What's the matter with only exploiting a portion of our gray matter?

僅僅只開發我們大腦潛能的10%會是什么結果？

The human brain is complex. Along with performing millions of mundane acts, it composes concertos, issues manifestos and comes up with elegant solutions to equations. It's the wellspring of all human feelings, behaviors, experiences as well as the repository of memory and self-awareness. So it's no surprise that the brain remains a mystery unto itself.

人腦很復雜，我們用大腦除了完成許許多多的日常事務外，還譜寫協奏曲，發布宣言以及算出漂亮的方程解。大腦不僅是我們人類所有的感情、行為、經驗的源泉，它也是我們記憶和自我感知的“寶庫”，因此大腦本身仍然是個謎就毫不奇怪了。

Adding to that mystery is the contention that humans "only" employ 10 percent of their brain. If only regular folk could tap that other 90 percent, they too could become savants who remember π to the twenty-thousandth decimal place or perhaps even have telekinetic powers.

除了大腦本身就是個謎之外，還有一種論斷稱人類“僅僅”只利用了大腦的10%。如果普通人只要能開發大腦另外的90%, 那么他們也能變成記住π小數點后2000位的專家，甚至或者他們可能具有心靈遙感的能力。

Though an alluring idea, the "10 percent myth" is so wrong it is almost laughable, says neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. Although there's no definitive culprit to pin the blame on for starting this legend, the notion has been linked to the American psychologist and author William James, who argued in The Energies of Men that "We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources." It's also been associated with to Albert Einstein, who supposedly used it to explain his cosmic towering intellect.

來自巴爾的摩約翰·霍普金斯醫學院（Johns Hopkins School of Medicine）的神經專家Barry Gordon說，雖然人們只使用大腦10%的潛能的提法非常誘人，但是這個“10% 謎”非常錯，簡直就是可笑。雖然對這個提法找不到確定的“元兇”，但是人們把這個提法與美國的心理學家兼作者William James聯系起來，William James在他的著作《人的能量》（The Energies of Men）稱“我們僅僅只利用了我們潛在的心理和體力資源的一小部分。”這個提法也和阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦有關（Albert Einstein），據說他曾用這個說法來解釋他超常的智力。
 
The myth's durability, Gordon says, stems from people's conceptions about their own brains: they see their own shortcomings as evidence of the existence of untapped gray matter. This is a false assumption. What is correct, however, is that at certain moments in anyone's life, such as when we are simply at rest and thinking, we may be using only 10 percent of our brains.

Gordon說，這個“謎”之所以經久不衰的原因在于人們對他們自身大腦所持有的觀念：他們認為他們自身的缺點就是大腦潛能存在的證據。這是一個錯誤的假設。真實的情況是，在任何人的生活中的某些時候，比如我們休息和思考的時候，我們可能僅僅只用到我們10%的大腦。
 
"It turns out though, that we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time," Gordon adds. "Let's put it this way: the brain represents three percent of the body's weight and uses 20 percent of the body's energy."

Gordon補充道：“不過，實際上我們用到了大腦的方方面面，大腦的絕大部分在幾乎所有的時候都是活躍的。讓我們這樣說吧：大腦占人體體重的3%,但是用了身體20%的能量。”

The average human brain weighs about three pounds and comprises the hefty cerebrum, which is the largest portion and performs all higher cognitive functions; the cerebellum, responsible for motor functions, such as the coordination of movement and balance; and the brain stem, dedicated to involuntary functions like breathing. The majority of the energy consumed by the brain powers the rapid firing of millions of neurons communicating with each other. Scientists think it is such neuronal firing and connecting that gives rise to all of the brain's higher functions. The rest of its energy is used for controlling other activities—both unconscious activities, such as heart rate, and conscious ones, such as driving a car.

人腦的平均重量在3磅左右，包括“龐大”的大腦、小腦以及腦干。大腦是最大的部分，負責完成各種高級的認知功能；小腦負責運動功能，比如動作的協調以及保持平衡；腦干負責一些無意識的功能，比如呼吸。大腦消耗的大部分能量用于數百萬神經元之間的快速傳送。剩余的能量用于控制其它的活動---既包括無意識活動，比如心跳，也包括有意識活動，比如開車。
 
Although it's true that at any given moment all of the brain's regions are not concurrently firing, brain researchers using imaging technology have shown that, like the body's muscles, most are continually active over a 24-hour period. "Evidence would show over a day you use 100 percent of the brain," says John Henley, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Even in sleep, areas such as the frontal cortex, which controls things like higher level thinking and self-awareness, or the somatosensory areas, which help people sense their surroundings, are active, Henley explains.

