#BRAINS

[plague-ivy]

Dont forget to defrag your brains people

Hey. Your brain needs to de-frag. Literally it needs you to sit there and space out.

If you want your memory or executive function to improve, stare out a window at the skyline or sidewalk or trees or birds on the electrical wires for like 20+ minutes per day. (With no other stimulation like a podcast or TV if you can manage but hey baby steps innit). If you're fortunate enough to have safe outside with any bits of nature, go stare closely at a 1 meter square of grass and trip out on the bugs and shapes of grasses and stuff.

Literally this will make you smarter. Our brains HAVE TO HAVE this zone out time to do important stuff behind the scenes. This does not happen during sleep, it's something else.

That weird pressurized feeling you get sometimes might be your brain on no defrag.

Give your brain a Daily Dose Of De-Frag.

[incognitopolls]

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[mindblowingscience]

A newly discovered communication pathway linking far-flung nerve centers within the brain and skull, and the body beyond, could provide a new target to stop migraine pain in its tracks. Researchers have long tried to pinpoint where migraines begin in the brain, and how these one-sided, nauseating headaches induce pain and other symptoms, such as vomiting. Understanding this would help find new ways to prevent migraines from happening or at least ease the searing pain once it starts.

Continue Reading.

[theothin]

#there's a lot I could expand on this#but I think the short version is:#1) you don't taste as strongly as you get older starting (very slowly) from puberty#so tastes that were overwhelming before (e.g. bitter in vegetables or dark chocolate) slowly tone down to the point where you can eat them#2) repeated exposure to certain flavors and flavor profiles really changes your opinion on them#just like most people will like a song more the third time they hear it than the first#there will be foods you like the first time! but there will also be foods you don't like until the 5th time so keep trying#(there will also still be foods you completely hate--and sometimes you'll know which they are right away but#not until you've experienced both trying something a bunch of times and having it grow on you and also having it not) (via @random2908)

My 30-something wisdom is that your palate is constantly changing so don't assume because you hated a food 10 or 20 years ago you still will. Most radically, your taste as a little kid is not indicative of what it will be as an adult-- I've known too many adults who still refuse to eat anything but chicken strips and ketchup because they're still basing their taste on what they experienced at 8 years old and so have cut themselves off from the entire world of adult taste. In my case, my taste for savory foods, especially vegetable dishes, "bitter" foods, and more complex flavor combinations has really expanded. I didn't like mushrooms as a child or for most of my 20s, but around 28 suddenly they worked for me. I started enjoying dark chocolate around 25, especially paired with fruit flavors. I've never been hugely fond of eggplant but discovered that in a sauce or roasted in butter and oil its delicious. I've always enjoyed fish but in the last 15 years I've discovered a passion for it, salmon especially. I've learned to recognize the tastes of herbs and love putting them into everything I can (currently I'm most enthusiastic about dill.) I'm also suddenly crazy about all kinds of sandwiches. And I'm still trying olives every couple years in case suddenly they start working for me, though sadly no luck on that front yet. So basically, expect that your taste is going to change in adulthood and expect that it will keep changing. And you can also work to develop your palate by exposing yourself to new flavors and combinations and cuisines, opening you up to even more foods you might never have liked before. So keep trying new and old foods, because you never know when you might suddenly start liking something new or discover a new way it can be prepared or a new texture it can come in. Don't wind up imprisoned in a world of chicken strips just because you haven't tried anything else since 3rd grade, you deserve better.

[bleedingspiral]

Medical dividers/ free to use (credit is appreciated)

[oddarette]

My bulbagore pins turned out PERFECT ✨ I am absolutely over the moon with how these turned out. I only had 25 made of each since idk how they are gunna do, but they are NOT limited edition, so I will eventually bring them back if they sell out. ✨✨ Shop Link ✨✨

[theothin]

This is one of many things that I've found to become a lot easier to understand through recognizing brains as running on the same pattern recognition skills as AI. There's a well-known story of an AI that primarily saw wolves in snow and dogs outside of snow, to the point where it guessed whether something was a wolf or a dog based on the presence of snow. But it's not hard to imagine a human who's used to seeing one animal in one environment and a similar one in a different environment to guess based on the environment in the same way, especially if they have limited experience with other distinguishing characteristics of the two. Which usually doesn't mean consciously thinking "this environment means it's likely this rather than that" but rather the subconscious supplying the idea of "it's this animal" based on the brain's pattern recognition assessing that the recent thought-tokens are ones likely to be followed by the thought-tokens of "it's this animal".

That can go for all sorts of things. If you're used to doing any sort of thinking or other task while viewing or smelling a particular thing or things, being in the presence of those things will affect how familiar and intuitive the action feels. (This is also the mechanism behind things like PTSD triggers!)

What I find remarkably fascinating about the Norse is that they seemed to depend upon being in certain places to access certain kinds of thinking; they correlated “using certain modalities of thought” with “traveling to a certain place” in their stories.

We actually still experience this phenomenon today. Ever wonder why you work more productively sitting in an office/coffee shop/library vs your bedroom or couch? Or how about when you walk into another room and forget what you came in there for, only to remember when you return to the other room?

There’s also the fact the Norse existed during a time when humanity hadn’t developed the ability to read silently yet. I think it’s all super fascinating.

[misscrazyfangirl321]

You've heard of "no thoughts, head empty." Now get ready for:

1. "Many thoughts, head full" - There are too many things on my mind, brain is a cluttered closet full of tasks and information that I'm struggling to balance.

Often seen in: People in the midst of change (new parents, people starting a new job, etc)

2. "Many thoughts, head empty" - I have a lot of knowledge about something. Unfortunately, that knowledge doesn't seem to be located in my head at the moment.

Often seen in: Students taking exams they've definitely studied for.

3. "No thoughts, head full" - What's it full of? I don't know. Fluff, possibly. Or fog. All I know is that getting an idea from the back of my mind to the front of it might just take more effort than I currently have.

Often seen in: People experiencing burnout, or who haven't gotten enough sleep

Note: Sometimes multiple categories overlap. Those are not fun times for anyone.

[facts-i-just-made-up]

The brain is one of two glands that secretes consciousness. I will not name the other, for it already knows.

[artdunk]

[neon-glowing-rainbow-stims]

🧠 ~ Neural Plasticity ~ 🧠 (puttyegg)

(Credit if you use!) (kofi)

[thatsbelievable]

[grickle14]

It starts when they're young.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.