A pack of potato chips instead of a bowl of salad – a few hours on the couch instead of at the gym: we constantly break our resolutions and surrender to the commands of a very selfish brain. Yet, anyone can beat laziness. What slows us down, what keeps us going? How can we overcome the motivation killers in our heads?
Health
Some pills consist only of sugar and starch – and can still make you healthy. How can the placebo effect be explained? Researchers suspect that the body heals itself in many cases of illness.
Some people can memorize hundreds of faces or phone numbers in a matter of minutes. Everyone is capable of such feats of memory.
A hard-hitting truth: There is still a general lack of knowledge about the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury – especially in the professional league of American football. This is what makes CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) so dangerous.
The acronym ASMR refers to specific sounds that many perceive as calming and pleasant. Some people even report states of trance or a tingling sensation in the head when exposed to ASMR sounds. What the hype about soothing sounds on social media is all about.
Our brain decides which pain stimuli it processes and which it does not. Can we actively control this process?