30 psychological curiosities that will impact you

There are numerous curiosities about the way in which our brain and our psyche that most people don't know yet, and would surely be surprised.

The mechanisms that regulate our cognition are complex and give rise to many differences between individuals.

Psychological curiosities that you probably did not know

Here you can find a series of surprising psychological curiosities.

1. Whenever we sleep, we dream

It is true that we are not always able to remember the dreams we have had, but several Scientific research has revealed that brain activity during sleep causes us to dream at reach the REM phase during the break.

Studies show that we do not remember 90% of the content of our dreams and that, even if we were to remember them, half of this content we would forget after five minutes of waking up, since the brain captures new stimuli and tends to get rid of that information. If you want to remember your dreams more and better, it is quite useful to write down the most detailed possible all your dreams in a notepad that you have on the nightstand, every day at wake you.

• If you want to know more about the world of dreams: "10 curiosities about dreams, revealed by science"

2. How much does the brain weigh?

Men's brains are slightly heavier than women's. The average figure among men is 1,400 grams, while the female brain weighs 1,250 grams.

This does not mean that men are more intelligent than women, as we could see in the article "Are women or men smarter?”. Although it is true that, long ago, the first scientists who measured the weight of brains mistakenly came to the conclusion that man should have greater intellectual gifts. The difference in size is due to a principle of proportionality, and while men are usually taller and heavier than women, the size of the brain adjusts to these body proportions, so the larger the body, the larger the brain.

3. We are programmed to flee in the face of danger

When we face extreme situations of anguish, fear or danger, our body activates some innate mechanisms that allow us to flee away from danger. In other words, we are designed to guarantee our survival, and thus that of the human species.

In these extreme situations in which we are in imminent danger, the adrenal glands are drastically activated and generate adrenalin, a hormone that increases heart rate and constricts blood vessels, preparing the body to make a high intensity physical effort. It is for this reason that we are capable of taking almost superhuman actions when in a state of panic, such as For example, there has been the case of mothers who have managed to lift cars or very heavy objects to rescue a trapped child.

4. we grow while we sleep

When we sleep our brain secretes most of the hormone responsible for muscle growth and the bones. For this reason it is absolutely essential that children rest and sleep the necessary hours.

5. The "phantom limb"

Many similar cases have been reported: a person has a limb amputated, and later begins to have the feeling that that limb is still in place. In fact, many cases reveal having suffered pain in the amputated limbs. This phenomenon is known as the “phantom limb syndrome”. We detail it in the article “The Phantom Limb: Mirror Box Therapy“.

The reason why this happens has its origin in the brain. Apparently, the brain area responsible for regulating the mobility and touch of the member is still active, and in the absence of real nerve stimuli, it tends to create them.

6. There are people who can't recognize faces.

These cases of people who cannot recognize faces are caused by a disorder called prosopagnosia (from the Greek prosopon, which means “face” and agnosia, which refers to “lack of knowledge”), and this makes it impossible for them to recognize faces.

This impediment causes unable to recognize familiar faces, so they are unable to recognize those close to them through their image and must resort to observing some specific characteristics, such as the way they walk, the tone of voice, or some other distinguishing feature except the face in order to be aware of who they have in front. In more severe cases, those affected may not be able to recognize themselves in front of a mirror or seeing themselves in a photograph.

7. An antidepressant that causes uncontrollable orgasms

The essential chemical component of certain drugs against depression is clomipramine. This type of medication is not only used to remedy depression, but is also used in anxiety crises, phobias and other types of disorders.

Some of the people who are treated with this type of drugs usually report that, at the beginning of the treatment, experience uncontrollable orgasms at the time of yawning. It was estimated that up to 5% of patients noticed this strange effect, both men and women.

Although we could think of this as a positive side effect of the drug, the truth is that the people who suffered from it had problems and discomfort in their daily lives.

8. Amnesia does allow us to remember

Although it is true that the idea is always transmitted that amnesia eliminates the past memories of the person who has suffered it after the trauma, in reality this type of amnesia, called “retrograde”, is very little usual.

