- 6 days ago
Interesting facts about what's going on in your brain!
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00:00To be the apple of one's eye.
00:03To have butterflies in your stomach.
00:05To fall head over heels.
00:08These are just some ways of saying we're falling in love.
00:11A feeling so overwhelming that it makes our hearts beat faster and our palms sweatier.
00:17And as much as we think that love is something that's happening in our hearts,
00:21actually, it's happening in our brains.
00:24Now, here's Sarah.
00:25We'll follow her around to get a closer look into the science of love in our brains.
00:30Not stalking, just following.
00:33She's going on her first date with a guy she met on a dating app.
00:36She spent the entire evening trying to figure out what to wear.
00:40And when the time finally came to meet her date,
00:43she was feeling dizzy and her stomach was tingling.
00:46Most of us can relate to these feelings, which psychologists call anticipation.
00:52Anticipation.
00:54Science explains that this is caused by our brain releasing a large amount of cortisol,
00:59also known as the stress hormone.
01:01The release of cortisol makes us get into a fight-or-flight mode.
01:05This means that if her date is 20 minutes late,
01:08and they don't text Sarah with an explanation,
01:11she'll probably leave the restaurant as fast as she can.
01:14Dating can be tricky for our system because it's so uncertain.
01:18Will Sarah like Tom?
01:21They're both risking something by being here.
01:24But since no risk goes unacknowledged,
01:27falling in love triggers another part of our brain.
01:29This part is known as the awards and compensation area,
01:33or the ventral tegmental area, the VTA.
01:36When the VTA is triggered, we feel satiated and motivated.
01:40We activate the VTA when we eat something sweet and delicious or when we quench our thirst.
01:46But there's a trick to it.
01:48It turned out that Tom didn't show up on their date, and Sarah felt rejected.
01:53At this moment, the VTA is highly active.
01:56This part of the brain is responsible for our cravings.
01:59And you know what they say,
02:01we want what we can't have.
02:03But Sarah tries again.
02:05She goes on another date and meets Dave.
02:08And they turn out to be a match.
02:10After a couple of dates, all Sarah can think about is Dave.
02:14Actually, she thinks about him about 80% of her waking hours.
02:18And this is very normal.
02:20According to behavioral neuroscientist Dr. Sandra Langslag,
02:23People in early love stages can think about their loved ones for up to 90% of their time.
02:29Yes, falling in love is like an obsession.
02:32This obsession is intensified when the VTA releases the feel-good neurotransmitter known as dopamine.
02:39Ooh, can't get enough of dopamine.
02:41At this moment, Sarah starts to feel euphoric and more drawn toward Dave.
02:46Everything about him pleases her.
02:48And for a moment, she believes she has found the perfect guy.
02:52Now, the reasons why Sarah and Dave click with each other can also be explained by brain chemistry.
02:58One of the reasons can be due to the so-called pheromones.
03:01Both parties can pick up on each other's pheromones,
03:04which are natural chemical signals that convey important genetic or even physical information.
03:10Basically, their brains understood that their genetics matched well together,
03:14which intensified the production of estrogen, in Sarah's case, and testosterone, in Dave's case.
03:20At this phase, they both tend to see each other as flawless.
03:25The rose-colored glasses phase happens because the part of the brain that is in operation
03:29talks louder than our prefrontal cortex, which hosts our ability for critical thinking.
03:35So we literally can't criticize our beloved.
03:38But this won't last forever.
03:40With time, Sarah and Dave start sharing intimate secrets and even a daily routine.
03:46They're entering a new phase of their relationship, known as an attachment or compassionate love.
03:52At this moment, our brain starts releasing oxytocin and vasopressin, known as pair-bonding hormones.
03:59They signal trust, feelings of social support, and attachment.
04:02They both feel safer in the relationship, and they also know they can count on each other to build a
04:08happy future together.
04:10In this way, romantic love is similar to other forms of love, as these hormones also help bond families and
04:16friendships.
04:18Now, here's a curious side effect of the release of oxytocin.
04:22Sarah has been having a hard time at her job, since her company is cutting down on half of the
04:27staff.
04:27Everyone in her company is afraid they'll get fired, and people's stress levels are skyrocketing.
04:34But Sarah is managing to keep her stress under control.
04:37The fact that she's in a long-term committed relationship helps her feel calmer.
04:42And she owes all of this to the constant release of oxytocin by her brain.
04:47A 2019 research showed that strong romantic love bonds can make hardship more tolerable.
