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Why the shifting axis is driving people crazy: Evidence for a Human Geomagnetic Sense
[Science Daily] Many humans are able to unconsciously detect changes in Earth-strength magnetic fields, according to scientists at Caltech and the University of Tokyo.The study, led by geoscientist Joseph Kirschvink (BS, MS '75) and neuroscientist Shin Shimojo at Caltech as well as neuroengineer Ayu Matani at the University of Tokyo, offers experimental evidence that human brain waves respond to controlled changes in Earth-strength magnetic fields. Kirschvink and Shimojo say this is the first concrete evidence of a new human sense: magnetoreception. Their findings were published by the journal eNeuro on March 18. "Many animals have magnetoreception, so why not us?" asks Connie Wang, Caltech graduate student and lead author of the eNeuro study. For example, honeybees, salmon, turtles, birds, whales, and bats use the geomagnetic field to help them navigate, and dogs can be trained to locate buried magnets. It has long been theorized that humans may share a similar ability. However, despite a flurry of research attempting to test for it in the '80s, it has never been conclusively demonstrated. "Aristotle described the five basic senses as including vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch," says Kirschvink, co-corresponding author of the eNeuro study and Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen Professor of Geobiology. "However, he did not consider gravity, temperature, pain, balance, and several other internal stimuli that we now know are part of the human nervous system. Our animal ancestry argues that geomagnetic field sensors should also be there representing not the sixth sense but perhaps the 10th or 11th human sense to be discovered." Posted by: Skidmark 2019-03-22 |
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