7 Fascinating Mysteries of the Mind (Explained by Neuroscience)

The inner workings of the mind have captivated thinkers for all of human history.

When we look at the mind, we’re also looking through it. With every new discovery, we uncover more questions, and that’s what makes the journey so exciting. For those who revel in the mystery, this never-ending exploration is an invitation to dive deeper.

What once seemed like unexplainable phenomena, rooted in mysticism and superstition, are now being examined through the scientific method.

This added knowledge has made these mind matters that much more interesting to examine, so today we’ll take a look at seven mind-bending concepts explained by neuroscience.

1. Gut Instinct: “A Feeling in the Pit of My Stomach.”

Has it ever felt like you weren’t thinking with your mind, but rather your stomach?

Sometimes it seems like a little voice is speaking to you, whispering not in your ear, but right in the pit of your gut. It’s like an in-built alarm that says a situation or a person may not be as they seem. Some people might call this instinct or intuition.

While it’s true that these concepts exist, it’s easy for us to conflate them with irrational paranoia, emotional thinking from exhaustion, or personal bias. Accurately gauging a situation through a gut feeling is a psychological concept—more specifically, it’s from a branch of the field known as psychophysics, as explained by neuroscientist and psychologist Joel Pearson.

Recent findings give us even more detail on this unique communication mechanism between the mind and the gut. Specific metabolites, such as short-chain fatty acids and bile acids, activate neurons in the vagus nerve of the brain stem, stimulating the “conversation” that sends us gut instincts based on learned information and subconscious assessments by the mind.

Consider it like the gut and brain whispering to one another, then nudging you to get your attention.

2. Creative Flow: “A State of Effortless Focus.”

Logic would dictate that to work effectively, whether in a technical or artistic sense, would require focused thought and complete attention.

But nearly everyone has experienced the fascinating sensation of the opposite. This is when our mind suddenly seems clear of calculation and conflict, and we’re operating in a form of auto-pilot where we’re completely one with the task at hand.

This magical feeling is often referred to as the flow state, or the creative flow. By putting some scientific thought behind the magic, we can learn how to enter into this blissful, productive place more often.

A study of jazz musicians revealed experienced players reached a state of flow more easily than novices. This implies that a mastery of the task at hand is required before flow can be accessed—the state of flow cannot create skills on its own. Instead, it seems frontal lobe activity and executive control relax, allowing sensory perception to take over. In this case, the individual draws on learned patterns and experience to guide them, going off what they see, hear, and feel, rather than just what they think.

The key to flow, then, is to gain a high level of skills, then relax the mind and let the talent speak for itself.

03. Why We Forget: “Did I Remember to Lock the Door?”

Isn’t memory a funny thing? We can remember the details of events from decades ago, yet sometimes we struggle to remember whether we completed simple tasks mere minutes prior.

It’s common to assume that emotional moments with personal significance stick out in the mind more than mundane tasks. This isn’t completely true, however. Some people can recall vague timelines about emotional experiences, but the details of these instances escape them.

For a long time, neuroscientists assumed that forgetting simple details and being forgetful was simply a deficiency of the brain. But new research now suggests that remembering and forgetting may have more in common than we once believed.

According to Sheena Josselyn, a psychology and physiology professor from the University of Toronto, the purpose of memory isn’t just to help us reminisce. Instead, it’s to help us make decisions. Experts believe “selective forgetting” helps the brain clear information it deems less important as a means of avoiding cognitive overload. We don’t exactly understand the brain’s ordering system yet, but forgetting is an important part of it.

From a neurological sense, forgetting isn’t a flaw of the brain—it’s a function.

04. We See What We Expect: “Did Anyone Else Just See That?”

Imagine you’re searching your dresser for a shirt that you really want to wear. You’ve reached the last drawer, and you know it just has to be in there. You pull open the drawer excitedly, and for just a split second, you catch sight of the shirt. Oh, wait, that actually wasn’t it.

But you were sure you saw it! Did your mind play a trick on you? Sort of. We think of the brain as a thinking instrument. We know its function is to process sensory input and make decisions. But sometimes our own conscious thoughts function as the input, putting the brain in a predictive state.

Scientists demonstrated this by embedding electrodes in the brains of patients who were undergoing brain surgery. They showed the patients videos of routine tasks like chores and meal prepping. When participants watched videos with a disordered, unpredictable sequence, their brains reacted in a way we would expect: the visual cortex, which processes visual information, engaged with areas like the parietal and premotor cortices, which are linked to action and movement.

