Monty by Jim Meddick for June 18, 2017

Of course it works on Monty, since he actually does use very little of his brain, and has demonstrated so many times.

I’m glad that’s settled.

Brain and brain, what is brain!?

I always thought Monty was a “Brainiac”, now I know why. He’s on medication! NZT perhaps?

But if it’s a myth, the pill wouldn’t make any difference.

It’s an amazingly persistent myth. I still hear it all the time repeated as common wisdom, and I was even mildly annoyed after the first panel, but Monty doesn’t disappoint.

Like icebergs, 90% of our brains are underwater.

The 10 percent of the brain myth is a widely perpetuated urban legend that most or all humans only use 10 percent of their brains. It has been misattributed to many people, including Albert Einstein. By extrapolation, it is suggested that a person may harness this unused potential and increase intelligence. Changes in grey and white matter following new experiences and learning have been shown, but it has not yet been proven what the changes are. The popular notion that large parts of the brain remain unused, and could subsequently be “activated”, rests in popular folklore and not science. Though mysteries regarding brain function remain—e.g. memory, consciousness—the physiology of brain mapping suggests that all areas of the brain have a function. from Wikipedia

Thank you, Charley (Flowers for Algernon)

Yes, it’s a complete urban myth, but it made for a crackin’ good movie with Lucy.

I remember reading an article in one of my textbooks where a man had his brain scanned in an FMRI machine while he was multiplying two 6 digit numbers in his head, and they found that parts of his brain normally used to process sensory data from the eyes and ears was firing up in step with the active part of the brain we normally use to process language and math.

I remember listening to Lowell Thomas on the radio when I was a little kid (long ago!) and enjoying his commentary. But the notion that we use only 10% of our brain’s capacity has always seemed dismissive and demeaning at best. On the other hand, I do not accept Monty as my Master Teacher, either….

But it is not in Monty’s normal character to babble facts, names and numbers, so something must have happened from that pill…

It’s called the placebo effect. If you THINK it will work, it does. (Not for everything, of course).

Oh… uh oh… erg… um…ummm…. dammit, LSD flashback!