Evidence of the 6th sense in humans

A US researcher believes he has found evidence for the sixth sense in humans, the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field subconsciously.

According to Science Alert, the ability to sense magnetic fields - "magnetoreception" has been confirmed in birds, insects and some types of mammals. They rely on this ability to migrate and orient themselves around the world.

Mammals like dogs use this ability to excrete excrement along the north-south axis. Wood mice and mole rats nest along the Earth's magnetic lines.

Geophysicist Joe Kirschvink at the California Institute of Technology says he has identified people who have this ability.

He claimed his experiment could be repeated to confirm, something that previous experiments had not done. Experimental results were published in April at a meeting of the British Royal Maritime Institute.

There are two leading hypotheses to explain the basic biological processes of magnetoreception. The first hypothesis suggests that the Earth's magnetic field can trigger quantum reactions in proteins called cryptochromes . These proteins are found in the retina of birds, dogs, and even humans, but the mechanism for bringing information back to the brain has not been determined.

Brain wave measurement in the experiment confirmed the 6th sense in humans.(Photo: Shutterstock).

Another theory is that there are actually receptor cells on the body that contain tiny "compass needles" made of a ferromagnetic mineral called magnetite, capable of self-orientating according to magnetic fields. Earth.

Magnetite has been found in cells inside the beak and nose of salmon, but, again, there is not enough evidence to fully explain this ability.

Kirschvink is inclined to the second hypothesis, but his concern is to prove that magnetoreception really happens in humans. Previous experiments failed due to electromagnetic interference that distorted the results.

Therefore, he built a Faraday cage, a thin aluminum box that suppresses all electromagnetic interference, placed under two basements at Caltech.

The participant will sit in the cage, only contacting a pure magnetic field, no other stimulus. They will be wearing an EEG electroencephalogram monitor to monitor brain activity.

The results showed that, when the magnetic field turned against the clock, the participants' alpha brain waves also changed.

"The change of alpha waves corresponds to a brain process: a set of neurons responding to the magnetic field, the only factor that changes in the experiment , " he said.

The change in alpha waves is about a few hundred milliseconds slower than the change of magnetic fields, indicating that this is actually brain activity. If only the brain's induced current is caused by the magnetic field, it will have to happen immediately without delay.

Although Kirschvink's experiment has only been performed on 24 participants and he is still writing a scientific article on this issue, he received a grant of $ 900,000 and is cooperating with laboratories in Japan. Copies and New Zealand to help confirm the results.

"Joe is a very smart person and he does his experiments very carefully , " said physicist Peter Hore at Oxford University - a leader in the field of magnetoreception but did not participate in this study, said.

"He will not publish the results at the meeting if he does not believe he is right. And you cannot say the same about every scientist in this field."