The Body-Brain Connection

It is normal to think that our brains do all the thinking for us; however, the last couple posts have shown that our eyes have influence over how our brain works.

Adding to this knowledge I found that our bodies can also do some of the thinking for our brains. What we see and do with our limbs have control over our choice in situations. This is because in childhood we are hard-wired to know that up is more and down is less, and that right is more and left is less. It is a key trigger button for achieving the illusion of mind reading for mentalists, and politicians even use it as a light form of mind control / persuasion!

This is because how we think is essentially linked in with our ability to remember. If a politician taps into our memory cues using physical actions and motions, they can make us think more positively or negatively in light of a situation. It is a little trickier for mentalists because they need to reverse engineer the process by looking at motion and connecting it to thought and memory.

Synapse and Proteins

An interesting thing to note is that memories are made by forming new proteins around the synapses, essentially this is the glue that seals the connection between a memory and our brain.

Ali x

New Scientist: Mind Over Matter? How Your Body Does the Thinking

The Psychology of Happiness

Can money buy happiness? A recent study suggests not, but being richer than your friends can. Research has found that happiness is connected to a person’s social rank much more than their size of pocket.

The lead researcher, Dr Chris Boyce, Psychologist, said “Earning £1 million a year appears not to be enough to make you happy if you know your friends all earn £2 million a year”.

I guess this means that happiness might be easier to achieve for some people and much harder for others- depending on how rich your friends are!

If you win the Lottery, think twice before moving house, you may find your new neighbours are richer than you!

Ali x

What is Deception

Our ability to deceive one another is linked to our high level of self-awareness. Deception is a unique trait that separates us from the animal kingdom. We lie to each other for personal gain; it’s a mechanism that monkeys use on a primal level.

Art of the State: Banksy

Monkeys usually call out to others when they find food so that they can share it; sometimes the monkey that finds the food will not call out to others and in a bid for self-preservation, it will hoard it all instead.

I suppose the reward is far greater than the risk; evidence suggests that our ability to recognise deception is about 53% accurate. Deception is a survival trait that we pass onto our babies; at its most basic level deception is self-preservation.

Ali x

New Scientist: The Truth About Lies