In neuroscience, the term neuromyth refers to an unsubstantiated misconception which has been generated for a number of reasons, such as a misunderstanding or misquotation of scientific facts regarding the nervous system. This study addresses the persistence of neuromyths related to the number of neurons in the human brain, especially in educational neuroscience texts. Through a review of 24 texts in neuroscience and related fields, as well as a systematic search of experimental articles in the Web of Science database, the figures reported in the literature were compared with experimental data obtained through stereology. The most recent experimental results suggest that the human brain contains approximately 19 billion neurons, in contrast to the commonly cited inaccurate figures, such as 86 billion, 100 billion, one billion and 86 trillion, which could originate from incorrect translations and terminological misunderstandings. The results show the need to demystify these neuromyths and promote further experimental research that allows more precise estimates on neuronal quantification, thus contributing to a better understanding of the human brain in various areas of neuroscience.

KEY WORDS: Neuroscience; Brain; Neuron; Quantitative methods; Stereology