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10 mysterious phenomena of the brain that we are only beginning to understand
How it works .. 
Mind - thing mysterious and volatile, but what would we be without him? However, sometimes the logic leads us, and our eyes are playing with dirty tricks. The brain is difficult to study, and this applies not only to general scientific advances, but also strange psychic phenomena. For example, everyone is familiar with deja vu, but the brain every day throws us other phenomena, which we sometimes do not even notice.
1. How does the "brainwashing"?
"Brainwashing" completely changes the way or what a person thinks. Sometimes this technique is used not for good purposes - for example, prisoners of war, abductees and other people who are in a position of subordination. But this is, in fact, already an extreme form of "brainwashing».
Firstly, the "brainwashing" - is the destruction of all, what the victim believes. It is necessary to start with a clean sheet to print new thoughts, ideas and values. This strange combination of mental and physical abuse, plus the promise of a speedy deliverance from persecutors, so that the conditions are ideal for handling. After a broken man begins to believe that in all respects he was wrong, he begins to rely on the judgment of a man who just broke it again to get at least some kind of picture of the world.
As we mentioned, the procedure described above - this is an extreme case. There are other methods of "brainwashing", less obvious, but take place on a daily basis. These could be considered advertising is clearly designed to manipulate and change the way of thinking. Any organization or agency that recruit people into its ranks, have resorted to public advocacy. Sometimes even tries to manipulate you friends "washed" your brain, however, in the form of light.
How to actually work, "brainwashing," little is known. Not applicable, how successful different methods, because the official tests for obvious reasons, are considered a violation of ethics. Almost everything we know about it and told the prisoners, but the question remains still a lot - for example, how effective these methods are and how long. Research soldiers were unable to definitively answer these questions, but it seems to be largely independent of human consciousness and the strength of his character.
2. Why do some people can not recognize faces? 19,809,602
Prosopagnosia - a disorder in which a person can not know and recognize faces, with even the faces of friends or relatives. The disorder may also manifest itself as a failure to recognize facial expressions, a person's age or eye contact.
Those suffering from prosopagnosia people have difficulty with the processing of other visual cues, for example, hardly recognize landmarks, or inanimate objects related to some person (for example, can not find someone's car or house), and at times may even experience difficulties with the identification of animals.
For a long time it was thought that prosopagnosia - a result of head trauma, but now we know that about 2% of people with this disease are born. It is believed that congenital prosopagnosia is caused by a defect of the brain responsible for recognizing objects and further use of this information - the fusiform gyrus. But even with new knowledge prosopagnosia is difficult to diagnose because the person often finds other ways to recognize people, to compensate for their inability to recognize faces.
3. As we concentrate on the sounds we need in the midst of the noise? 50,952,992
The cocktail party effect - it is our innate ability to separate important information from the background noise. For example, carry on a conversation with a man in the midst of a crowded room, where all the talking. This phenomenon has been difficult to study because check the exact neurological response to a specific stimulus is difficult, but something that science could find.
Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco, a network of electronic sensors connected directly to the brain of patients suffering from a severe form of epilepsy, which was scheduled for surgery on the brain. Then they were asked to listen to the recording noisy conversation, and the computers at the time recorded their brain activity. The researchers were not only able to determine that the subjects heard, but know that the brain is tuned only to the speech of a certain type.
Instead of filtering out information like background music or conversation, the hearing aid simply ignored it. These data may be useful for treating problems associated with autism and impaired sensory processing information. Also, the data show that our brains for a long time knows what modern voice recognition technology still can not - focus on a single source signal.
4. Why should we often dream of things that we have done in the same day? 87,970,968
This phenomenon is called the effect of "Tetris": if you spend a lot of time doing a monotonous activity like playing "Tetris" One night you dreamed it. There are a logical reason - it's not a sign that you just overdo.
Researchers from the Harvard Medical School suggested that when you dream about something, what did you do during the day, your brain uses sleep-related pause to fix the behavior that you are so fond of during wakefulness. Study participants were playing "Tetris" for several hours a day and the second night most of the familiar dream of falling blocks.
