fact
Researchers discovered that applying a sonogram to a person’s skull and stimulating specific brain regions can alter their mood. One researcher described applying it to his own head and later feeling like he had a martini. They hope to develop a sonogram-based device to treat mood disorders.
The post Researchers discovered that applying… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Psychologist George Stratton wore glasses that turned the world upside down for 8 days. By the third day his brain had adjusted the image to feel right side up and normal. Once he took the glasses off his normal vision looked inverted for hours.
The post Psychologist George Stratton… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
The brain shields us from existential fear by categorising death as an unfortunate event that only befalls other people.
The post The brain shields us from existential… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Scientists scanned the brains of lifelong bullies and found that they are physically small.
The post Scientists scanned the brains of lifelong… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
I think a lot of us can say that we’ve felt this kind of stress before: stress about being broke or very close to it. But how does this stress affect us, physiologically speaking?
We all have a fight-or-flight response system in our bodies that developed when our ancestors were roaming the land trying to avoid the many threats that could literally kill them at any time. Stress hormones are released when we’re presented with what we interpret as these kinds of situations – times when we humans have to decide whether to stick it out and fight or to run for our lives.
But there are fewer saber-tooth tigers these days, and your fight-or-flight reflex is much more likely to be triggered by social issues – including dealing with money problems. When it does happen, the fight-or-flight reaction is very hard on the body. It can tense up our muscles until they hurt and mess up how our immune systems work, leaving us more vulnerable to getting sick. It can also cause constant stomach aches and headaches.
Another bad side effect: you might make bad decisions, even though, deep down, you know better. Aimee Daramus, a clinic psychologist, said, “Under stress, blood flow and electrical activity are reduced in the frontal and prefrontal lobes and increased in the survival parts of the brain, such as the amygdala.”
Since the parts of the brain where blood flow is reduced influence impulse control and planning, your decision-making process might get thrown for a loop, causing you to do things you normally wouldn’t do. Basically, you start to feel the walls closing in, which pressures you to act in ways that actually hurt your situation.
Daramus added, “We act quickly and decisively, but not always as accurately as usual.”
On top of that, frequent stress reactions – whether caused by money issues or not – may cause anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Chronic stress might even lead to long-term physical ailments such as heart disease and diabetes. Finally, the stress may lead you to take comfort where you can find it – and that can sometimes mean in alcohol and drugs, which may lead to substance abuse problems.
Money problems are hard – really hard – but try to take care of yourself.
Remember, your only real wealth is health.
The post When You’re Stressed About Money, This Is What Happens to Your Body and Your Brain appeared first on UberFacts.
If you’re interested in strengthening your brain, playing a musical instrument is the best exercise you can do to improve brain function, make you happier and protect against dementia.
Learning to play an instrument actually changes brain structure and improves functioning better than any so-called brain games. Those who learn to play when they are young also have better long-term memory and brain development.
Photo Credit: Pexels
A study completed by researchers at the University of Montreal found musicians tend toward more mental alertness over those who don’t play.
Head researcher Simon Landry said,
The more we know about the impact of music on really basic sensory processes, the more we can apply musical training to individuals who might have slower reaction times. As people get older, for example, we know their reaction times get slower. So if we know that playing a musical instrument increases reaction times, then maybe playing an instrument will be helpful for them.
Previous to this study, Landry discovered musicians have faster auditory, tactile, and audio-tactile reaction times, and an altered statistical use of multisensory information.
Photo Credit: Pxhere
In other words, playing an instrument is a complex and emotional task requiring multiple senses, inputs and fine motor skills. This is what changes the brain and can also help musicians be successful in other fields, like business.
Scans of brains actually show physical differences between musicians and non-musicians. The huge bundle of nerves connecting the two sides of the brain, or the corpus callosum, is larger in the brains of musicians.
Learning an instrument at a young age leads to the biggest brain differences. Even if someone doesn’t dedicate the rest of their lives to an instrument, there are still drastic changes caused by even moderate or intermittent study. That’s because music instruction makes these changes in the brain more efficiently than any other activity (that we know of).
