The human brain is complex. It enables concertos to be composed, manifestos made, and equations solved elegantly. It's also the wellspring of feelings, behaviors, experiences and the repository of memory. So it's no surprise that the brain remains a mystery.

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 pi to the 20,000th decimal place or perhaps even a psychic.

Though an alluring idea, the "ten percent myth" is so wrong it is almost laughable,

While there’s no definitive culprit to the beginning of 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 linked to Albert Einstein, who supposedly used it to explain his cosmic intellect.