# Filling up your brain

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 1, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116 "2014-10-01T19:23:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116/1 "2014-10-01T19:23:13Z")

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Have any tests been developed that could even remotely detect tthe amount information a brain is storing? Or detect what capacity it might have for storage?

```
  I know some very intelligent people who take on very complex problems requiring a lot of horsepower. I know others who are always busy experiencing or reading about new things not so demanding and others who seem to live a very simple life not requiring a whole lot of thought and experience relatively few new things. 

 Obviously our brain is always at work, can brain scans detect how hard a brain is working?
```

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116/2 "2014-10-01T19:27:28Z")

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Probably bullshit, or at least not scientific, but I heard many years ago that the average person only uses 10-20% of the brain’s capacity. I forget what Einstein’s was, but it was way bigger.

I know mine ain’t near full yet!

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**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116/3 "2014-10-01T20:34:36Z")

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> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Probably bullshit, or at least not scientific, but I heard many years ago that the average person only uses 10-20% of the brain’s capacity.

Absolutely, completely, totally bullshit. It’s one of those urban myths that refuses to die.

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116/4 "2014-10-01T20:56:10Z")

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Here’s a more scientific (if more complex) version of such matters:

[What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-memory-capacity/)

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116/5 "2014-10-01T21:57:49Z")

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> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Probably bullshit, or at least not scientific, but I heard many years ago that the average person only uses 10-20% of the brain’s capacity.

The Straight Dope: [Do we really use only 10 percent of our brains?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/640/do-we-really-use-only-10-percent-of-our-brains)

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**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/filling-up-your-brain/700116/6 "2014-10-01T22:32:56Z")

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I guess when it is really full, ever time you learn something new, you forget something. Been losing track of things lately? : )