For 96 hours, Harvard researchers blindfolded thirteen healthy young individuals. Ten of the thirteen participants reported experiencing unexpected, uncontrollable visual hallucinations that began between the first and second day. The vast majority of respondents who experienced hallucinations also observed flashing lights at various points during their experience. Incredibly, the individuals adjusted far more quickly than the researchers anticipated: “They were seeing with the tip of their finger.” Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
