The left cerebral hemisphere is to the “right-brained” poet or novelist as the hamstrings and quadriceps are to a competitive sprinter

Because the ability to understand and produce language is focused in the left side of the brain in almost everyone, caricaturing these creative types as using their right brain more than their left brain is silly.

visual-spatial abilities—localized to the right cerebral hemisphere—are skills that are absolutely critical for “left-brained” talents like science or engineering.

But much of our obsession with the brain’s left and right cerebral hemispheres may have started with studies of split brain patients in the ‘50s. During this time, people who suffered multiple seizures a day underwent intense surgery to treat their epilepsy.

To calm the electrical storms that ravaged these patients’ brains, the nerve fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain were cut. These fibers are collectively known as the corpus callosum

Once the corpus callosum is severed on the operating table, the new split brain patient appears astonishingly normal at first glance

But careful experiments reveal that this person is really two persons, two streams of consciousness in one body

only the left hemisphere can speak

The right hemisphere cannot speak, but it can point to words like “yes” or “no” to answer a question

Each hemisphere, it seems, maintains independent beliefs and personalities, challenging the notion that we are each an indivisible “self.”

We are all “brain-ambidextrous.”

After all, you were simply misinformed, and you’re not emotionally invested in it.

Conspiracy theories are also false beliefs, by definition. But people who believe in them have a vested interest in maintaining them

People need to feel they’re in control of their lives

conspiracy theories can give their believers a sense of control and security. This is especially true when the alternative account feels threatening.

Research shows that people who feel socially marginalized are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. We all have a desire to maintain a positive self-image, which usually comes from the roles we play in life—our jobs and our relationships with family and friends

Most people who believe global warming is real or that vaccines are safe don’t do so because they understand the science. Rather, they trust the experts

we have a good understanding of what motivates people to believe in conspiracy theories. That is, they do so because of three basic needs we all have: to understand the world around us, to feel secure and in control, and to maintain a positive self-image.

Sean Day is president of the American Synesthesia Association and has been tracking research on this condition for more than three decades

Summarizing the state of current research, Day says the brains of synesthetes do appear to be anatomically different (although he cautions that scientists have only studied a few types of synesthesia so far).

, it seems that the neural connections between different sensory parts of the brain are more myelinated in people with synesthesia

Myelin is a fatty sheath that surrounds neurons and enables neural signals to travel more quickly.

This allows parts of the brain that are responsible for different senses to communicate when they normally wouldn't.

One study that looked into the belief in alien abductions used a false memory test to show a correlation between susceptibility to lures and belief in abductions.

If you go really far along the continuum, you reach delusion beliefs those are problematic.

"I think people who are going to be sceptical will always be sceptical and vice versa. Once you have a belief system, you fit the facts into that belief system, so I doubt if anyone is looking at it rationally.

"It's the uncritical nature of the judgments people make or the conclusions people reach. Because if you want to believe something and go down that pathway and not be critical. And it is important to maintain a healthy scepticism.

. If you go in wanting to believe something, it's going to be pretty hard for you to take that hypothesis-testing approach."

Our brain is hard wired to make sense.

our brain works in a way if it doesn’t understand what the eyes perceive or “see” it makes a picture for us.

The strange thing is, our minds are wired to hear and see things that make sense, like hearing words or talking due to fluctuations in sound itself.

Not everything we hear or see is paranormal. Sadly as a researcher you’ll deal with some individuals that think everything is spirit, but that is far from “reality.”

Many individuals use white noise to sleep; it is very common for people to use fans and white noise machines, these are the most common source and they’re very popular.

Noise is classified by different colours, each is made up of different sound properties and frequencies.

While there’s isn’t significant evidence in humans to suggest that lower-volume sound like background white noise could bring about these kinds of changes in the central auditory system, Attarha’s team cite animal studies that suggest prolonged exposure in animals does affect their brains.

These phenomena demonstrate a very important principle of perception: we don't always see what's really there

the illusion was mistakenly referred to as a scientific personality test of right brain/left brain dominance by numerous websites and blogs. In reality, the spinning dancer illusion is related to a bistable perception in which an ambiguous 2-dimensional figure can be seen from two different perspectives.

According to this principle, objects that are grouped together tend to be seen as being part of a whole. We tend to ignore gaps and perceive the contour lines in order to make the image appear as a cohesive whole.

Long before scientists were studying the properties of neurons, artists had devised a series of techniques to deceive the brain into thinking that a flat canvas was three-dimensional or that a series of brushstrokes was indeed a still life.

Visual illusions are defined by the dissociation between the physical reality and the subjective perception of an object or event.

Brightness, color, shading, eye movement and other factors can have powerful effects on what we “see.”

The first question the collaboration is tackling focuses on decision-making by the brain.

By collating information from the eyes, the ears and so on, the association areas may give a more coherent, big-picture view of what’s happening in the world.

Then, there’s the frontal cortex, which is believed to play a role in controlling voluntary action. Research suggests it’s involved in committing to a particular action once enough incoming information has arrived.

Research on decision-making may also inform treatment of patients with other disorders, such as substance abuse and addiction. Indeed, addiction is perhaps a prime example of how decision-making can go very wrong.

In real-world decisions, you’re combining lots of different pieces of information – your sensory signals, your internal knowledge about what’s rewarding, what’s risky.

Even in the simplest, very earliest stage we’re looking at, where the animals are just making voluntary movements, they’re deciding when to make a movement to harvest a reward