5 Mind-Blowing Ways Your Senses Lie to You Every Day #2. Your Brain Changes the Size of Objects Around You Yuliya Chsherbakova/Photos.com Your eyes are lying to you right now about something as basic as the size of the stuff you're looking at. Don't believe us? Take a look at the photograph below, and tell us which of the two vertical red lines is longer in your monitor: Mighty Optical IllusionsSpoiler: You're about to feel dumb. If you answered the one on the right, congratulations, you're completely normal, and also completely wrong. Mighty Optical Illusions They're the exact same size. The above photograph is an example of the Ponzo illusion, which occurs when an image's context tricks your brain into seeing size differences. QuiaPoint all you want, kid, it'll always be shorter. So where have you seen this type of illusion in real life? If you see four at the same time, though, you probably need new glasses. #1. Jupiterimages/Photos.com The answer is: you. Boris Kaulin/Photos.comOn the plus side, rubber hands keep fresh much better.
3D map of human brain is the most detailed ever - health - 20 June 2013 The folds, creases and intricate internal structures that make up the human brain are being revealed in unprecedented detail. A new three-dimensional map called BigBrain is the most detailed ever constructed, and should lead to a more accurate picture of how the brain's different regions function and interact. Until now, the precise placement of the neurons that make up our brain circuitry has been difficult to map, largely because the human brain's surface is covered with folds and creases. Slicing a brain exposes only two dimensions, so it is often unclear where and how the cells within these folds are organised in three-dimensional space. To make the new map, Katrin Amunts of the Jülich Research Centre in Germany and her colleagues embedded a 65-year old woman's brain in wax, sliced it into more than 7400 sections each 20 micrometres thick – one-fifth of the width of a human hair – and made digital images of the slices, also at a resolution of 20 micrometres. Tour de force
5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Become Instantly Smarter There might not be a worse feeling than when you have some kind of huge project due and the creative part of your brain just slowly grinds to a halt. Some people have little rituals they go through to try to jump-start their muse, from "take a relaxing walk" to "steal someone else's idea and then secretly murder them." But why not look to science to figure out what actually works? Well, we don't guarantee that any of the below will work for you -- all we can say is that smarter people than us have gotten them to work under scientifically controlled conditions. #5. Andrea Chu/Digital Vision/Getty Images When it comes to solving problems, we like to think we know how to get the best results out of ourselves. Well, science is here to do what science does best and tell us that we're doing it all wrong. Thomas Northcut/Lifesize/Getty Images"4 p.m. already? Christopher Robbins/Digital Vision/Getty Images"Wait, pickles with hamburgers stuffed in the middle!" Think about the Beatles. #4. #3.
5 Mind-Blowing Ways Your Senses Lie to You Every Day We are so completely dependent on our five senses every moment of the day that we totally forget how full of shit they can be. Your reality is cobbled together from a bunch of different parts of your brain working in conjunction, and often it's like a bickering conference room full of uncooperative co-workers. In fact, we're pretty sure the thing your brain does best is convince you that it works. But it doesn't take much to spot the bizarre little flaws in your gray matter. #5. Photos.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images When you hear someone talk, the whole process is pretty straightforward, right? Short answer: your eyes. In the clip, you see (and hear) a guy saying "bah bah bah" over and over. BBCYour brain also gave the "fah" version a tan, for unknown reasons. This illusion is called the McGurk effect, and the creepiest part is that, even knowing know full well what's going on, you can't get your ears to hear the correct sound. But that's not the only time your eyes screw you over ... #4.
Banishing consciousness: the mystery of anaesthesia - health - 29 November 2011 Read full article Continue reading page |1|2|3 I WALK into the operating theatre feeling vulnerable in a draughty gown and surgical stockings. I smile weakly and ask for a gin and tonic. I have had two operations under general anaesthetic this year. What they didn't tell me was how the drugs would send me into the realms of oblivion. The development of general anaesthesia has transformed surgery from a horrific ordeal into a gentle slumber. That is starting to change, however, with the development of new techniques for imaging the brain or recording its electrical activity during anaesthesia. Consciousness has long been one of the great mysteries of life, the universe and everything. Altered consciousness doesn't only happen under a general anaesthetic of course - it occurs whenever we drop off to sleep, or if we are unlucky enough to be whacked on the head. It was a Japanese surgeon who performed the first known surgery under anaesthetic, in 1804, using a mixture of potent herbs.
