The Brain Hides Information From Us To Prevent Mistakes

Posted on July 12, 2008  Comments (1)

The Brain Hides Information From Us To Prevent Mistakes

“The main finding of the study is that it has enabled us to confirm that tactile sensations are initially located unconsciously in anatomical coordinates, but they reach our awareness only when the brain has formed an image of their origin in the spatial coordinates, external to the body,” explained Salvador Soto-Faraco. The coexistence of different spatial reference frames in the brain has been known for some time. So has the fact that confusions between them may result in some cases, such as when we invert the usual anatomical position of some body parts (e.g. when crossing our arms over the body midline). “The brain sorts out problems of this kind rapidly, in a matter of tenths of a second. To do so, however, it has to integrate information arriving in formats that are quite disparate”, Sotoa-Faraco added. “Our research has helped us understand how this process works and how the brain manages spatial realignment when faced with conflict”, he concluded.

Interesting. I think my brain might be hiding more from me lately (like right now where the key to my shed is) 🙂

Related: How Brain Resolves SightMapping Where Brains Store Similar InformationHow The Brain Rewires Itselfposts on science and brains

One Response to “The Brain Hides Information From Us To Prevent Mistakes”

  1. Chris Miller
    July 13th, 2008 @ 6:43 pm

    That is fascinating! Yet, somehow I’m not completely surprised either. The brain is a truly amazing thing. Whenever I think of how much is really going on in there without me even trying… it’s just incredible.

Leave a Reply