The researchers concluded that the first day of the brain did not realize the need to learn something new, but during the second session duration game "flicked the switch" and it caused information processing during sleep.
Group, consisting of both in the game beginners and skilled players from showed the same results. Another test group, consisting of people with memory disorders, did not demonstrate a similar effect. This proves that dreams of "Tetris" are not a sign of "tetrisovoy addiction" - just the brain continues to learn as long as the rest of us off for the night.
5. Why do we see nonexistent patterns? 99,620,906
APOPHENIA - a technical term to describe widespread experiences when you see a picture that actually does not exist: for example, we see someone's face in a piece of burnt bread or spot. Therefore, we in the warm sunny day can lie on the grass and guess what it is like clouds.
The first hint of what the brain does when it came from an entirely different study - "voices of spirits." Latvian psychologist Konstantins Raudive wrote down what he called "talking spirits" and that the rest of the world called "static noise." Other scientists are not too serious about the claims Raudive that he had heard in his records some coherent voice, but then realized that he thus illustrated the ability of the brain to organize and process information so that it has acquired for us the meaning.
Our survival as a species is largely dependent on the ability to bring together fragmented information to create the picture. This ability is so ingrained in the brain that sometimes he is seriously mistaken in trying to identify the images and as a result the person sees on the trunks of trees or clouds.
6. Effective Is multitasking? 93,215,934
Ability to multitask often promoted at work, but recent studies show that it is not as effective as people think. Brain scans spent during multitasking, showed that instead of a time to perform multiple tasks, people just switch from one task to another. By the way, and the term 'switch to the task ».
Multitasking is not too effective, despite the fact that many still believe that the more things to do at the same time, the faster will achieve the goal and results were obtained. In fact, multitasking is fraught with the loss of efficiency of up to 40% during the day. You can consider yourself more productive and successful, but at the end of the day probably get tired more, but in addition also upset because of how little time to do.
But multitasking is different: for example, physical activity does not interfere with intellectual activity - so we can listen to an audio book while walking the dog. The disadvantage of this type of multitasking is that it severely limits our perception of the world.
7. Why brainstorming does not work? 67,103,940
At first glance it may seem brainstorm great way to find new ideas and creative approach to solving the problem, but in fact it has the opposite effect - while brainstorming a person becomes less creative and focuses on the development of the ideas of others, and does not offer its own. There are several reasons that brainstorming does not work, but the main reason is that people are very, very lazy.
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin is called "social shy": people simply present at the brainstorming session, listen to others' ideas, and occasionally make their own, differing only slightly from those already put forward. Others are hesitant to express their ideas for fear of being ridiculed group, especially after they hear some good suggestions.
It is easier to explain why you disagree with the other, than to take the risk and begin to defend their own ideas. If we consider that most of brainstorming last much longer than usually lasts creative upsurge, the meeting needed to search for new ideas, but in reality all just annoying.
8. Is there a natural talent? 19,887,878
When it comes to natural talent, people begin to contradict themselves. On the one hand we are constantly saying that we are capable of anything, we can be anyone, if we work hard enough. On the other hand, some people seem to be just made for their chosen field - maybe they even have a "natural talent". As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between.
A graduate of the Juilliard School and an instructor of youth in the Baldwin-Wallace College Dianne Richardson believes that crude, have not issued a natural talent does exist. It manifests itself in young students, who are working on their own initiative, not throw up their hands and are interested in further development. But no raw talent can not develop without working on it.
Motivation and experience for the development of talent is very important - to become an expert in any field, it takes an average of ten years. Talent can be seen less as a propensity for certain professions, as well as a set of personality traits that make a person more likely to succeed in a particular area.
Our personality and needs are constantly changing, and it's one of the reasons why some people can not "discover" their hidden talents, until they become older. This happens when external factors (without incentives, coaches or mentors) are forced to go to the goal. And the purpose first need to put in front of him.
