[Son of Jupiter (OP)]

Why would our eyes have developed to take in more information then our brains can process?  Secondly if we only use something like 5% of our brain, is the rest a lump of useless mass and what would happen if you stimulated the unused portions

Io

[DoctorBeaver]

I can assure you that we use a lot more than 5% of our brain.
Who says we take in more than our brains can process? Our brain filters the incoming sensory data & ignores all but that which is relevant. Try standing in a crowded room, talking to someone, with everyone gabbling away. Either the noise appears merely as background babble or your attention flits from conversation to conversation, catching little snippets from each, but not really taking much notice. However, if someone on the far side of the room says your name, even relatively quietly, your attention is drawn to it. If we were not taking in all the information, that could not happen.
Don't confuse sensory reception with perception. Perception of a sensory input is what happens after the useless data has been filtered out.

[Rokitansky]

I will answer the first part of the question. It`s not only our eyes but every other sense as well that recipe much, much more sensations than our brain can process. If this would not be the true, we would be overwhelmed with sensory informations, most of which are irrelevant for our actions. However, this vast range of informations provide us with possibility to effectively screen our surrounding, and to pick up those that have a certain quality that potentialy distinguishes them in a sence of their relevance. Just to make an example, New informations will be most likely percived by our brain, as well as anything that moves in our visual field.

[Son of Jupiter (OP)]

What I was refering to was a statement made by a scientist in a movie, What the bleep do we know,
(a link to his bio, http://www.whatthebleep.com/scientists/#Monti [nofollow] )
He said our eyes can process more information than our brain can at any moment. So in effect just because we don't see something dosn't mean it isn't there.
As for the brain usage do we use 100% of our brain? If not then (apply second part of origional question)

?

Io

[Son of Jupiter (OP)]

So what you are saying is that, like responding to our name in a crowed room, we have trained our brain to "listen" to only useful/relevent information.

Io

[neilep]

I thought this might be of interest http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=695

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Son of Jupiter (OP)]

Thanks Neilep that was great, it cleared up a few things.

Io

[neilep]

quote:Originally posted by Son of Jupiter

Thanks Neilep that was great, it cleared up a few things.

Io

You're welcome Son Of Jupiter...can I just say your Ma or Pa is my favourite Planet ![]

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!