人类大脑

1. A bigger brain is a better brain.
大脑越大越聪明。

Nope. After all, humans believe we’re the smartest animals on the planet, but elephant brains are three times larger than ours. And whale brains? Forget it.
并不是。毕竟，人类相信自己是地球上最聪明的动物，但大象的大脑比人类的大三倍。鲸鱼的大脑呢？不用说了。

Intelligence isn’t about relative size, either. Human brains make up about 2 percent of our body mass, which is pretty impressive. But tree shrew brains are a full 10 percent of their body mass, and they drink beer for a living.
智力也与大脑的相对大小无关。人脑约占人类体重的2%，这个占比已经很厉害了。但是树鼩的大脑相当于它们体重的10%，它们以喝啤酒为生。

So when it comes to brains, size isn't the most important thing. Hominid brain size did increase as we evolved, but scientists say that the secret to our smarts is complexity. And nobody can beat us there; neuroscientist Gerard Edelman has even described the human brain as “the most complicated object in the universe.” Your cerebral cortex alone has between 19 and 23 billion neurons, and each neuron can connect to other neurons tens of thousands of times.
所以说，大脑的大小并不是最重要的。人类大脑的大小确实随着我们的进化而变大，但科学家们说，人类聪慧的秘密在于大脑的复杂性。这一点我们是无敌的；神经科学家杰拉德·埃德尔曼甚至将人脑描述为“宇宙中最复杂的物体”。仅大脑皮层就有190亿到230亿个神经元，每个神经元可以与其他神经元连接数万次。
2. We only use 10 percent of our brains.
人类的大脑只开发了10%。

Oh yeah? Which part are you using right now? The entire brain may not be active every second of every day, but if you want to breathe, sleep, and digest your food, you need the whole thing.
哦，是吗？你现在用的是哪一部分大脑？整个大脑可能不会在每天的每一秒都处于活跃状态，但如果你想呼吸、睡眠和消化食物，你需要整个大脑运转。

Modern brain imaging techniques have given us actual pictures of the whole brain in action, which should have put this myth to bed. Instead, the 10 percent legend has persisted for years and years, in part thanks to movies and psychics who argue that the “other 90 percent" of your brain must be reserved for some supernatural purpose. This is absolute bunk.
现代大脑成像技术为我们呈现了整个大脑活动的真实图像，这本该让这种传言破灭的。但人类的大脑只开发了10%的传说已经持续了很多年，部分原因是电影和通灵师认为，你大脑的“其他百分之九十”一定是为了某种超自然的目的而保留的。这完全是无稽之谈。
3. Classical music makes you smarter.
古典音乐让你更聪明。
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