The most common type of amnesia is called anterograde amnesia. Is about an amnesia in which the person is able to remember practically everything in the past normally, but on the other hand, he cannot remember anything of what he is experiencing, he is not able to remember what happened to him yesterday, or he is even unable to remember what he did ten minutes ago. This form of amnesia is the most common among people with dementia.

9. The Halo effect permeates everything

One of the psychological phenomena that most influence social relationships It is what is known as the Halo effect. This term describes a propensity to make global and positive assessments of natural or legal persons, based on knowing one of their most notable characteristics.

For example, it has been observed that the people who best fit the canons of beauty tend to generate better impressions also regarding the rest of its characteristics by those who know them bit.

10. memories always change

Another of the most interesting psychological curiosities has to do with memory. And it is that despite the fact that we often use the metaphor of archives full of documents to refer to how the memories contained in our brain, the truth is that all our memories change constantly, let's do what we let's do. It is impossible for the contents of our memory to always remain the same..

11. working memory limit

In most people, the work memory It works without too many problems unless the elements that we must keep or manipulate in it are more than seven.

12. two types of intelligence

Intelligence can be divided into two main categories: fluid intelligence, based on mental agility, and crystallized intelligence, based on the ability to use information memorized.

13. The importance of context in drug addictions

Drug addictions do not arise only from the interaction of the brain with the substances consumed, but also from the context. Moving to a very different place and losing contact with friends from before who also used makes the addiction disappear in many cases.

14. We remember the first and the last best

When faced with a series of elements to be memorized (for example, the shopping list), we remember better the first and the last.

15. The third person effect

The psychological phenomenon called "third person effect" consists in that, as a general rule, we tend to believe that we are less susceptible to believing false information than most people, and that those people with whom we have regular contact and whom we appreciate are also less gullible than the average citizen.

16. The face perception system

The human mind is especially good at recognizing small details in faces through the sense of vision; we are not as sensitive to the nuances of the other body parts we see.

17. The nocebo effect

People who believe they should be treated and are not receiving that care are more likely to develop health problems. This is known as the nocebo effect.

18. The relationship between sleep and memory

Every time we sleep, we help to consolidate the information collected during the day in our memory.

19. Differences in theory of mind between men and women

Theory of mind is the ability to infer emotional and cognitive states in other people., without confusing what they believe, feel or think with what we believe, feel or think. It has been seen that women, on average, tend to have these skills more developed.

20. diffuse ideologies

Despite the fact that many people have strong preferences as to which political parties are good and which which are bad, in reality only a small minority present coherent and stable ideologies in the time.

21. binge eating without hunger

Many people eat without realizing that they are not hungry, simply to ease their discomfort.

22. Limit of 150 in groups

Groups of more than 150 people (approximately) need a series of rules and clearly assigned roles that allow the creation of sub-groups to function well and not generate conflicts. This is what is known as the Dunbar's number.

23. Anxiety and the immune system

It has been proven that the fact of staying in an anxious state for long periods causes the immune system to be weakened while that state of anguish or stress is maintained.

24. The pupils and the attractiveness

When we look at something or someone that we find attractive, the pupils dilate more.

25. Lack of sleep leads to self-deception

People who sleep little have a much lower ability to concentrate and reason than other people (due to the fact that they sleep little) but not only that, but they also have a tendency not to realize it.

26. vision blind spots

The human eye is made in such a way that in our visual field there is a point at which we do not capture visual stimuli, since the retina fuses with the optic nerve at that point. However, we do not realize it, because our brain "invents" that information.

27. The ability to create images in the mind has brain foundations

The degree to which we are able to create images in our imagination depends on the level of random neural activity in a part of the brain known as the visual cortex.

28. Friends matter more than parents

Although the family greatly influences the development of boys and girls, groups of friends their age are even more influential.

29. the forer effect

Human beings are predisposed to identify with ambiguous descriptions of people, we quickly assume that we fit what is explained.

30. Opposites don't attract

Couples made up of people with very different interests or personalities tend to go through more trouble than those made up of similar people.