research on brain-damaged individuals reveals that aa lesion to almost any brain area will produce at least some psychological deficits."
2. Some people are left; others are right brained.
REALITY: "Like many brain myths, this one has a kernel of truth; yet is grossly over simplified...."
For several decades neuroscientist Roger Sperry of the California Institute of Technology, psychologist Micheal S. Gazzaniga of the University of Cali, Santa Barbara, and their colleagues studied patients who under went surgery to sever the corpus callosum (the large band of neural fibers connecting the two hemispheres) in an effort to halt intractable epilepsy.
They did indeed discover a difference in the function of the two hemispheres. In most of us, left specialized in linguistics, where as the right in visuospatial skills. However these differences are only relative. For example, the right hemisphere tends to play a larger role in interpreting vocal tone of spoken language despite it's previously determined role as a visual receptor only. Both Hemisphere in fact constantly interact.
3. We can achieve a deeper sense of consciousness and relaxation by boosting our Alpha waves.
REALITY: Research shows Alpha wave output is largely or entirely unrelated to long-term personality traits and short-term states of contentment.
The myth of Alpha Consciousness reflects a confusion between "correlation" and "causation." It is true that people tend display a heightened proportion of Alpha waves while meditating or relaxing deeply. But this fact does not mean that an increased production of aplha brainwaves CAUSES heightened relaxation. Moreover, research has shown that elevated levels of Alpha waves are found in some children with ADHD, who are the opposite of what you could call relaxed.
This was a para-phrasing of the article 'Uncovering "Brainscams"' written by Scott O. Lilienfield and Hal Arkowitz in the February/March 2008 issue of "Scientific American Mind" Available anywhere Most magazines are sold.
(Both above mentioned gentlemen serve as advisers for SAM. Lilienfield is a psychology professor at Emory University while Arkowitz is a Professor at U of Arizona.)
Go get a copy of Scientific American mind today, it's worth it. :)
Chuggs
REALITY: Evidence against this is apparently overwhelming.
"Functional brain-imaging studies have consistently failed to turn up any region of the brain that is perpetually inactive. Moreover, research on brain-damaged individuals reveals that aa lesion to almost any brain area will produce at least some psychological deficits."
2. Some people are left; others are right brained.
REALITY: "Like many brain myths, this one has a kernel of truth; yet is grossly over simplified...."
For several decades neuroscientist Roger Sperry of the California Institute of Technology, psychologist Micheal S. Gazzaniga of the University of Cali, Santa Barbara, and their colleagues studied patients who under went surgery to sever the corpus callosum (the large band of neural fibers connecting the two hemispheres) in an effort to halt intractable epilepsy.
They did indeed discover a difference in the function of the two hemispheres. In most of us, left specialized in linguistics, where as the right in visuospatial skills. However these differences are only relative. For example, the right hemisphere tends to play a larger role in interpreting vocal tone of spoken language despite it's previously determined role as a visual receptor only. Both Hemisphere in fact constantly interact.
3. We can achieve a deeper sense of consciousness and relaxation by boosting our Alpha waves.
REALITY: Research shows Alpha wave output is largely or entirely unrelated to long-term personality traits and short-term states of contentment.
The myth of Alpha Consciousness reflects a confusion between "correlation" and "causation." It is true that people tend display a heightened proportion of Alpha waves while meditating or relaxing deeply. But this fact does not mean that an increased production of aplha brainwaves CAUSES heightened relaxation. Moreover, research has shown that elevated levels of Alpha waves are found in some children with ADHD, who are the opposite of what you could call relaxed.
This was a para-phrasing of the article 'Uncovering "Brainscams"' written by Scott O. Lilienfield and Hal Arkowitz in the February/March 2008 issue of "Scientific American Mind" Available anywhere Most magazines are sold.
(Both above mentioned gentlemen serve as advisers for SAM. Lilienfield is a psychology professor at Emory University while Arkowitz is a Professor at U of Arizona.)
