Veil of Fire

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/07/02/greece" target="_blank">Man Speared in Head Survives</a>

Note the bit about 'a non-functional part of the brain'... just made me think a bit.

[edit: It pasted from the clipboard with a space in the URL. Big deal.]

[ July 02, 2002: Message edited by: Veil of Fire ]</p>

Secular Pinoy

Well, as long as it made you think, I guess that's ok. Seeing as you embrace some pretty wacky stuff, maybe this is a good start.

Gurdur

Well, a pity you didn't give us a working link, otherwise we could check the story for ourselves.

BTW, there is no such thing as a "non-functional part" of the brain, except when damaged or dead.

I personally knew a person who got an arrow throught the temples - in one side temple and out the other - and was not giving too much signs of botheration while being treated; you can do a hell of a lot to the frontal upper cortex, and it only becomes noticiable when the person shows they are no longer capable of planning or carrying out complex tasks, or imagining complex things. The brain's in use there, it's just subtle as to how that use is apparent.

On the back of the brain, down towards the stem, there's a place where simple finger pressure of no great degree will immediately kill a person, while you can shove your fingers into the upper frontal cortex, twiddling them around, and, as I said above, the effects are far more subtle, less immediately apparent, and therefore less dramatic.
The big so what ?

Using which part of your brain ?

[ July 02, 2002: Message edited by: Gurdur ]</p>

Clutch

Umm... yes, before you conclude that the phrase in question was *not* some gross oversimplification, I recommend you take special note of the source.

I don't think CNN is really up there with Behavioral and Brain Sciences as an authority on neurophysiology.

Secular Pinoy

Here's the link, btw: <a href="http://cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/07/02/greece.spear.reut/index.html" target="_blank">Man speared in head survives</a>.

Veil of Fire

IP:
Circumstantial Ad Homeniem.

Gurdur:
Not meaning to be a smartass, but can you find a source? No offense, but while CNN might not be the best source, it's a better source than Annonymus Internet Person...

Apparently not the spot that a spear would pass through on its way into my skull...

Clutch:
Good point.

But it's better than anything that's been posted yet...

*****

My POINT is, that if the old Snopes article is right (as well as many people I argued with on this topic a couple weeks ago), the man should have died. If we use 100% of our brains, there wouldn't be any part that's 'safe' for a spear to pass through.

Secular Pinoy

So based on this evidence, you wish to overturn brain science? Velikovsky had better arguments...

SanDiegoAtheist

VofF:

Think about it this way:

Your computer uses every bit of resources it has, just not all at once, and some of the resources are optional or simply improve performance.

Yank 128MB out of your computer, or your GeForce4, and your computer will still probably be able to run...but not anywhere near as well as it did before.

Brain damage is exactly the same way. Some areas of the brain (typically the 'older' areas evolutionarily speaking) are critical (analogue of the CPU or bus) - damage these parts and you are quite dead.

Many areas though, like the frontal lobes, are more involved with higher cognitive functions, memory, that sort of thing - damage to these areas will IMPAIR or alter some functioning, but won't necessarily outright kill someone. In some cases this can be pretty subtle, but the effect is still there.

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

beausoleil

"Not meaning to be a smartass, but can you find a source? No offense, but while CNN might not be the best source, it's a better source than Annonymus Internet Person..."

Ironically, a google search on "use brain" yielded this in about 10 seconds:

<a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/what.html" target="_blank">http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/what.html</a>

"Neuroscience for kids - the 10% brain myth"

"Furthermore, from an evolutionary point of view, it is unlikely that larger brains would have developed if there was not an advantage. Certainly there are several pathways that serve similar functions. For example, there are several central pathways that are used for vision. This concept is called "redundancy" and is found throughout the nervous system. Multiple pathways for the same function may be a type of "safety mechanism" should one of the pathways fail. Still, functional brain imaging studies show that all parts of the brain function. Even during sleep, the brain is active. The brain is still being "used," it is just in a different active state. "

Remember - "use brain"

thefugitivesaint

veil of fire:

I encourage you to visit any local university that possess a cognitive research department and ask the professors, undergrads or graduate students about the functioning of the human brain.

I have no degree but i have spent many years in Drexel universities Cognitive Developement center, University of Pennsylvania's Cognitive and neuroscience center and i have spent many years studing the function of the brain myself.

Not one percentage of our brain goes unused. We do not have the ability to communicate telepathically nor move objects with our mind or practice "remote viewing", etc. The active functions of awareness are able to operate because of the underlying infastructure and activity of the rest of the brain. Atomatic responses, breathing, the operation of the heart, temperature regulation, pain receptions, and a whole host of other functions are carried out by the brain while you are reading, eating, sleeping, walking, whatever, in relation to your other internal organs.

SanDiegoAtheist's computer analogy is an apt one. The study of and hypothetical formulations for A.I. and the devlopments in cognitive-neuroscience have revealed a great deal concering the brains function. The exact details of how the brain functions is what is openly debated but not the extent of those functions or how much of the brain is being used.

i have no idea what you may have posted in the past concerning this subject but if it has any relation to the assertion that there remains some dormant and ,as of yet, "unused" aspect of our brain you would be quite mistaken.
-theSaint