Doesn't mean anything if we're 100 times less likely to use them.

You know the saying mind over matter......well we first need to believe, then tap into the source and use it.
If you don't use it then you loose it, if you can't find it then you either never had it, or you never thought it was there in the first place.

My brain feels dumber after reading that article knowing how smart scientists are that study these things... :)

Yeah but except for those like Einstein few of us ever use more than 1% of our brains.

I am reading a lot of assumptions and conjecture in this article that are not supported by the evidence. There is no data to suggest that this is anything more than a coincidental finding. Nothing to tell us what the significance of this finding is. There is a neat and unexpected finding and then a lot of guessing and jumping to conclusions as to what it means. It may mean. It may mean nothing. Further research is needed but it was interesting. Here is a postulation for you: This constant low-level activity is simply needed for maintenance of the neural connections and if the level drops too low the neural connection severs and looks for somewhere else to connect. My hypothesis is just as valid as any made in this article given that I am highly educated and trained in the bio, psych, and medical fields.

I have often thought that some sort of analog computer would be far more flexible and powerful than a digital computer could ever hope to be. Nice to learn, even at this late date, that I was right. Larry Wolf - That is a very common misconception. Every one of us uses 100% of our brains, just not all at once. Different parts are active during different tasks, but any part that was never used would simply wither and die, quite early in life.

Jason has a really good point . I've noticed alot of articles make things sound like a breakthrough but if you actually read the facts they read "scientist's still have no idea but have a good story to tell"

Some of us were already using MindMapping tech years ago and beginning to enjoy enhanced brain power. There are other techs: like lightning reading; de Bono Think; SuperMemo or clones; that can work together for some of us — while most of us have our favourites.
¿ I would imagine that there is at least a gain of 10 X there for dedicated users !

I too have studied neurology, at Columbia University, and as a freshman was taught by the man who elucidated neuronal functions by studying squid axons, etc. So, any new knowledge will lead to new understanding, and these findings about dendrites, which challenge long held assumptions, should have profound impact, methinks.

One one-trillionth part of the infinite intellect is infinite, as is a trillionth of that. Theoretically, each individual human mind can catalog, contain, comprehend, and understand everything in the entire universe, limited and impeded only by the limits of our five senses, and mortality.