Science Points To A "Sixth Sense"

**bradybaker** · 02-18-2005 08:53 PM

Science Points to a 'Sixth Sense'
Thu Feb 17,11:47 PM ET

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Feb. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Ever get a gut feeling something just isn't quite right, and make a decision accordingly? Science is beginning to suggest those instincts may have roots deep in the brain.

Research in young volunteers points to some kind of "sixth sense" -- a mechanism in the brain that picks up on subtle clues, then sends out subconscious signals of trouble ahead.

The finding could help explain certain intuitive phenomena seen among humans. For example, in the recent Asian tsunami, aboriginal people sought out higher ground in the moments before the disaster, as did many wild animals. Could subtle changes in weather or the environment have warned them early on?

Just such an early warning system may exist in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain area important in processing complex information, according to a report by psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis. Their findings appear in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Science.

In their experiments, the researchers challenged healthy young volunteers to a series of tricky visual tests aimed at setting up conflicting choices within the brain, explained Joshua Brown, a research associate in psychology who performed the study with Todd Braver, an associate professor of psychology.

During the experiments, the St. Louis team observed each participant's real-time brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

"We used a situation where we presented signals on a computer screen," Brown said. "If it was an arrow pointing left, they pushed the left button. If it pointed right, they pushed the right button."

But then the tricks began. First, the computer screen would occasionally show a larger arrow that required a participant to push a button other than the one just indicated by a first arrow. The time at which the second arrow was presented was gradually made longer, so that a participant was more likely to have pushed the wrong button.

Second, the arrow signals were preceded by colored dashes -- white for left, blue for right. The experiments were rigged so that participants eventually had an error rate of about 50 percent when shown a blue dash, but only 4 percent when shown a white dash.

While the volunteers weren't told of the rigging, "some of them had begun to figure it out, at least on a subconscious level," Brown said. As this dawning awareness emerged, the fMRI images showed increased activity in the anterior singulate cortex whenever the blue dash was flashed.

"The purpose was to see if the brain picked up on the blue color being associated with a large number of errors," Brown said. "It appears that this part of the brain is somehow figuring out things without you necessarily having to be consciously aware of it."

The report "has the potential of unifying different approaches to the anterior cingulate cortex," said William J. Gehring, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. "Researchers have been looking at the response to errors people make and also the response to negative events. This is tying those two together."

Still, Gehring said, "this is the sort of thing where you need additional research. The report is not specific about what is going on, and how closely the response is tied to awareness."

Gehring and Brown agreed that the findings have potential applications to psychiatric practice, but they lie far in the future.

Abnormalities of the anterior cingulate cortex have been associated with a number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, Brown said.

"It's a little premature to say how this might help us treat individuals with mental illness," he said. "There's a lot we don't know about what goes wrong in mental illness. But if we understand how this works in healthy individuals, we will be in a better position to understand what goes wrong in mental illness."

Abnormal activity of the anterior cingular cortex has been linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, Gehring said. "It's been shown that there is too much activity in this area. There is a general sense that things are going wrong, when actually they are not."
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I just thought you all might find this interesting.

**Kaniaz** · 02-18-2005 08:56 PM

I have read about something like this before. It's probably true, too.

**Howie** · 02-18-2005 09:09 PM

That is an interesting article bradybaker.
It certainly does not suprise me. I think we are at the prefront of learning the potential of the human mind. And I certainly feel that we are intuative. Some more than others. I wonder why.

I know people proclaim to know off oncoming bad weather. I always attributed that to barametric pressure. It could be more.

**bradybaker** · 02-18-2005 09:18 PM

Originally posted by Howetzer
I know people proclaim to know off oncoming bad weather. I always attributed that to barametric pressure.

Actually that is exactly the type of thing that this study points to. The change in barametric pressure is sensed by the anterior cingulate cortex and voila, you can hazard a guess at what the skies are about to throw at you.

**Kaniaz** · 02-18-2005 09:22 PM

Funny you should mention that. One of our older teachers, who's pretty much knocking on ninety now, talked about how old people can tell what the weather is going to be like (he's renowned for his tangents)... By the behaviour of birds and where they go, etc. I forgot most of what he said now, though.

