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Here's something that you can try for yourself easily – you just need one other person to help out.
Gently rest one of your fingers against theirs, like this.
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Then, slowly stroke both fingers at the same time, with your other hand.
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For this to work, you have to close your eyes.
It feels so weird – like one of your fingers is completely dead!
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| So – how is it possible to deceive your brain?
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Our bodies are complicated machines, controlled by our brains.
But it's quite easy to fool your brain and mess up those controls!
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What happens with the fingers is that the brain starts to get bits of information that don't add up!
The thumb tells the brain that it's stroking the finger.
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And the brain agrees.
The stroking finger tells the brain that it's stroking a finger that's in the right place, yet doesn't belong to the hand – because it actually belongs to the other person! And this gets the brain somewhat confused by this.
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Here's something else you can try.
Find a wall and force your arm against it like this.
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When you do this for a long time, your brain sends chemicals to your muscles to make them push harder.
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But when you move away, your brain can't stop the chemicals straight away, so the muscles keep pushing and your arm goes up!
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Now here's an optical illusion which fools the brain. It's a bit more complicated than the previous tricks.
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Your brain works out what you're seeing by analysing masses of information at the same time.
So, it's possible to confuse your brain by overloading it.
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Try it yourself by loading this image.
Once it's on screen, move your head to and from the screen repeatedly. |
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As your head moves towards the two circles, information flies into your brain, telling it that the positions of the lines are changing.
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Your brain tries to work out the changes, but there's just too much information!
Instead it takes a guess and in this case tells you that the inner circle is moving – yet it isn't!
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Have a go – see if you can discover any other tricks like these. Let us know if you do.
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Thanks to the pupils of Intake High School in Leeds for their help with this Big Question.
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