04:54The research asked 102 people to dive their hands into ice-cold water for a few minutes.
05:00And out of these participants, those who were in committed relationships appear to experience less stress or pain.
05:07Even those whose partners weren't beside them during the task.
05:10It was enough just to rely on a mental picture of their partners.
05:14Now, that's true love, huh?
05:16Some other weird things can happen when you're in love.
05:19Like telepathy, for example.
05:21And I'm not joking.
05:22But researchers call it neural synchrony, which means that couples tend to share similar thought patterns.
05:28Professor Zoe Donaldson, who conducted the study, says that the more a couple is connected, the more synchrony they can
05:36show.
05:36Another research also showed that couples can even synchronize their heartbeats when sleeping side by side.
05:42And no, it's not only us humans that fall in love and can experience the things we've been talking about.
05:48Some animals are proven to feel attachment bonds toward each other.
05:52For example, albatrosses keep coming back to the same partner their whole lives.
05:56They migrate all year round, but still come back to a repeated spot where they meet and greet each other
06:03once again.
06:04Now, it's normal that with time, the rose-colored glasses fade, and the prefrontal cortex can finally do its job.
06:12Judgment and critical thinking arise again, and both parties begin to see flaws in their beloved.
06:18Sarah doesn't like the way Dave always leaves his socks spread across the apartment.
06:23And Dave thinks Sarah watches too much Netflix.
06:26The thing is, sometimes these little things become too much, and the relationships may simply end.
06:32Surprisingly enough, breakups are also managed by the brain.
06:36Although Sarah thinks she did the right thing when breaking up with Dave, she feels something close to physical pain.
06:43That's because heartbreaks activate the insular cortex, a region of the brain that processes pain.
06:49But the insular cortex doesn't distinguish emotional pain from physical pain.
06:55So, heartbreak can hurt as much as spraining your ankle.
06:59As the days pass, Sarah finds herself daydreaming about contacting Dave again.
07:04While cleaning up her house, she found some of the things Dave forgot to take with it.
07:09Sometimes, the desire to reach out feels overwhelming, like extreme hunger or thirst.
07:14This happens because the VTA is being activated again, the motivation and reward center that drives feelings of longing.
07:22The same part of the brain that was activated at the beginning of their story together.
07:27This emotional whirlwind also activates Sarah's body alarm system, the stress axis.
07:33And since she is producing less oxytocin, it may seem difficult to handle everything she's feeling.
07:39It does get better, though.
07:41With time, the higher cortical region is activated.
07:45This region is responsible for overseeing reason and impulse control.
07:49It pumps the brakes on such irrational cravings.
07:52So the urge to text Dave will slowly fade away.
07:56This isn't Sarah's first breakup, and she knows she will be okay with time.
08:01Now, when she was younger, though, in her teen years, it was way harder to recover from a breakup.
08:07That's because the higher cortical region was still maturing.
08:10So teens tend to have fewer self-control mechanisms in situations such as these.
08:16Well, soon enough, Sarah will feel like meeting someone new.
08:19And once again, she'll hop on board this rollercoaster ride we call love.
08:24The distance between your outstretched arms is your height.
08:28You renew your skeleton every 10 years.
08:31Oop, time to renew!
08:32You lose around 100 hairs every day, and that's totally normal.
08:37Humans are the only creatures who sleep on their backs for a long time.
08:41Koalas, like humans, have their own unique fingerprints.
08:45In a lifetime, the average person will walk the equivalent of three times around the world.
08:50A person can have from 250 to over 1,000 hairs in each eyebrow.
08:55Your eyebrows also have a lifespan.
08:58About four months for all the hairs to fall out and be replaced by new ones.
09:03Thank goodness.
09:03Your eyes are the only organ that doesn't grow with age.
09:07Human DNA is 96% similar to a chimpanzee, 90% similar to a cat, 70% to a slug,
09:15and 50% to a banana.
09:17That has appeal.
09:19You share 99.9% of your DNA with any random person on the planet.
09:24Your heart is the size of your fist.
09:27Your brain, two clenched fists.
09:29When you listen to music, your heartbeat syncs with its rhythm.
09:33You can't swallow and breathe at the same time.
09:35Trust me on that one.
09:37There are as many nerve cells in your brain as there are stars in our galaxy.
09:41About 100 billion.
09:43The popular belief that people only use 10% of their brain power is nothing but a myth.
09:48Even when you're resting or sleeping, more than a tenth of your brain is working.
09:52You're more likely to get attracted to a person who thinks and looks the same as you.
