Considering how important your brain is, we don't so long it was studied and we still don't know as much about it as we perhaps should. Yet scientists are still working to unravel the mystery of how that fleshy organ in your head controls every aspect of your being, and we're constantly learning more and more remarkable things about it and about us as a species. It just so happens that some of what's been discovered about the mind is quite remarkable and, well, mind-blowing.
10. A doctor who studied the brains of psychopaths discovered that he was a psychopath.
Everyone has a brain, but not everyone has the same type of brain. There are a number of neurological conditions and disorders that can alter your consciousness to a greater or lesser degree. And for many years, one of the most fascinating areas of neuroscience and the study of the mind has been the minds of criminals, especially those of serial killers and psychopaths.
Of course, not every psychopath is a serial killer, and even that distinction is part of the research. Why do some psychopaths become killers and others? just leaders ?
James Fallon of the University of California studied the psyche of psychopaths as part of his work in the psychiatry department. The lab where he worked had been conducting real-life brain scans of serial killers over many years as part of their criminal defense. Fallon, as a psychiatrist, studied these scans and began to notice certain patterns. He used this as a starting point and became something of an authority on the psychopath's mind. And that's when things got weird.
Digging into his family history, Fallon discovered a number of questionable relatives, including a notorious murderer. Lizzie Borden . Later, he and his family participated in some Alzheimer's disease studies that required brain scans as controls. Fallon later saw his own scan and immediately recognized it. It was psychopath's brain .
Fallon, of course, had never killed anyone, and he thought it was stupid until almost everyone in his life agreed that, yes, he was a bit of a psycho. Manipulative, reckless, emotionally distant, but capable of feigning empathy. It made sense. How did Fallon react? He was trying to practice being good, and he admits he has dark tendencies, but not necessarily dangerous ones.
9. Scientists have suggested that dolphins are considered non-human creatures.
One of the fun things about studying the brain is that you don't just have to study humans. Researchers studying dolphins, arguably the smartest creatures in the world after us, have made some impressive discoveries over the years about just how intelligent these animals are. And perhaps the most astonishing conclusion any researcher has reached is that the dolphin deserves to be considered human., non-human .
What is a non-human? It's pretty much what it sounds like. Psychologists from the City University of New York and zoologists from Emory University scanned the brains of dolphins and observed their behavior to determine that the animals possess with a distinct character , self-awareness, the ability to foresee the future, and the ability not just to learn but to teach others. They are people, just not people.
Efforts have been made to ensure that dolphins and whales are recognized as individuals and, therefore, individual rights since the publication of the study. In 2013, India announced , that dolphins can no longer be used in circuses and shows like Sea World, although it did not grant them human rights. .
8. LSD activates unusual parts of your brain for visual processing
If you've ever taken LSD, you might not need to know what science says it does to your brain, but when you start tripping, some amazing things happen. And when you think you're seeing things, your brain agrees with you.
Brain scans conducted on people who took LSD specifically to see how it affected brain activity have yielded some instructive results. Parts of your cortex that are normally buffered and protected from information overload, overloaded signals. The temporal cortex receives less information than usual, while the posterior cingulate cortex receives too much.
Normally, your thalamus channels information to other parts of the brain, but LSD disrupts this ability, causing unusual feelings and sensations. Many things happen that your thalamus usually protects you from because you don't need to experience them.
By taking the drug, you can process new visual signals in the parts of your brain that usually not associated with the processing of visual images, which is what happens when you begin to hallucinate. The exact mechanism by which this all works is still unknown.
7. Love and cocaine affect your brain in very similar ways.
If you've ever heard the expression "drunk in love" or observed yourself or others acting strangely when in love, it's not just a joke. Your brain really does go a little crazy when you're in love, and research has shown that love and cocaine have a very similar effect.
We're not talking about a long-term feeling of attachment, but rather that early euphoric feeling people sometimes experience in new and intense relationships. This explains why some people overdo it and commit strange, impulsive acts, such as getting married the day after meeting someone.
Both love and drugs like cocaine act on the same pleasure centers in your brain that give you a feeling of satisfaction. In fact, the way your brain processes love and pain relief , very similar. Both give you that rush of dopamine that makes everything feel great.
6. Men who wear ties get less blood to the brain.
A tie is one of those items of clothing that serves no real purpose, yet people continue to wear them more out of tradition than anything else. They're considered formal and businesslike. But there's some evidence that they don't do your brain any good due to their tendency to limit blood flow .