9. Why do people with disabilities feel phantom limb? 99,525,010
Many amputees reported that their limbs ache. Sometimes it is not the pain, but just a slight feeling. These phantom sensations often experience not only people with disabilities. Do you ever thought that your pocket is no longer the phone or vice versa, you are angry, when he felt that he was calling on the silent mode, and then you realize that no one will call? This is the same effect.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have found that different parts of the brain associated with certain parts of the body, such as the hand or foot. When a limb is removed, the existing connection in the brain are active while the brain does not update the "body map" and get used to the fact that the limb is gone. People who feel phantom phone vibration, developed similar neural structures.
Strange, but for those people who do not part with your phone, the brain begins to recognize it as an appendage. This explains why it seems to us that we feel their phones and hear the call even if you forget your phone at home or in the car. This can be considered a cause for concern - that's how we are tied to technology.
10. Why do we see something when we close our eyes? 12,835,274
With this effect we are familiar, but as a rule, do not think about it. If you potrёte eyes closed, then "see" a virtual rainbow of colored shapes and lines. This is called phosphenes - eyes and brain work together, and as a result we see a strange visual markers.
We see phosphenes when no external visual stimulus. This may occur when you close your eyes or focus on some uniform pattern where distorted perspective - for example, on a dark highway at night. People spend a lot of time in the isolation tank or meditation, reported visions, which can be explained by phosphenes.
Temporary phosphenes can appear on the physical stimulation of the eyes - for example, when you click on the eyeball. A serious events such as traumatic brain injury may create permanent phosphenes - in this case the person will constantly monitor them, because the visual centers of the brain are active in the absence of external visual stimuli.
For example, when the patient is conscious undergo surgery on the brain, they are at a different electrical stimulation of brain areas reported seeing phosphenes. In the study of blind people revealed that they, too, see the phosphenes, with visions depend on which part of the visual system is damaged. Seeing they may not be the only people - animals, too, are capable of it.
via factroom.ru
Mind - thing mysterious and volatile, but what would we be without him? However, sometimes the logic leads us, and our eyes are playing with dirty tricks. The brain is difficult to study, and this applies not only to general scientific advances, but also strange psychic phenomena. For example, everyone is familiar with deja vu, but the brain every day throws us other phenomena, which we sometimes do not even notice.
1. How does the "brainwashing"?
"Brainwashing" completely changes the way or what a person thinks. Sometimes this technique is used not for good purposes - for example, prisoners of war, abductees and other people who are in a position of subordination. But this is, in fact, already an extreme form of "brainwashing».
Firstly, the "brainwashing" - is the destruction of all, what the victim believes. It is necessary to start with a clean sheet to print new thoughts, ideas and values. This strange combination of mental and physical abuse, plus the promise of a speedy deliverance from persecutors, so that the conditions are ideal for handling. After a broken man begins to believe that in all respects he was wrong, he begins to rely on the judgment of a man who just broke it again to get at least some kind of picture of the world.
As we mentioned, the procedure described above - this is an extreme case. There are other methods of "brainwashing", less obvious, but take place on a daily basis. These could be considered advertising is clearly designed to manipulate and change the way of thinking. Any organization or agency that recruit people into its ranks, have resorted to public advocacy. Sometimes even tries to manipulate you friends "washed" your brain, however, in the form of light.
How to actually work, "brainwashing," little is known. Not applicable, how successful different methods, because the official tests for obvious reasons, are considered a violation of ethics. Almost everything we know about it and told the prisoners, but the question remains still a lot - for example, how effective these methods are and how long. Research soldiers were unable to definitively answer these questions, but it seems to be largely independent of human consciousness and the strength of his character.
2. Why do some people can not recognize faces? 19,809,602
Prosopagnosia - a disorder in which a person can not know and recognize faces, with even the faces of friends or relatives. The disorder may also manifest itself as a failure to recognize facial expressions, a person's age or eye contact.