09:57The belief that opposites attract isn't true.
10:00Your nose and ears are the only parts of your body that never stop growing.
10:05The human brain generates enough electricity to power a small light bulb.
10:09If your eye was a digital camera, it would have a resolution of 576 megapixels.
10:15Your tongue prints are also unique to you.
10:18But let's not lick the scanner.
10:20Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh found that blue and green-eyed people are less sensitive to pain than brown
10:26-eyed people.
10:27But lighter-colored eyes are more light-sensitive than dark ones.
10:31The microorganisms in the human body outnumber cells 10 to 1.
10:36Aye, aye, aye.
10:37About 6% of people can vibrate and rapidly shake their eyeballs back and forth.
10:41It doesn't mean something's not right with their eyes.
10:44It's just a unique trick they can perform.
10:46Good at parties, I suppose.
10:48Fun fact about bones.
10:50You know that your body is about 60% water, right?
10:53What's new here is that your bones are also in this too.
10:56About 25% of human bone mass is made up of water.
11:00Not all of your brain's regions are active all the time.
11:03But most work on this or that task 24-7.
11:07Every two minutes, people all over the world take more pictures than they did in the entire 19th century.
11:13However, there's nothing said about today's photos being any better.
11:17People are kind of programmed to return favors.
11:20This instinct probably developed when people needed to help one another to survive.
11:25Studies have proved that sneezing is your nose's way to reset.
11:29A sneeze reboots the cells that line the insides of your nose.
11:33They're called cilia.
11:35Sneezing is also one of the first defenses against bacteria and other, you know, unwanted stuff.
11:41When the delicate nose lining gets tickled with a foreign substance, like pollen, dirt, or dust,
11:47it sends a signal to your brain.
11:48The brain informs your body it's time to sneeze.
11:52The part of your brain that's responsible for vision is actually in the back of your head.
11:57The right side of your brain controls the vision on the left side and vice versa.
12:01Okay, put down your phone and pay attention.
12:05Multitasking is actually impossible.
12:08Your brain only allows you to switch between different tasks really fast, but not to do them at the same
12:14time.
12:15Such contact switching isn't ideal either.
12:18Studies show that, in this case, people make mistakes much more often.
12:22Plus, they need twice as long as usual to do things.
12:25So, focus.
12:27There is one exception, though.
12:29When you're engaged in some physical activity you've done many times before,
12:33you can simultaneously perform a mental task.
12:36That's why you can easily walk up the stairs or take a shower and think about problems at work.
12:42Now, food tastes better when someone else has made it.
12:45That's why a sandwich from a cafe looks more appetizing,
12:48even though you use the same ingredients.
12:50One study suggests it's because it takes time to make yourself a meal.
12:55So, when you're ready to dig in, you don't feel all that excited.
12:59Your body contains enough blood vessels to wrap around the planet two and a half times.
13:04You spend four months in each year asleep.
13:07In a lifetime, you rack up 26 years.
13:11Only six of those years will be spent dreaming.
13:13We forget 50% of a dream within five minutes of waking up.
13:17Ten minutes later, it's 90%.
13:20Each cell in your body contains one and a half gigabytes of information.
13:24Do the math for your 100 trillion cells and see that you're one powerful walking computer.
13:30Your brain cools down when you yawn.
13:32Your ears work even when you're asleep, but your brain ignores the incoming information.
13:38The bumps on your tongue aren't taste buds.
13:40They're called papillae.
13:42Not all papillae contain taste buds, but those that do that have one to five in each.
13:47The atoms in your body are 99% empty, and yet you feel full after dinner.
13:53Now, how is that?
13:55The brain grows for the first 18 years of life and then gets 5% smaller every 10 years after
14:01the age of 40.
14:02Well, that explains a lot, don't you think?
14:04We spend 10% of our waking hours with our eyes closed just from blinking.
14:09The muscles that work your fingers are actually in your forearm.
14:13Your foot is the same length as your forearm.
14:16Same ratio with your thumb and nose.
14:19Your toenails grow three times slower than your fingernails.
14:22Your lungs aren't identical.
14:24The right one has three lobes and the left one has two.
14:27Your hair grows faster when you're sleeping.
14:29The only thing that grows faster than hair is bone marrow.
14:33Your body releases enough heat in a half an hour to boil two quarts of water.
14:38Your brain uses 20% of the energy your body generates.
14:42Your body uses more energy to cool itself on hot days than to warm up when it's cold.
14:47People can go much longer without food than without sleep.
14:51Stomach acid can dissolve metal.
