Your senses interact in surprising ways. Sometimes they enhance your experiences of the world, though at other times, they can mislead you. Known as the McGurk effect, this occurs when seeing something can lead you to hear the same audio differently. For instance, in a study where people were played audio of the phrase, 'he's got your boot,' they were more likely to hear 'he's gonna shoot' when shown a video of a man pursuing a woman at the same time.
2. You can taste colors
Just as sight misleads us about what we hear, it can do the same with what we taste. If something looks like it is going to taste a certain way, then you are more likely to taste it that way. In one study, wine enthusiasts found that connoisseurs used vastly different terms to describe the flavor of a white wine, and the exact same wine that was colored red.
Color can affect the way we experience temperature. For example, when subjects in an experiment were served the same drinks in different colored containers, liquid in red and yellow containers was perceived to be hotter than liquid in blue and green containers.
4. Driving blinds you
As we are driving, we tend to blot out images on our periphery, in what is known as 'motion-induced blindness'.This is believed to stem from the brain's attempt to discard unimportant information, focusing, say, on the road in front of them as opposed to pedestrians on the sidewalk or passing storefronts. The longer we stare at an object in front of us, the more likely we will fail to see objects in our peripheral vision.
As strange as it may sound, we can actually forget where our real limb went when it is hidden from view and a fake one is put in its place. To test this out, in a study, a woman was shown a fake rubber hand next to her real one which has been hidden. When both hands are touched at the same time, she thinks the fake one is her own. Studies also show that the hand's temperature will even drop as the brain 'forgets' about the real one.
6. Emotional pain can cause physical pain
A heartbreak is primarily an emotional experience. However, our body does feel it. A social rejection hijacks the part of our brain that signals pain to tell us that this is a really serious situation because just like physical pain, the consequences could be there. What we experience is a physical response that is alerting us to avoid that kind of emotional pain.
Have you ever tried to deliberately suppress certain thoughts, yet tend to think about them all the more? More often than not, when we tell ourselves not to think about a pink elephant or white bear, that's what pops into our mind.
8. Noise affects how your food tastes
Here's another example of how one sense can misdirect another. Research has found that sound can actually change the way something we are eating tastes. When background noise is high, it can be hard for individuals to accurately determine how sweet or salty the food they are eating may be.
Cutting back on carbs (or cutting them out completely)is a reliable way to lose weight in the short term. Though it can backfire as soon as any carbs are brought back into your diet. When you cut them out, your body will react with a drop in energy and low blood sugar, driving you to add some carbs back into your diet. This will pack on more pounds immediately.
10. You think you have more control than you do
Our mind overestimates how much influence we actually have on a particular situation. Perhaps we are beating ourselves up for not doing something differently, or imagining we had a greater impact on an outcome than we possibly could have.