However, when patients viewed videos depicting everyday, predictable activities in their normal sequence, brain activity shifted noticeably. In this case, the brain’s planning areas took the lead, reducing the visual cortex’s involvement as the focus moved from processing sight to anticipating actions. The fact is, we’re creatures of habit, and our brains like to pick up on what’s coming next.

The mind doesn’t just live in the moment. It’s so excited about life, it’s looking forward to what lies ahead.

05. The Placebo Effect: “Healing is Believing.”

Modern medicine is truly remarkable. A single pill can ease pain, calm anxiety, or improve sleep. But what if that pill contained no active ingredients—just sugar? Enter the placebo effect, where belief alone seems to trigger real changes in the body.

But is this true healing, or a trick of the mind? It depends on what we mean by healing. The goal of medicine is often to address the root of an issue, rather than simply relieving the symptoms. Placebos can’t treat an underlying problem like real medicine can. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful.

Placebos have been observed to lessen the discomfort caused by health problems, such as pain or nausea from issues in the body, or insomnia and stress from issues with the mind. But how exactly does a pill with no real medicinal properties demonstrate this type of ability?

Some scientists point to the connection between mind and body. Simply by believing they’ve taken real steps to address their problems, individuals can release feel-good chemicals in the brain like endorphins and dopamine. While placebos are no substitute for real medicine, studies show they can have positive effects.

The true purpose of the placebo is to help your body and mind utilize their in-built healing capabilities.

06. Déjà Vu: “Why Does This Feel So Familiar?”

Have you ever experienced an instance in life where a place, conversation, or event felt so eerily familiar it was almost like you had the same experience before? This is known as déjà vu, which is French for “already seen.”

This phenomenon has made people question the very nature of reality. Some say it’s proof of similar experiences in past lives or cases of memories traveling through the multiverse. Others claim it’s a “glitch in the Matrix,” proving our life is a simulation that’s being tampered with as we experience it.

But is there a more grounded explanation? Some neuroscientists say that it’s a case of mistaken memories. Partial recollections of a past event can blend with a current one that shares vague similarities, creating the illusion of repetition.

Why exactly does this mental mistake happen? One theory says it’s because two areas of the brain get out of sync—specifically, the hippocampus and rhinal cortex, which control memory and familiarity, respectively. Another theory blames a delay in transmitting information from one brain hemisphere to the other.

Instead of being a glitch in the matrix, déjà vu may simply just be a glitch of the mind.

07. Perception of Time: “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun.”

Why is it that when we’re in a boring environment or completing a mundane activity, time just seems to drag? Every second stretches out and the hands of the clock move in slow motion. Yet, when we’re having fun, time seems to zoom past at unbelievable speeds.

This phenomenon extends to other emotional experiences as well. Eager anticipation can make time seem to slow down, as can moments of fear where we feel stuck in the moment. How can the feelings we experience seem to affect time itself?

Many neuroscientists believe the brain has an internal clock, which pulses in units called “ticks.” An increase in ticks can create the illusion that more time has passed, perhaps due to the amygdala kicking into overdrive and processing more information in critical moments. This may be why events like the final seconds of a sports game, or a split-second car accident, seem to last much longer than they actually do.

So why does time fly by when we’re in situations we want to savor? It could be related to the release of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. These feel-good chemicals can put us in a state of temporary bliss, numbing us to the true passage of time. But what about boredom? Dr. Michael Shadlen, a neuroscientist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, says the brain perceives “horizons.” Being engrossed in something means we see the near and distant horizons, causing the time between them to flutter by. But focusing only on how much we want something to end makes the distant horizon feel further out, causing time to drag.

Simply put, the brain is always right on time—at least when it comes to its own internal clock.

What New Wonders Will Neuroscience Reveal in the Future?

There’s perhaps no creation more marvelous, no power more intriguing, than the essence of mind zapping through our neural circuits.

We can see how this wonderous entity warps reality, yet also explains it scientifically. The mind and the body communicate, through gut instincts. The same happens with the placebo effect, when we expect to heal. We also see what we expect, and this anticipation impacts our perception of time. Sometimes we forget so we can remember, remember incorrectly, or even tap into memories effortlessly through the flow state.

These fascinating discoveries have only scratched the surface of the mystery that is our mind. Yet they’ve given us so much more to think about. What revelations do you think neuroscience will bring us in the future?

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