14:53It's so strong that the stomach has to create a new lining every three to four days.
14:58So, what's eating you?
15:00Your stomach.
15:01In terms of muscle, your tongue is like an elephant trunk and an octopus arm.
15:06That's just wrong.
15:07Your nails are made of the same stuff as a rhino's horn and a horse's hoof.
15:11And the rhino wants it back.
15:13We have nails to protect our fingertips.
15:16Without them, you wouldn't be able to grip things as well.
15:19You use 200 muscles just to take one step and 50 muscles just to use chopsticks.
15:25You use only two fingers to play chopsticks.
15:29Most people speak about 125 words per minute.
15:32The brain can process 800 in the same time.
15:35Me, I can go 185 with wing gusts up to 250.
15:39Your skin completely renews itself every 27 days.
15:43Now, you can't tickle yourself.
15:45Your brain already knows of your intentions and prepares your body for it.
15:49Humans are the only species with an outline that separates the lips from the surrounding skin.
15:55Half the bones in your body are in your feet and hands.
15:58Come on, let's share, guys.
16:01Finally, cornflakes have more genes than people do.
16:04Your cereal has 32,000.
16:06You have 20,000.
16:08Your memory is affected by your body position.
16:11For example, you're much more likely to recall a situation where you wave to someone if you stand and wave
16:17again.
16:17Your brain has millions of neurons.
16:20They're all different.
16:21And the speed of the connection between them is different, too.
16:24That's why you can recall some information faster than others.
16:28The brain itself, by the way, can't feel pain.
16:31It has no nerve endings of its own.
16:34People with red-colored hair are 1% of all people.
16:372% are natural blondes.
16:40Yeah, most people you see with these hair colors have dyed hair.
16:43Black is the most common hair color in the world.
16:46A human eye resembles a car engine.
16:49Both of them need liquid for good lubrication.
16:52The engine needs oil, and the eye needs tears.
16:55To make sure the eyes work right, tears are distributed all over them.
16:59That's why we blink more than 10,000 times a day.
17:03Let's take a good look at this rainbow.
17:05How many colors can you see?
17:07I guess most of you will answer seven.
17:10First, we have red and orange.
17:12Then, yellow, green, and blue.
17:15And to top it off, indigo and violet.
17:19I hate to break it to you, though, but there aren't actually seven colors in a rainbow.
17:24The correct amount would be infinite.
17:26Our eyes just can't perceive all of them, only the seven main ones.
17:31How our brain perceives color is one of the most interesting scientific mysteries.
17:35So, how about we go deeper into the science behind it all?
17:41Rainbows are great examples, but to understand how they happen, we have to talk about the sun.
17:46Well, we have to talk about light and wavelengths.
17:50Thanks to Isaac Newton, people understood that white light contains all of the wavelengths of the color spectrum.
17:56Let some white light pass through a chunk of glass and you'll get a rainbow refracted on the other side.
18:02Yeah, very much like that famous Pink Floyd album cover we know and love.
18:07If you want to try something similar at home, here's what you can do.
18:11Grab a glass of water and put a mirror inside.
18:15Now, grab a flashlight and point it at the mirror diagonally.
18:19The white light from the flashlight will hit the mirror, refract, and disperse into the seven colors of the rainbow.
18:26If you look at the ceiling, you'll likely see a rainbow that has just formed there.
18:31Isaac Newton's experiment proved that a color is just a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation.
18:37Have I just complicated things more instead of clarifying them?
18:41These big words may sound scary, but the concept is actually quite simple.
18:46For instance, radio waves are another example of electromagnetic radiation.
18:51Imagine if you could see radio news flying by while you were trying to get some work done.
18:56It's best we can't see it all, that's for sure.
18:59But our eyes can and do perceive color wavelengths.
19:03For instance, violet has the lowest wavelength, about 380 nanometers.
19:09And red has the longest wavelength of them all, up to 740 nanometers.
19:15Yet, if it was that simple, then optical illusions wouldn't really exist.
19:19Our eyes play tricks on us and make us see things differently than they are in reality.
19:25We all remember the blue dress versus white dress hullabaloo, don't we?
19:29Take a look at this image.
19:31It seems like there's a moving square that's changing colors, right?
19:35What shades do you see?
19:37Gray?
19:37Then pink?
19:38It might look that way.
19:40But in reality, the square doesn't change color at all.
19:44The creator of this illusion is Japanese psychologist and artist Akiyoshi Kitayoka.
