4 Common Brain Myths to Stop Believing

When it comes to the amazing, complex organ that we call the brain — which is made of billions of neurons controlling your personality, movement, basic body functions, and more — there are many myths that still get passed around. Our brains are fascinating, and there’s a lot we still don’t know about it, but here are a few of the most common brain myths it’s time we stop believing.

Brain Myth #1 – You only use 10 percent of your brain.

It sounds so great, but the idea that we don’t even use 90 percent of our brain isn’t true. Yes, we likely have some brain reserves, but experiments show that a lot of your brain is engaged for even simple tasks. But while we don’t always use our brain at 100-percent capacity, the idea that you’re only using 10 percent of your brain isn’t true.

Brain Myth #2 – Brain size and intelligence are linked.

Not true. The truth is that it’s the number of connections between your brain cells, known as synapses, that determines your intelligence, not the size of your brain. Around week 12 of pregnancy, there’s a big explosion of synapse formation that occurs in the earliest development of your brain.

Brain Myth #3 – You only have five senses.

Actually, the brain’s far more complex than just the five senses you think of: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. You have many other ways of sensing the world around you. There’s your sense of balance, sense of the passage of time, sense of body temperature, nociception — a sense of pain — and proprioception, which is the sense of how your body is positioned.

Brain Myth #4 – Your brain declines with age.

While some cognitive functions may decline a bit with normal aging, other mental skills improve as you grow older. Some of the areas where older brains often perform better than younger brains include comprehension, vocabulary, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution.

What myth have you been believing all your life? The most important realization is that your brain is pretty incredible, and we continue to learn new things about how the brain functions. Make sure you’re supporting your healthy brain function with a daily Prevagen supplement, which is pharmacist recommended (Pharmacy Times, 2021-2022).