Introduction to ten unsolved mysteries of human brain

The ten unsolved mysteries of the human brain are just human confusion about themselves. Many mysteries of the human body exist in our brains. The brain is an organ that puzzles people, especially about life and death, consciousness, sleep, hallucinations, memory and other issues. Let's go into the human brain together and explore the unsolved mystery of the human brain!

dreamland

If you ask 10 people the same question-what causes dreaming, you may get 10 different answers. This is because scientists have not solved the mystery yet. One possibility is to exercise the brain by stimulating information synapses between brain molecules during dreaming. There is also a theory that people dream of tasks and emotions that can't be taken care of during the day, and this process can help people consolidate their thoughts and memories. Generally speaking, scientists agree that dreams occur during shallow sleep, which they call rapid eye movement sleep.

sleep

People spend a quarter of their lives sleeping. However, the root cause of sleep is still as puzzling as a dream. Long-term insomnia can lead to trance, hallucination and eventually death. Two States of sleep-deep sleep (slow eye movement), when brain metabolic activity slows down; Light sleep (when dreaming), during which your brain is active. Some scientists believe that deep sleep can make the body rest and save energy, just like animals hibernate. Light sleep helps to organize what you remember. However, this view has not been confirmed, and dreaming during light sleep is not always related to memory.

illusion

80% amputees have experienced the warmth, longing, pressure and pain of amputees. People who have experienced this phenomenon (called "phantom limb") always feel that amputees still exist. One explanation is that the nerve area of the severed limb reconnects with the spinal cord, and it continues to send signals to the brain as if the severed limb still exists. Another possibility is that the brain is a "hard-wired" transmission, which manipulates the residual body like a perfect body-which means that the brain still retains the blueprint for manipulation under the condition of sound limbs.

illusion

It is an illusory representation, something that does not exist originally, but the patient perceives its existence. Normal people occasionally have hallucinations, such as when they are anxiously waiting for someone to arrive, they suddenly hear someone knocking at the door, but no one actually comes. The appearance of this kind of auditory hallucination is closely related to the psychology of expectation, and hallucinations can also occur under sudden and intense stimulation. Under the influence of ardent expectations, strong expectations and high tension, normal people will also have some fleeting hallucinations, such as a mother who suddenly lost her son and was extremely sad, and sometimes heard her son talking to her. This illusion often doesn't last long. With the improvement of mood and proper treatment, it will be cured.

Illusion has two main characteristics: first, illusion is a feeling. Due to the lack of corresponding realistic stimulation, the objective test results prove that this feeling is illusory, but it is not illusory as far as the patient's own experience is concerned. Second, although hallucinations come from subjective experience and there is no objective reality, some patients firmly believe that their feelings come from objective reality.

Hallucinations can be divided into true hallucinations, false hallucinations and residual hallucinations. In the process of true illusion, the spontaneous excitement of the sensory area of the cerebral cortex makes the previous image active and reappears, which is the representation. Because the appearance is particularly strong, vivid and meticulous, it is "projected" to the external objective world. "Projection" means that when the intensity of image activation is as great as the intensity of real stimulus, it cannot be distinguished from the real stimulus image in people's consciousness, but it is taken for granted that it comes from objective space according to life practice, so this is a natural outward projection process. If the image trace is reproduced only to the extent equivalent to the appearance, it is not so vivid, vivid and meticulous, but only active in the mind and not "projected" into the objective world, which is a false illusion.

In addition, in patients with schizophrenia, there is often an illusion that lasts for a long time and is not closely related to emotions.

consciousness

When you wake up in the morning, you may have realized that the sun has just risen, and you will feel a sense of happiness when you hear some birds chirping happily in the branches, or even when you hear the fresh air brushing your cheeks. In other words, you are conscious. This complex topic has puzzled the scientific community from the beginning. Recently, neuroscientists have regarded consciousness as a realistic research topic.

Task control

The suprachiasmatic nucleus or biological clock in the hypothalamus of the brain makes the body run at a 24-hour rhythm. One of the most obvious results caused by circadian rhythm is the sleep-wake cycle, but the biological clock also affects digestion, body temperature, blood pressure and hormone production. The researchers found that the biological clock can be adjusted forward or backward by enhancing light and regulating melatonin. Recently, people have been debating whether melatonin can be supplemented to help people prevent jet lag-drowsiness and headache when the plane passes through the time zone.

Memory pathway

Some experiences in life are unforgettable, but scientists use brain imaging technology to try to figure out the mechanical reflex of creating and storing memories. It is found that the hippocampus in the gray matter of the brain can act as a memory storage box. But the resolution of this storage area is not strong. Stimulating the same brain region can make it produce true and false memories. In order to distinguish between real memory and false memory, the researchers put forward a method of strengthening memory according to background memory. If something has never really happened, it is difficult to strengthen the memory of the human brain in this way.

Pleasant brain

Scientists have found that when people laugh, three parts of the brain become active. They are: the area that dominates thinking and tells you jokes; The exercise area makes your muscles move; Emotional areas lead to "frivolous" emotions, but why do some people laugh at my brother's stupid jokes and others giggle when watching horror movies? Laughter is very interesting to reflect unconventional and uncoordinated stories. Another view in the field of humor holds that laughter is a way to send a signal that this behavior is "interesting" to others. Laughter makes us feel better.

The mystery of death

Why do we get old? The theory that human aging can be divided into two categories: (1) aging, like other characteristics of human beings, may be a part of human inheritance and beneficial to human beings in some ways. (2) From the most pessimistic point of view, aging is not intentional, and cells are constantly damaged in people's life, thus causing people's aging. A large number of researchers believe that science will eventually slow down the pace of aging and make human life expectancy at least twice.

Human freezing

It may be unrealistic to ask for a long life. But a new field called cryonics will bring some people back to life. Store the body of the deceased in a bone-chilling container filled with liquid nitrogen at a temperature of MINUS 320 degrees Fahrenheit (78 absolute temperature). The purpose of this idea is that after finding a cure in the future, people who died of incurable diseases can be brought back to life through thawing.

Innate and nutrition

Whether our thoughts and personalities are controlled by genes or by the environment has been debated endlessly. Scientists have established a convincing evidence system to prove that it may be controlled by one or two of them. The ability to study a single gene shows that we can't control many characteristics of human beings. However, in many fields, peer pressure or education will have a profound impact on who we are and what we will do.