Ask CNN: Why Do We Only Use a Small Percentage Of Our Brain?
JESSICA MARSLAND, ORLANDO, FLORIDA: My name is Jessica Marsland. And I'm from Orlando, Florida. And my question is: Why do we only use a small percentage of our brain?</s>SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You may have heard that we only use as little as 15 percent of our brain. But what does that really mean? There are certain areas of the brain that we call the eloquent areas. They give us the ability to speak, move, remember, use judgment, in addition to controlling our basic life functions such as heart rate and breathing. These areas make up a surprisingly small part of the brain. The rest of the brain, in some way, supports the more important areas of the brain by providing connections between them and also supplying them with nutrients. So, in reality, as you'd expect, all of the brain is used, just some parts more than others.