Photo Credit: Pxfuel
From strengthening speech processing to protecting against dementia, learning to play an instrument is like lifting weights for your brain. So forget the dumb brain games on your phone. Pick up guitar or find a piano teacher.
Your brain will thank you.
The post Wow! Playing Music Benefits Your Brain More Than Any Other Activity. appeared first on UberFacts.
When I was growing up, parents didn’t think twice about letting their kids play organized football. I played myself for several years, and I never thought about any of the possible repercussions that came along with getting hit over and over again on the field.
But parents with young kids today, including several of my friends who now have children of their own, are adamant that they will never, ever let their children play football. And maybe there’s a good reason for that…
Letting kids play football has come under fire in recent years due to the knowledge about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the disease that many former football players and others have suffered from after receiving multiple head injuries. To make the point, the Concussion Legacy Foundation released a public service announcement comparing the long-term effects of kids playing football to children smoking cigarettes.
In the PSA, a young boy says, “Tackle football is like smoking. The younger I start, the longer I am exposed to danger. You wouldn’t let me smoke. When should I start tackling?”
A study reports that it’s the number of years spent playing football, not the number of head injuries a person suffers, that impacts the severity of CTE.
The PSA calls for parents to wait until their children are 14 years old to let them play tackle football. Take a look at the PSA below.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you let your kids play football or do you refuse?
Sound off in the comments.
The post A Public Service Announcement Compares the Dangers of Kids Playing Football to Smoking appeared first on UberFacts.
The few people who have highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) can tell you exactly what happened on any given day, down to the way they felt and at what time. It’s both a superpower and a curse, depending on the circumstances. And to this day, scientists have no idea what contributors make a person have HSAM.
Though they do have some theories.
In 2006, a case study of Jill Price, referred to by the pseudonym AJ in the study, was published in Neurocase. It described in detail her unusual memory. Price later outed herself as AJ publicly.
In an email, Price explained her ability:
I can take a date, between 1974 and today, and tell you what day it falls on, what I was doing that day and if anything of great importance (i.e.: The Challenger Explosion, Tuesday, January 28, 1986) occurred on that day I can describe that to you as well …Whenever I see a date flash on the television (or anywhere else for that matter) I automatically go back to that day and remember where I was, what I was doing, what day it fell on and on and on and on and on. It is non-stop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting.
And she wasn’t alone. A number of people came forward after the report, saying they had the same ability. Some were tested and found to have HSAM, same as Price.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Currently, only about 60 people worldwide are believed to have HSAM. Scientists are working with them to see if they can learn more about the average person’s memory, as well as how, and why, their super memories operate the way they do.
Something researchers have uncovered is that people with HSAM tend toward obsessiveness with cleaning, collecting and organizing, so there is thinking that perhaps collecting and organizing memories is part of HSAM.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Also, structural differences in the areas of the brain associated with autobiographical memory creation show up on scans. When asked about particular dates from the past, regular people lose their ability to recall them after about a week. People with HSAM recall details up to a decade and longer.
Something else researchers found was that people with HSAM can recall false memories just as often as regular people. So, their superhuman memories are far from perfect.
Photo Credit: Pexels
So, what does this all mean? Maybe the answer lies in the mysterious part of the brain where we turn short-term memories into long-term memory.
It would be interesting to figure out, although where this could have practical applications for those of us with normal to poor memories remains to be seen.
I kind of like living my life able to forget – at least I don’t remember all my regrets…
The post Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) Is a Rare but Real Condition appeared first on UberFacts.
A brain injury sustained during a mugging turned a man who used to think “math is stupid” into a mathematical savant with a form of synaesthesia that lets him see the world in fractals.
Einstein was born missing part of the brain that influences speech and did not speak until the age of three. However, his parietal lobe, responsible for math and spatial recognition, was abnormally large.