Those suffering from prosopagnosia people have difficulty with the processing of other visual cues, for example, hardly recognize landmarks, or inanimate objects related to some person (for example, can not find someone's car or house), and at times may even experience difficulties with the identification of animals.
For a long time it was thought that prosopagnosia - a result of head trauma, but now we know that about 2% of people with this disease are born. It is believed that congenital prosopagnosia is caused by a defect of the brain responsible for recognizing objects and further use of this information - the fusiform gyrus. But even with new knowledge prosopagnosia is difficult to diagnose because the person often finds other ways to recognize people, to compensate for their inability to recognize faces.
3. As we concentrate on the sounds we need in the midst of the noise? 50,952,992
The cocktail party effect - it is our innate ability to separate important information from the background noise. For example, carry on a conversation with a man in the midst of a crowded room, where all the talking. This phenomenon has been difficult to study because check the exact neurological response to a specific stimulus is difficult, but something that science could find.
Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco, a network of electronic sensors connected directly to the brain of patients suffering from a severe form of epilepsy, which was scheduled for surgery on the brain. Then they were asked to listen to the recording noisy conversation, and the computers at the time recorded their brain activity. The researchers were not only able to determine that the subjects heard, but know that the brain is tuned only to the speech of a certain type.
Instead of filtering out information like background music or conversation, the hearing aid simply ignored it. These data may be useful for treating problems associated with autism and impaired sensory processing information. Also, the data show that our brains for a long time knows what modern voice recognition technology still can not - focus on a single source signal.
4. Why should we often dream of things that we have done in the same day? 87,970,968
This phenomenon is called the effect of "Tetris": if you spend a lot of time doing a monotonous activity like playing "Tetris" One night you dreamed it. There are a logical reason - it's not a sign that you just overdo.
Researchers from the Harvard Medical School suggested that when you dream about something, what did you do during the day, your brain uses sleep-related pause to fix the behavior that you are so fond of during wakefulness. Study participants were playing "Tetris" for several hours a day and the second night most of the familiar dream of falling blocks.
The researchers concluded that the first day of the brain did not realize the need to learn something new, but during the second session duration game "flicked the switch" and it caused information processing during sleep.
Group, consisting of both in the game beginners and skilled players from showed the same results. Another test group, consisting of people with memory disorders, did not demonstrate a similar effect. This proves that dreams of "Tetris" are not a sign of "tetrisovoy addiction" - just the brain continues to learn as long as the rest of us off for the night.
5. Why do we see nonexistent patterns? 99,620,906
APOPHENIA - a technical term to describe widespread experiences when you see a picture that actually does not exist: for example, we see someone's face in a piece of burnt bread or spot. Therefore, we in the warm sunny day can lie on the grass and guess what it is like clouds.
The first hint of what the brain does when it came from an entirely different study - "voices of spirits." Latvian psychologist Konstantins Raudive wrote down what he called "talking spirits" and that the rest of the world called "static noise." Other scientists are not too serious about the claims Raudive that he had heard in his records some coherent voice, but then realized that he thus illustrated the ability of the brain to organize and process information so that it has acquired for us the meaning.
Our survival as a species is largely dependent on the ability to bring together fragmented information to create the picture. This ability is so ingrained in the brain that sometimes he is seriously mistaken in trying to identify the images and as a result the person sees on the trunks of trees or clouds.
6. Effective Is multitasking? 93,215,934
Ability to multitask often promoted at work, but recent studies show that it is not as effective as people think. Brain scans spent during multitasking, showed that instead of a time to perform multiple tasks, people just switch from one task to another. By the way, and the term 'switch to the task ».
Multitasking is not too effective, despite the fact that many still believe that the more things to do at the same time, the faster will achieve the goal and results were obtained. In fact, multitasking is fraught with the loss of efficiency of up to 40% during the day. You can consider yourself more productive and successful, but at the end of the day probably get tired more, but in addition also upset because of how little time to do.