**sensi** · 02-18-2005 11:47 PM

That is really interesting and it is not surprising to me at all. Intuition is a great gift if you are open to it and do not dismiss it as being ridiculous. You know sometimes you get a feeling and say to your self "oh that is just stupid” A lot of the time you will find that instincts are there for a reason. It just hard when psychologically your mind tells you otherwise. Logic tends to over shadow intuition or feelings if you let it…..

"aboriginal people sought out higher ground in the moments before the disaster, as did many wild animals." - In my mind they are just more in tune with the enviroment. Their senses pick up on things we may have tuned out.

Peace Sensi.

**Oracle** · 02-18-2005 11:55 PM

there is a great book by Gail Ferguson called "Cracking the Intuition Code" - teaches you how to develop and understand your intuitive abilities, using very specific techniques.

**Placebo** · 02-19-2005 07:05 PM

Interesting - thanks for that

Not suprising of course, but interesting

I sometimes play with something I loosely call 'precog'
Basically, I try to 'feel' when traffic lights will turn green - eg. in areas I have not visited and after turning onto new roads
It could simply be some fancy math and pattern recognition going on regarding the logic behind the traffic
My small argument against that is that this country can't organise a strike, let alone traffic lights correctly
They are often 'off'

**will.i.am** · 02-19-2005 07:42 PM

Good book to read, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. It talks all about the mind and how we process information, an indepth look at "fight or flight". I would HIGHLY recommend to you guys.

**Loopy** · 02-23-2005 05:09 AM

One of our older teachers, who's pretty much knocking on ninety now, talked about how old people can tell what the weather is going to be like [/b]

i can usually tell you when it is going to rain/snow. i think its called rheumatoid arthritis. i'm nowhere near 90, but i'm damn near 90% accurate (gonna really hurt if/when i get to be 90 yrs though!)

as for precogs, i'd be curious about the relationship to hormones and hormonal changes. call it an old wive's tale, but i suspect, from observation, that women, for instance, are more "psychic" when pregnant.

my 2 cents.

**Howie** · 02-23-2005 05:38 PM

Originally posted by Loopy

One of our older teachers, who's pretty much knocking on ninety now, talked about how old people can tell what the weather is going to be like

i can usually tell you when it is going to rain/snow. i think its called rheumatoid arthritis. i'm nowhere near 90, but i'm damn near 90% accurate (gonna really hurt if/when i get to be 90 yrs though!)

as for precogs, i'd be curious about the relationship to hormones and hormonal changes. call it an old wive's tale, but i suspect, from observation, that women, for instance, are more \"psychic\" when pregnant.

my 2 cents.[/b]

Maybe this should be a required coarse to achieve an AMS Seal. (Rheumatoid arthritis class 101) Because even with the new improved dual dopplar radar XPS2000 my grandmother could predict the weather better than they can here in CLEVELAND.

I never took into account harmones in corralation with the sixth sense

**Mystical_Journey** · 03-10-2005 10:17 PM

very interesting article

**Damascus** · 03-10-2005 11:27 PM

If this is true (and probably is) then it owuldnt be known as 'the sixth sense' since it is not a true human sense (touch taste etc)

It IS a sense, though, in the meaning that prorioception and your sense of balance are. So these would be senses, but not one of the five human senses.

**bradybaker** · 03-11-2005 04:17 AM

Originally posted by Damascus
If this is true (and probably is) then it owuldnt be known as 'the sixth sense' since it is not a true human sense (touch taste etc)

Nobody is calling it an actual "sixth sense" other than the journalist who wrote the article, and they aren't even being literal.

**dream-scape** · 03-11-2005 07:15 AM

All of nature is pretty intuitive. Animals can usually sense when danger is approaching, etc... heck even trees know when it is going to rain. Why would humans be any different? If anything, us humans have lost touch with our intuition and don't give it enough credit in certain situations (and then usually regret going against our gut feeling later).

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