Topic

When feeling moves the body

What a strong feeling does to your body before you have decided anything: the butterflies, the blush, the lump in the throat, the way a single smell drags you thirty years back, and the moments your own face or voice turn briefly into a stranger's.

what a strong emotion does to your body before you decide anything

The body, moved by feeling

The Body

Why do you get butterflies in your stomach?

Your brain clocks a big moment and hits the fight-or-flight alarm, flooding you with adrenaline. Adrenaline yanks blood away…

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The Mind

Why do you get a lump in your throat at something beautiful?

It's a distinct positive emotion scientists call kama muta. Sanskrit for "moved by love." It's set off not by beauty itself…

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The Body

Why do we blush?

Blushing is an honest signal. A social jolt fires adrenaline, and while that makes most of your body go pale, the blood…

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The Body

Why do we cry?

Crying is almost certainly social, not a release valve. Emotional tears appear to be uniquely human, and the leading theory…

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olfaction, wired straight into memory (and the plumbing)

Smell's line to the past

The Mind

Why does a smell trigger a forgotten memory?

Because smell is the one sense that skips the brain's central relay station, the thalamus. Odour signals run straight from…

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The Body

Why do old people have a certain smell?

It comes down to one molecule: 2-nonenal, an aldehyde with a greasy, grassy odour. As skin ages past about 40, a fatty acid…

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Nature

Why does fresh-cut grass smell so good?

That smell is a chemical wound response. When grass is cut, torn or bitten, it releases a burst of green leaf volatiles…

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The Body

Why does asparagus make your pee smell?

Asparagus contains asparagusic acid, a sulfur compound found in no other vegetable. Your body breaks it down into small,…

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your own face, voice and words, briefly strangers

When the familiar turns alien

The Mind

Why does staring into a mirror turn your face into a stranger?

It's a genuine perceptual illusion, not a haunting. Holding a fixed stare in dim light makes your still facial features fade…

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The Body

Why does your voice sound different on a recording?

Because you hear yourself two ways at once: through the air and through the bones of your skull. Bone conduction pipes extra…

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The Mind

Why does a word lose meaning when you repeat it?

It's called semantic satiation. Repeating a word rapidly fires the same patch of your brain's meaning network over and over,…

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The Mind

Why do you cringe at old memories?

A cringe attack is your brain reviewing a mistake, not torturing you. When your mind goes idle it slips into the default mode…

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the brain conjuring a sensation with no real source

A feeling from nothing solid

The Mind

Why do amputees feel a limb that's gone?

Because your limb was never really in your limb. Your body is a map drawn inside your brain, and when a limb is amputated the…

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The Mind

Why do you get the urge to jump from high places?

It's called the 'call of the void,' and it's extremely common and not a death wish. The leading explanation: your fast brain…

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The Mind

Why can you feel someone staring at you?

You can't actually sense an unseen stare, that idea fails every controlled test. What you can do is detect a gaze anywhere in…

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Strange Phenomena

Why can a sound too low to hear fill a room with dread?

The leading explanation is infrasound, sound below about 20 Hz, under the floor of human hearing. You can't hear it, but a…

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