Does the head remain briefly conscious after decapitation (revisited)? A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's Storehouse of Human Knowledge June 12, 1998 Dear Cecil: In the answer about the guillotine in your online archive, you say that "the fatal blow induces immediate unconsciousness." — Joel Brusk, via AOL Dear Joel: Let's see. A lot of people disputed my claim that victims of the guillotine blacked out immediately. Not likely. But let's return to the original question, appalling though it may be: Is a severed head aware of its fate? It doesn't get any better. Is it possible? Then I received a note from a U.S. My friend's head came to rest face up, and (from my angle) upside-down. I've spoken with the author and am satisfied the event occurred as described. — Cecil Adams
5 Ways Your Brain Is Messing With Your Head We accept on a regular basis the premise that our minds are being screwed with. Advertisers, politicians, magicians; we accept that they know the tricks to pull the wool over our eyes. But as it turns out, the ways in which your head is being truly and royally messed with the most, are coming from inside. Please be advised that your brain does not want you reading the following list, and may kill you to protect its secrets. #5. What is it? It's your inability to notice changes that happen right in front of you, even if they're hugely obvious... as long as you don't see the actual change take place. Um, What? Consider Alfonso Ribeiro. Now, if suddenly that image of Carlton blinked and changed to a different image, you'd notice it. In fact, if the entire text of this article--and the whole color and layout of this website--changed while you were gone, you probably wouldn't notice. A scientist named George McConkie started working on this in the 70s. Why Does the Brain Lie About it? #4. #3.
5 Superpowers We All Had as Babies (According to Science) To many of us, kids are just a squishy bundle of preciousness that can't even take a decent punch. If there's anything super about them it's their ability to produce a seemingly infinite amount of poop. But you only think this because, like most super geniuses, babies revel in deception because they answer to no god. Not unlike Clark Kent, babies everywhere managed to fool the world with their mild-mannered public persona, masking the amazing superpowers nearly all of them possess. Slap a pair of tights on any random toddler, and you have a bona fide superhero (or, realistically, supervillain). When deprived of one sense or a skill, a person usually compensates for it in some other way. You blame me for never making it as a professional dancer, mommy. It gets weirder. See, their mind-reading doesn't end with fellow humans. You are... utterly disgusted and... thoroughly depressed. Take a look at this picture of two monkeys and see if you can tell the difference between them:
Is 'Numerosity' Humans' Sixth Sense? Whether it's determining the number of ships on the horizon or the number of cookies in a jar, the human brain has a "map" for perceiving numbers, new research shows. Topographical maps of the human brain are known to exist for the primary senses, such as sight, hearing and touch, but this is the first time such a map has been found for numerosity, or number sense. The map's layout allows for the most efficient communication among neurons doing similar tasks. Studies in monkeys have shown that certain neurons in the parietal cortex, located at the back of the brain beneath the crown of the hair, became active when the animals viewed a specific number of items. These studies did not find a map for numerosity, though scientists have long suspected one exists. [The Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind] "Scientists have suspected an ordered mapping of numbers for a long time," said Andreas Nieder, a neurobiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, who was not involved in the study.
6 True Stories from History Creepier Than Any Horror Movie History books are full of grisly details about who got stabbed, what town got burned to the ground, and which kings married their cousins -- so imagine the stuff that gets edited out. Or, you know, read about it in this article instead. As part of our continuing quest to tell you the stuff your teachers didn't want you to know, here are some gruesome and little-known addenda to some of the most famous moments in history. #6. National Archives and Records Administration You've probably seen this illustration a hundred times, but can you name everyone in it? Library of CongressThe Illuminati members behind the curtain don't count. That's obviously John Wilkes Booth on the right, followed by Abraham Lincoln going, "But I wanna know what happens next! Rathbone was seriously injured while attending the most disastrous double date in history, and though he physically survived the attack, his mind never recovered. The police found Rathbone covered with blood and completely out of his mind. #5.
5 Old News Stories the Media Pretended Were New This Year Looking back on 2013, you'd think America spent the whole year recovering from the vapors and waking up between fainting spells. Whether the story was Kanye making a baby with a Kardashian or Miley Cyrus and her pancake butt making a spectacle of herself at the VMA Awards, the Internet reacted to major news stories with expressions that are usually only found on Taylor Swift after walking in on her parents doing it. Getty Images Entertainment/Getty ImagesActual picture of me watching C-Span. Forget "selfie" -- the word of the year should have been "incredu-rage," a word I just made up to describe how we handle unexpected events now. Did you know that when the Breaking Bad finale aired, our collective gasps of disbelief turned the tide of global warming? It's true. If we'd just taken a few minutes to learn some history, none of these stories would have shocked us. #5. Scott Gries/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images Why It Was Old News: Hey! Hey, again! Warner Bros. #4. Paula Deen #3.