雖然在給定的某個時刻并非所有的大腦區域都同時活躍，但是腦科學家們使用成像技術發現，與身體的肌肉相似，大腦的大部分區域在24小時的時期段內是持續活躍的。來自明尼蘇達州羅切斯特的馬約診所（Mayo Clinic） 的神經學家John Henley說：“有證據顯示在一天中我們100%的使用了我們的大腦。” Henley還解釋說，即使在睡眠中，有些區域比如前額皮層和體感區域都是活躍的。前額皮層控制高級的思考以及自我意識；體感區域幫助人們感覺他們的四周環境。

Take the simple act of pouring coffee in the morning: In walking toward the coffeepot, reaching for it, pouring the brew into the mug, even leaving extra room for cream, the occipital and parietal lobes, motor sensory and sensory motor cortices, basal ganglia, cerebellum and frontal lobes all activate. A lightning storm of neuronal activity occurs almost across the entire brain in the time span of a few seconds.

以早晨倒咖啡這個簡單的例子來說明大腦的使用情況：我們走向咖啡壺，伸手過去拿起來，把咖啡倒在杯子里，并且注意不倒滿了，這樣可以加一些奶油。在這個過程中，我們的枕葉和頂葉、運動感覺以及感覺運動皮質、基底神經中樞、小腦以及前額皮質都處于活動狀態中。在幾秒中的時間內，大量的快速神經元活動在幾乎整個大腦內都發生了。

"This isn't to say that if the brain were damaged that you wouldn't be able to perform daily duties," Henley continues. "There are people who have injured their brains or had parts of it removed who still live fairly normal lives, but that is because the brain has a way of compensating and making sure that what's left takes over the activity."

Henley接著說：“這并不是說如果大腦受到了損傷，我們就不能完成日常的事務。有些人的大腦受了傷或者他們的部分大腦被切除了，但是他們仍然能過比較正常的生活，這是因為大腦有一種補償措施，它確保留下來的部分能完成那些受傷或者切除部分應該完成的活動。”

Being able to map the brain's various regions and functions is part and parcel of understanding the possible side effects should a given region begin to fail. Experts know that neurons that perform similar functions tend to cluster together. For example, neurons that control the thumb's movement are arranged next to those that control the forefinger. Thus, when undertaking brain surgery, neurosurgeons carefully avoid neural clusters related to vision, hearing and movement, enabling the brain to retain as many of its functions as possible.

如果一個特定的大腦區域不能正常工作，那么了解大腦的各個區域及其相應功能對于理解其可能的副反應就是非常重要的。腦專家們知道完成類似功能的神經元傾向于集中在一起。比如控制食指運動的神經元就靠著控制大拇指運動的神經元。這樣，腦外科醫生在進行大腦手術的時候，他們會小心翼翼地避開與視力、聽力以及運動相關的神經元簇，使得大腦能盡量多地保留其功能。

What's not understood is how clusters of neurons from the diverse regions of the brain collaborate to form consciousness. So far, there's no evidence that there is one site for consciousness, which leads experts to believe that it is truly a collective neural effort. Another mystery hidden within our crinkled cortices is that out of all the brain's cells, only 10 percent are neurons; the other 90 percent are glial cells, which encapsulate and support neurons, but whose function remains largely unknown. Ultimately, it's not that we use 10 percent of our brains, merely that we only understand about 10 percent of how it functions.

對于來自不同區域的神經元構成的神經元簇到底是如何協作或者如何形成意識的，對于這一點人們目前還不了解。到現在，人們還沒有發現這樣的證據，表明有一個負責意識的區域。因此腦專家們相信意識是神經活動的一個真正的集體行為。在我們的皺褶的大腦皮質層內還隱藏著另外一個秘密，那就是在所有的大腦細胞中，僅僅只有10%的細胞是神經元細胞；其他90%是神經膠質細胞，它們包覆并保護神經元，但是人們對它們的功能仍然知之甚少。從根本上講，并不是因為僅僅我們只了解大概10%有關大腦是如何工作的，才使得我們只利用了我們大腦的10%。

Vocabulary:

Mundane: 世俗的
Concerto: 協奏曲
Manifesto: 宣言
Repository: 倉庫；寶庫
Contention: 論斷
Savant: 專家；博學多聞的人
Decimal: 小數點的
Telekinetic: 心靈遙感的
Alluring: 迷人的；誘惑的
Definitive: 權威性的；決定性的
Culprit: 犯人
Hefty: 重的；異常大的
Cerebrum: 大腦
Cognitive: 認知的
Cerebellum: 小腦
Neuron: 神經細胞
Concurrently: 同時的
Cortex: 皮層
Somatosensory: 軀體感覺的
Occipital: 枕骨的
Parietal: 頂骨的
Basal: 基礎的；基底的
Ganglia: 神經中樞
Part and parcel: 重要的部分
Collaborate: 合作
Crinkled: 褶皺的
Glial: 神經膠質的
Encapsulate: 裝入膠囊