But multitasking is different: for example, physical activity does not interfere with intellectual activity - so we can listen to an audio book while walking the dog. The disadvantage of this type of multitasking is that it severely limits our perception of the world.
7. Why brainstorming does not work? 67,103,940
At first glance it may seem brainstorm great way to find new ideas and creative approach to solving the problem, but in fact it has the opposite effect - while brainstorming a person becomes less creative and focuses on the development of the ideas of others, and does not offer its own. There are several reasons that brainstorming does not work, but the main reason is that people are very, very lazy.
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin is called "social shy": people simply present at the brainstorming session, listen to others' ideas, and occasionally make their own, differing only slightly from those already put forward. Others are hesitant to express their ideas for fear of being ridiculed group, especially after they hear some good suggestions.
It is easier to explain why you disagree with the other, than to take the risk and begin to defend their own ideas. If we consider that most of brainstorming last much longer than usually lasts creative upsurge, the meeting needed to search for new ideas, but in reality all just annoying.
8. Is there a natural talent? 19,887,878
When it comes to natural talent, people begin to contradict themselves. On the one hand we are constantly saying that we are capable of anything, we can be anyone, if we work hard enough. On the other hand, some people seem to be just made for their chosen field - maybe they even have a "natural talent". As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between.
A graduate of the Juilliard School and an instructor of youth in the Baldwin-Wallace College Dianne Richardson believes that crude, have not issued a natural talent does exist. It manifests itself in young students, who are working on their own initiative, not throw up their hands and are interested in further development. But no raw talent can not develop without working on it.
Motivation and experience for the development of talent is very important - to become an expert in any field, it takes an average of ten years. Talent can be seen less as a propensity for certain professions, as well as a set of personality traits that make a person more likely to succeed in a particular area.
Our personality and needs are constantly changing, and it's one of the reasons why some people can not "discover" their hidden talents, until they become older. This happens when external factors (without incentives, coaches or mentors) are forced to go to the goal. And the purpose first need to put in front of him.
9. Why do people with disabilities feel phantom limb? 99,525,010
Many amputees reported that their limbs ache. Sometimes it is not the pain, but just a slight feeling. These phantom sensations often experience not only people with disabilities. Do you ever thought that your pocket is no longer the phone or vice versa, you are angry, when he felt that he was calling on the silent mode, and then you realize that no one will call? This is the same effect.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have found that different parts of the brain associated with certain parts of the body, such as the hand or foot. When a limb is removed, the existing connection in the brain are active while the brain does not update the "body map" and get used to the fact that the limb is gone. People who feel phantom phone vibration, developed similar neural structures.
Strange, but for those people who do not part with your phone, the brain begins to recognize it as an appendage. This explains why it seems to us that we feel their phones and hear the call even if you forget your phone at home or in the car. This can be considered a cause for concern - that's how we are tied to technology.
10. Why do we see something when we close our eyes? 12,835,274
With this effect we are familiar, but as a rule, do not think about it. If you potrёte eyes closed, then "see" a virtual rainbow of colored shapes and lines. This is called phosphenes - eyes and brain work together, and as a result we see a strange visual markers.
We see phosphenes when no external visual stimulus. This may occur when you close your eyes or focus on some uniform pattern where distorted perspective - for example, on a dark highway at night. People spend a lot of time in the isolation tank or meditation, reported visions, which can be explained by phosphenes.
Temporary phosphenes can appear on the physical stimulation of the eyes - for example, when you click on the eyeball. A serious events such as traumatic brain injury may create permanent phosphenes - in this case the person will constantly monitor them, because the visual centers of the brain are active in the absence of external visual stimuli.
For example, when the patient is conscious undergo surgery on the brain, they are at a different electrical stimulation of brain areas reported seeing phosphenes. In the study of blind people revealed that they, too, see the phosphenes, with visions depend on which part of the visual system is damaged. Seeing they may not be the only people - animals, too, are capable of it.
via factroom.ru