Go get a copy of Scientific American mind today, it's worth it. :)
Chuggs
So in short, you are definitely on the right track Jaybear.. :)
1) Brain imaging research techniques such as PET scans (positron emission tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) clearly show that the vast majority of the brain does not lie fallow. Indeed, although certain minor functions may use only a small part of the brain at one time, any sufficiently complex set of activities or thought patterns will indeed use many parts of the brain. Just as people don't use all of their muscle groups at one time, they also don't use all of their brain at once. For any given activity, such as eating, watching television, making love, or reading, you may use a few specific parts of your brain. Over the course of a whole day, however, just about all of the brain is used at one time or another.
2) The myth presupposes an extreme localization of functions in the brain. If the "used" or "necessary" parts of the brain were scattered all around the organ, that would imply that much of the brain is in fact necessary. But the myth implies that the "used" part of the brain is a discrete area, and the "unused" part is like an appendix or tonsil, taking up space but essentially unnecessary. But if all those parts of the brain are unused, removal or damage to the "unused" part of the brain should be minor or unnoticed. Yet people who have suffered head trauma, a stroke, or other brain injury are frequently severely impaired. Have you ever heard a doctor say, ". . . But luckily when that bullet entered his skull, it only damaged the 90 percent of his brain he didn't use"? Of course not.
Variants of the Ten-Percent Myth
The myth is not simply a static, misunderstood factoid. It has several forms, and this adaptability gives it a shelf life longer than lacquered Spam. In the basic form, the myth claims that years ago a scientist discovered that we indeed did use only ten percent of our brains. Another variant is that only ten percent of the brain had been mapped, and this in turn became misunderstood as ten percent used. A third variant was described earlier by Craig Karges. This view is that the brain is somehow divided neatly into two parts: the conscious mind which is used ten to twenty percent of the time (presumably at capacity); and the subconscious mind, where the remaining eighty to ninety percent of the brain is unused. This description betrays a profound misunderstanding of brain function research.
Part of the reason for the long life of the myth is that if one variant can be proven incorrect, the person who held the belief can simply shift the reason for his belief to another basis, while the belief itself stays intact. So, for example, if a person is shown that PET scans depict activity throughout the entire brain, he can still claim that, well, the ninety percent figure really referred to the subconscious mind, and therefore the Ten-Percent figure is still basically correct.
Regardless of the exact version heard, the myth is spread and repeated, by both the well-meaning and the deliberately deceptive. The belief that remains, then, is what Robert J. Samuelson termed a "psycho-fact, [a] belief that, though not supported by hard evidence, is taken as real because its constant repetition changes the way we experience life." People who don't know any better will repeat it over and over, until, like the admonition against swimming right after you eat, the claim is widely believed. ("Triumph of the Psycho-Fact," Newsweek, 9 May 1994.)
The origins of the myth are not at all clear. Beyerstein, of the Brain Behaviour Laboratory at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, has traced it back to at least the early part of the century. A 1998 column in New Scientist magazine also suggested various roots, including Albert Einstein and Dale Carnegie ("Brain Drain"). It likely has a number of sources, principally misunderstood or misinterpreted legitimate scientific findings as well as self-help gurus.
The most powerful lure of the myth is probably the idea that we might develop psychic abilities, or at least gain a leg up on the competition by improving our memory or concentration. All this is available for the asking, the ads say, if we just tapped into our most incredible of organs, the brain. It is past time to put this myth to rest, although if it has survived at least a century so far, it will surely live on into the new millennium. Perhaps the best way to combat this chestnut is to reply to the speaker, when the myth is mentioned, "Oh? What part don't you use?"
I recently saw a tv program on the health discovery channel. A young woman had a bad stroke. It actually killed a portion of her brain. The part that allows for talking, and many other vital things. The doctors had to remove large chunks of the dead brain matter from her head.
To their complete amazement, the other parts of her brain began to take over! They actually compensated for the dead tissue/missing brain matter. None of the doctors expected such a thing to happen.
The girl is completely normal , other than having some facial drooping. AMAZING stuff!