Top 10 Mystery of The Mind
Much of what we don't understand about being human is simply in our heads. The brain is a befuddling organ, as are the very questions of life and death, conciousness, sleep, and much more. Here's a heads-up on what's known and whats not understood about your noggin. ---- Jenna Bryner
#10 Sweet Dreams
If you were to ask 10 people what dreams are made of, you'd probably get 10 different answers. Thts' because scientists are still unraveling this mystery. One possibility: Dreaming exercises brain by stimulating the trafficking of synapses between brain cells. Another theory is that people dream abt tasks and emotions that they didn't take care of during the day, and that the process can help solidify thots and memories. In general, scinetists agree that dreaming happens during your deepest sleep, called Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
#9 Slumber Sleuth
Fruit flies do it. Tigers do it. And humans can't seem to get enough of it. No, not that. We're talking about shut-eye, so crucial we spend more than a quarter of our lives at it. Yet the underlying reasons for sleep remain as puzzling as a rambling dream. One thing scientists do know: Sleep is crucial for survival in mammals. Extended sleeplessness can lead to mood swings, hallucination, and in extreme cases, death. There are two states of sleep - non rapid eye movement (NREM), during which the brain exhibits low metabolic activity, and rapid eye movement (REM), during which the brain s very active. Some scientists think NREM sleep gives your body a break..and in turn conserves energy, similar to hibernation. REM sleep could help to organize memories. However, this idea isn't proven, and dreams during REM sleep don't always correlate with memories.
#8 Phantom Feelings
It's estimated that about 80% of amputees experience sensations, including warmth, itching, pressure and pain, coming from the missing limb. People who experience this phenomenon, known as"phantom limb," feel sensations as if the missing limb were part of their bodies. One explanation says that the nerves area where the limb severed create new connections to the spinal cord and continue to send signals to the brain as if the missing limb was still there. Another possibility is that the brain is "hard-wired" to operate as if the body were fully intact - meaning the brain holds a blueprint of the body with all parts attached.
#7 Mission Control
Residing the hypothalamus of the brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or biological clock, programs the body to follow a 24-hr rhythm. The most evident effect on circadian rhytym is the sleep-wake cycle, but the biological clock also impacts digestion, body temperature, blood pressure, and hormone production. Researchers have found that light intensity can adjust the clock forward on backward by regulating the hormone melatonin. The latest debate is whether or not melatonin supplements could help prevent jet lag - the drowsy, achy feeling you get when "jetting" across time zones.
#6 Memory Lane
Some experiences are hard to forget, like perhaps your first kiss. But how does a person hold onto these personal movies? Using brain-imaging techniques, scientists are unraveling the mechanism responsible for creating and storing memories. They are finding the hippocampus, within the brain's gray matter, could act as a memory box. But this storageare isn't so discriminatory. It turns out that both true and false memories activate similar brain regions. To pull out the real memory, some researchers ask a subject to recall in memory in context, something that's much more difficult when the event didn't actually occur.
To Be Continued...
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