Our imagination can affect the way we experience the "real" world much more than we suspect, according to recent research from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Although we tend to consider the things we imagine and the things we perceive as clearly dissociable, the truth is that "the imagination of a sound or a shape changes the way we perceive the world around us in the same way as when we actually hear it or we see, "explains neuroscientist Christopher Berger, lead author of the study published in the journal Current Biology. In other words, "what we imagine hearing can change what we really see, and what we imagine seeing can change what we hear," he points out.
The heartbeat of the members of a choir is coordinated as they sing together, speeding up or slowing down with the melody. As suggested in Frontiers of Neuroscience by the Swedish scientists who discovered this phenomenon, the cause is the vagus nerve, which is activated during exhalation and deactivated when inhaling air.
It hurts more without thinking that someone is intentionally hurting us, and less if we consider that the pain has been caused by a mere accident, as Kurt Gray recently proved in a study published in the journal Psychological Science. In addition, statistics reveal that individuals with lower educational levels suffer pain for longer throughout their lives, 12% more to be exact.
The touch not only makes the affection but, in addition, it changes the genes. According to a study published in Nature Neuroscience, sex and physical contact between two individuals induce permanent chemical changes in chromosomes that affect the expression of genes (epigenetic changes) that regulate sexual behavior and promote monogamy.
Unlike what we usually think, the brain remains active even when it is apparently resting. The activity of the brain organ at rest, that is, without the presence of any stimulus or task, is structured and responds to certain patterns or spatiotemporal networks: the so-called resting-state networks (RSN). Neuroscientists from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) have just deciphered the keys to its operation.
Although they share the same genes and grow up in the same environment, identical twins develop different personalities and behave in increasingly different ways as they grow older. Scientists at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, have conducted experiments on mice to find out if these differences are reflected in the brain. And they have concluded that the time each twin spends exploring throughout their lives translates into significant differences in the number of neurons in their hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning and memory.
If your appearance haunts you in a sickly way, it may be due to a "crossing of wires" in the brain. Scientists from the University of California have identified that people who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a psychiatric problem little understood until now and characterized by the fact that patients are perceived as disfigured and ugly despite the fact that their appearance is absolutely normal, have abnormal connections in neurons in your brain.
Analyzing neuroimaging of the brain, scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have shown that the taste of beer on its own (without alcohol) causes the brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter related to the sensations that is pleasant and the motivation that can cause addictive behaviors.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
