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

仅仅只开发我们大脑潜能的10%会是什么结果？

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.

人脑很复杂，我们用大脑除了完成许许多多的日常事务外，还谱写协奏曲，发布宣言以及算出漂亮的方程解。大脑不仅是我们人类所有的感情、行为、经验的源泉，它也是我们记忆和自我感知的“宝库”，因此大脑本身仍然是个谜就毫不奇怪了。

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.

除了大脑本身就是个谜之外，还有一种论断称人类“仅仅”只利用了大脑的10%。如果普通人只要能开发大脑另外的90%, 那么他们也能变成记住π小数点后2000位的专家，甚至或者他们可能具有心灵遥感的能力。

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.

来自巴尔的摩约翰·霍普金斯医学院（Johns Hopkins School of Medicine）的神经专家Barry Gordon说，虽然人们只使用大脑10%的潜能的提法非常诱人，但是这个“10% 谜”非常错，简直就是可笑。虽然对这个提法找不到确定的“元凶”，但是人们把这个提法与美国的心理学家兼作者William James联系起来，William James在他的著作《人的能量》（The Energies of Men）称“我们仅仅只利用了我们潜在的心理和体力资源的一小部分。”这个提法也和阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦有关（Albert Einstein），据说他曾用这个说法来解释他超常的智力。
 
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说，这个“谜”之所以经久不衰的原因在于人们对他们自身大脑所持有的观念：他们认为他们自身的缺点就是大脑潜能存在的证据。这是一个错误的假设。真实的情况是，在任何人的生活中的某些时候，比如我们休息和思考的时候，我们可能仅仅只用到我们10%的大脑。
 
"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补充道：“不过，实际上我们用到了大脑的方方面面，大脑的绝大部分在几乎所有的时候都是活跃的。让我们这样说吧：大脑占人体体重的3%,但是用了身体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.

人脑的平均重量在3磅左右，包括“庞大”的大脑、小脑以及脑干。大脑是最大的部分，负责完成各种高级的认知功能；小脑负责运动功能，比如动作的协调以及保持平衡；脑干负责一些无意识的功能，比如呼吸。大脑消耗的大部分能量用于数百万神经元之间的快速传送。剩余的能量用于控制其它的活动---既包括无意识活动，比如心跳，也包括有意识活动，比如开车。
 
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.

虽然在给定的某个时刻并非所有的大脑区域都同时活跃，但是脑科学家们使用成像技术发现，与身体的肌肉相似，大脑的大部分区域在24小时的时期段内是持续活跃的。来自明尼苏达州罗切斯特的马约诊所（Mayo Clinic） 的神经学家John Henley说：“有证据显示在一天中我们100%的使用了我们的大脑。” Henley还解释说，即使在睡眠中，有些区域比如前额皮层和体感区域都是活跃的。前额皮层控制高级的思考以及自我意识；体感区域帮助人们感觉他们的四周环境。

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.

以早晨倒咖啡这个简单的例子来说明大脑的使用情况：我们走向咖啡壶，伸手过去拿起来，把咖啡倒在杯子里，并且注意不倒满了，这样可以加一些奶油。在这个过程中，我们的枕叶和顶叶、运动感觉以及感觉运动皮质、基底神经中枢、小脑以及前额皮质都处于活动状态中。在几秒中的时间内，大量的快速神经元活动在几乎整个大脑内都发生了。

"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接着说：“这并不是说如果大脑受到了损伤，我们就不能完成日常的事务。有些人的大脑受了伤或者他们的部分大脑被切除了，但是他们仍然能过比较正常的生活，这是因为大脑有一种补偿措施，它确保留下来的部分能完成那些受伤或者切除部分应该完成的活动。”

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.

如果一个特定的大脑区域不能正常工作，那么了解大脑的各个区域及其相应功能对于理解其可能的副反应就是非常重要的。脑专家们知道完成类似功能的神经元倾向于集中在一起。比如控制食指运动的神经元就靠着控制大拇指运动的神经元。这样，脑外科医生在进行大脑手术的时候，他们会小心翼翼地避开与视力、听力以及运动相关的神经元簇，使得大脑能尽量多地保留其功能。

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.

对于来自不同区域的神经元构成的神经元簇到底是如何协作或者如何形成意识的，对于这一点人们目前还不了解。到现在，人们还没有发现这样的证据，表明有一个负责意识的区域。因此脑专家们相信意识是神经活动的一个真正的集体行为。在我们的皱褶的大脑皮质层内还隐藏着另外一个秘密，那就是在所有的大脑细胞中，仅仅只有10%的细胞是神经元细胞；其他90%是神经胶质细胞，它们包覆并保护神经元，但是人们对它们的功能仍然知之甚少。从根本上讲，并不是因为仅仅我们只了解大概10%有关大脑是如何工作的，才使得我们只利用了我们大脑的10%。

Vocabulary:

Mundane: 世俗的
Concerto: 协奏曲
Manifesto: 宣言
Repository: 仓库；宝库
Contention: 论断
Savant: 专家；博学多闻的人
Decimal: 小数点的
Telekinetic: 心灵遥感的
Alluring: 迷人的；诱惑的
Definitive: 权威性的；决定性的
Culprit: 犯人
Hefty: 重的；异常大的
Cerebrum: 大脑
Cognitive: 认知的
Cerebellum: 小脑
Neuron: 神经细胞
Concurrently: 同时的
Cortex: 皮层
Somatosensory: 躯体感觉的
Occipital: 枕骨的
Parietal: 顶骨的
Basal: 基础的；基底的
Ganglia: 神经中枢
Part and parcel: 重要的部分
Collaborate: 合作
Crinkled: 褶皱的
Glial: 神经胶质的
Encapsulate: 装入胶囊