Obviously, you shouldn't strangle yourself to death with a tie, but the fact remains: it's essentially a noose you're choosing to strangle yourself with. The result is reduced blood flow to your head and brain. Researchers scanned the brain. 15 men Before and after wearing a tie. Blood levels in the brain were reduced by approximately 7.5% after tightening the tie. A small amount, sure, but how much blood do you want to deprive your brain of?
The study concluded that reduced blood flow may not be life-threatening, but may have more serious consequences for smokers and people with high blood pressure. Earlier studies have shown that ties Also can ruin your eyes .
5. Murderers tend to have less gray matter than other criminals.
We've already touched on the brains of psychopaths, but what else is going on in the brains of killers? Not every psychopath is a killer and not every killer is a psychopath, but research 800 convicts revealed some interesting results. The brains of murderers, in particular, differed from other brains. Specifically, those who had committed murder or attempted murder had reduced gray matter compared to those imprisoned for other crimes.
Not surprisingly, these reductions were seen in brain regions associated with behavior control and emotional processing . Less gray matter means they are less able to process information related to these things.
Those who might have suffered from things like psychosis or schizophrenia, as well as those who might have had traumatic brain injuries, were excluded from the study, ruling them out as potential causes of what was observed.
4. Nearly every NFL player studied has a degenerative brain disease.
It's no secret that professional football is a physical game, and the risk of injury can be very high. But no player who signed up in the past fully understood the risks, which are far less obvious than simple bumps and bruises. Brain scans of many former NFL players have revealed a high prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
At least at 320 players The degenerative brain disease has been diagnosed and has resulted in the deaths of at least two dozen people, most of whom were in their 20s and 30s. In 2017, a study of 111 NFL players found the disease in 110 of them .
A condition historically associated with boxers causes far more damage than initially appears. Men suffering from this condition don't just have a disease that kills them; it also changes their personality. Some victims committed suicide, while others, such as Jovan Belcher, Phillip Adams, and Aaron Hernandez, killed others before taking their own lives.
3. The brains of marijuana smokers show abnormalities
Marijuana has become increasingly popular in recent years, as more and more places have legalized its use. A number of states and countries support smoking marijuana or otherwise using cannabis, and many proponents have long claimed that weed is much safer and better for you than things like alcohol or tobacco. But unsurprisingly, its increased use has led to increased research, and some studies suggest it's not as beneficial as everyone hopes.
In 2022, the American Heart Association took a fairly neutral stance, suggesting that it is necessary to carry out additional research Marijuana's effects on the brain. Rodent studies show that marijuana use can impair memory, learning, and brain development. Human studies, however, yield mixed results, with more or less favorable results depending on the test used, which doesn't really help anyone.
A 2014 Harvard study found that marijuana smokers, even casual ones, had significant abnormalities in the parts of the brain that control emotions and motivation . Is anyone shocked to hear that marijuana smokers are unmotivated? Probably not. But this could become an even bigger problem as marijuana use becomes more widespread.
2. Space travel changes the shape and other aspects of your brain
Space isn't a natural environment for humans, and our bodies have some curious reactions when we're in zero gravity. One of the most curious side effects, discovered by the Russian space program, is that long-term spaceflight can alter the shape and function of your brain.
Researchers who studied the brains of astronauts noted that the brain was significantly reprogrammed . They scanned the brains of 12 astronauts before and after their time in space, averaging 172 days per astronaut.
Cerebral fluid, white and gray matter were altered after spaceflight. Parts of the brain actually change shape to adapt to the zero-gravity environment, but they don't immediately revert back when astronauts return to Earth. In fact, the changes are still present several months later, and it's not entirely clear what effect they might have in the future.
1. Scientists studied the brains of monkeys and were able to extract faces from their thoughts.
We studied dolphin brains to determine that they aren't human, so what could we possibly learn from monkey brains? Something out of science fiction.
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology studied the brains of monkeys and how they process things like the faces they see. As a result, they were able to determine how neurons in the brain organize information when a monkey sees a face and then extract that information. In other words, they were able to reconstruct the face , which the monkeys saw, based solely on the information in their brains. When the reconstructed faces were compared with real photographs of people, the results were almost identical.
The scientists weren't specifically trying to read the monkey's brain, it actually happened as a result of research into algorithms for technologies facial recognition . And it turned out that the algorithm worked almost exactly like the monkey brain.
While these results have the potential to improve facial recognition technology, there are also some more esoteric possibilities, such as perhaps using a murder victim's brain to see the face of their killer.