Hey there, welcome to Life Noggin.
Between your ears you have an amazing piece of hardware.
The human brain is the most complex structure ever found, at least according to human brains.
There’s over a hundred billion neurons stuffed in there, with trillions of criss-crossing
connections.
Even our best efforts to recreate it electronically can only mimic small aspects of what the brain
can do, like playing a game of Go or saying crazy stuff on twitter.
But there’s a price for all that complexity: it means there are a lot of ways for things
to go wrong.
Like hallucinations.
Ideally your brain is taking in information from your sensory organs -your eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, and skin- to create a complete picture.
But sometimes your brain skips all that and starts playing tricks on you.
Ever thought you heard your name when you were all alone?
That was a hallucination.
Hearing voices is actually the most common hallucination.
especially for people with schizophrenia, which is thought to be partially caused by
chemical imbalances in the thalamus, the part of your brain used to coordinate different
sections to work together.
To a schizophrenic, these voices sound as real as if someone was in the room talking
to them, and they usually comment on what the person is doing or thinking.
Often they’re mean and negative.
Brain malfunctions can also cause you to see things that aren’t there, like faces with
huge teeth and eyes if a certain part of the fusiform gyrus is overactive.
Epilepsy, tumors, or migraines can cause Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, where people see the
world around them as tiny or gigantic.
Migraines can also cause simpler hallucinations, like floating jagged patterns.
Sometimes hallucinations are caused when your senses aren’t working properly.
People who have gone blind may experience Charles Bonnet[d] Syndrome and see whole scenes
play out in front of them, though they don’t feel like they’re a part of it, instead
it’s like watching a boring movie.
Elderly people who are hard of hearing sometimes hear music so clearly they sure it’s those
darn neighbors with their stereos again.
You can still have hallucinations even with a healthy brain and working senses.
They can happen if you’re not feeling your best from lack of sleep, hunger, or fever.
Grieving people often still see, hear, or feel the presence of their lost loved ones.
And of course, some people choose to alter their brain chemistry intentionally with drugs
that can cause hallucinations, though we at Life Noggin don’t encourage it.
Have you ever had a hallucination?
What was it like for you?
You can tell us all about it in the comments.
For some people their brain’s foibles can cause them to hear voices, but for others
it turns voices into meaningless gobbledygook.
For insight on how your brain makes it possible to understand languages, check out this video.
Even if it’s not perfect, we still love your brain and want you to keep using it.
As always, I’m Blocko, don’t forget to keep on thinking.