19:50According to him, what we perceive as different colors is our brain trying to predict the color of the square
19:56in relation to its surroundings.
19:58Let's review some eye anatomy real quick.
20:01At the back of your eye, in the retina, there are special photoreceptor cells called cones.
20:07These cones are the ones that absorb photons, tiny units of light.
20:12This process only helps us see something because the cones send electrical impulses down our optic nerves, which are an
20:19extension of our nervous system.
20:21You know, that fabric of spider-like neurons that communicates with one another electrically and makes us humans live, breathe,
20:29and think.
20:30Now, I've mentioned that there are infinite colors in the color spectrum, right?
20:34But people don't have an infinite amount of different cones to perceive all those unique shades.
20:40We perceive color with the help of just three different types of cones.
20:45Here's how it works.
20:46Each cone is responsible for absorbing different wavelengths of light.
20:51Like three brothers that decided to work together, each one is responsible for its own visual function.
20:58One cone is in charge of longer wavelengths, so it's known as L.
21:03This body is sensitive to the more reddish colors of the spectrum, including yellow, a bit of green, and no
21:09blue at all.
21:10This means that if you're in the jungle looking at a macaw, the L cone will help you see most
21:16of the bird, but it'll need a little help from its brother S.
21:19S is the one part that's sensitive to shorter wavelengths.
21:23That's the bluish part of the spectrum.
21:26Together with M, the third cone, your eyes and brain will perceive all of the colors of the macaw.
21:33Some people are born without all three cones.
21:35This is called colorblindness.
21:37The most common colorblindness is the inability to distinguish between red and green.
21:42But then, there are also people born without the ability to distinguish the colors from the blue-yellow cone.
21:49Take a look at this image.
21:51Is there anything inside the dotted circle?
21:54If you've managed to distinguish the number 74, that means you've got all three cones.
22:01Sometimes, though, our eyes and brain get confused.
22:04Even if our brain is like a highly technological machine, some signals get entangled, and this creates gaps, loopholes.
22:13Neuroscientists say that 40% of our brain is involved in vision.
22:17So when you look at something like this bouncing beach ball right here, signals are sent to over 30 areas
22:22of your brain.
22:23Each area is responsible for processing a different thing.
22:27Color is just one of them.
22:28You also need to be able to detect motion and shape.
22:33But that's stuff for another video.
22:35A lot of our perception of color has to do with our memories.
22:39Let's revise a bit.
22:40Our brain is like a highly technological machine.
22:44Check.
22:44It serves as a database where we keep memories and registries of stuff, like banana is yellow.
22:50Check.
22:51Check.
22:52Why am I telling you this?
22:54Because usually we see stuff in different lighting.
22:57For instance, take a look at this studio image of a banana.
23:01Now, take a look at this banana at twilight when the lighting is dim.
23:05The banana changes its color, but we perceive it as yellow because we remember that a banana is yellow.
23:12Lighting was probably the reason why some people saw that infamous dress as white and others saw it as blue.
23:19Let's look at the science behind it.
23:22Pascal Walsh, a neuroscientist at New York University, conducted an online survey with 13,000 people trying to crack the
23:30white dress blue dress mystery.
23:32And he found out something absurdly surprising.
23:35The study showed that the difference between the two groups of people was linked to the time they fell asleep
23:41and woke up.
23:42Night owls, or people who like sleeping and waking up late, were more likely to see the dress as black
23:48and blue.
23:50While larks, aka early birds, were more likely to see it as white and gold.
23:55Why are these things connected, you might ask?
23:57Early birds are people that spend more time in daylight than night owls.
24:01So when they look at that poorly lit photo, they perceive it in the way that they're used to seeing
24:06things on a daily basis.
24:08In this case, they're used to seeing things bathed in sunlight.
24:12So they assume that that's what illuminates the dress.
24:15As a result, they perceive the dress as white and gold.
24:19The same happens with those who see it as blue and black.
24:22The main difference is that these people are used to artificial light, since most of their waking hours happen during
24:28the night.
24:29Crazy, huh?
24:30We looked at a lot of complex concepts today.
24:34But does it explain why an apple is often red and an orange is orange?
24:39Well, if you're able to perceive an apple as red or a grape as purple,
24:43that's because that color is the only one that is being reflected by the object.
24:48It happens like this.
24:50White light, which contains all colors, hits an apple.
24:54The apple absorbs all color wavelengths, except red.
24:58Let's say the apple rejects the color red.
25:00It reflects it outward.
25:01And that's what our eyes perceive.
25:04Cool, huh?
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