Science Points to a 'Sixth Sense'

THURSDAY, Feb. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Ever get a gut feeling something just isn't quite right, and make a decision accordingly? Science is beginning to suggest those instincts may have roots deep in the brain.

Research in young volunteers points to some kind of "sixth sense" -- a mechanism in the brain that picks up on subtle clues, then sends out subconscious signals of trouble ahead.

The finding could help explain certain intuitive phenomena seen among humans. For example, in the recent Asian tsunami, aboriginal people sought out higher ground in the moments before the disaster, as did many wild animals. Could subtle changes in weather or the environment have warned them early on?

Just such an early warning system may exist in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain area important in processing complex information, according to a report by psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis. Their findings appear in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Science.

In their experiments, the researchers challenged healthy young volunteers to a series of tricky visual tests aimed at setting up conflicting choices within the brain, explained Joshua Brown, a research associate in psychology who performed the study with Todd Braver, an associate professor of psychology.

During the experiments, the St. Louis team observed each participant's real-time brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

"We used a situation where we presented signals on a computer screen," Brown said. "If it was an arrow pointing left, they pushed the left button. If it pointed right, they pushed the right button."

But then the tricks began. First, the computer screen would occasionally show a larger arrow that required a participant to push a button other than the one just indicated by a first arrow. The time at which the second arrow was presented was gradually made longer, so that a participant was more likely to have pushed the wrong button.

Second, the arrow signals were preceded by colored dashes -- white for left, blue for right. The experiments were rigged so that participants eventually had an error rate of about 50 percent when shown a blue dash, but only 4 percent when shown a white dash.

While the volunteers weren't told of the rigging, "some of them had begun to figure it out, at least on a subconscious level," Brown said. As this dawning awareness emerged, the fMRI images showed increased activity in the anterior singulate cortex whenever the blue dash was flashed.

"The purpose was to see if the brain picked up on the blue color being associated with a large number of errors," Brown said. "It appears that this part of the brain is somehow figuring out things without you necessarily having to be consciously aware of it."

The report "has the potential of unifying different approaches to the anterior cingulate cortex," said William J. Gehring, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. "Researchers have been looking at the response to errors people make and also the response to negative events. This is tying those two together."

Still, Gehring said, "this is the sort of thing where you need additional research. The report is not specific about what is going on, and how closely the response is tied to awareness."

Gehring and Brown agreed that the findings have potential applications to psychiatric practice, but they lie far in the future.

Abnormalities of the anterior cingulate cortex have been associated with a number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, Brown said.

"It's a little premature to say how this might help us treat individuals with mental illness," he said. "There's a lot we don't know about what goes wrong in mental illness. But if we understand how this works in healthy individuals, we will be in a better position to understand what goes wrong in mental illness."

Abnormal activity of the anterior cingular cortex has been linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, Gehring said. "It's been shown that there is too much activity in this area. There is a general sense that things are going wrong, when actually they are not."

A simple introduction to brain function is available from the University of Washington.

Here's an article I found from an Indian related web site about the aborigines tsunami early warning system. Who knows?

Tsunami Warning System of Aboriginal Tribes

By Manmohan Melville

We call ourselves the “civilized world”. We call them “aboriginal tribes”. Sometimes, when we are in a condescending mood, we smilingly refer to them as “the missing links with our primitive past”.

There are also five distinct aboriginal tribes that inhabit the islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago – the Jarawas, Onges, Shompens, Sentinelese and the Great Andamanese.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which form a part of the Indian nation, are situated in the Indian Ocean – almost 1,000 miles to the east of the mainland. They comprise of an archipelago of over 500 islands – 38 of which are populated.

The main modern settlements are around Port Blair (the capital town), on one of the northernmost islands. The cluster of towns near the capital see an influx of tourists – both Indian and foreign. And these islands are also home to members of scientific teams, Coast Guards and the Indian military forces.

On the other hand, the original, native tribes (now forming just 12% of the islands’ population) – by and large -- keep very much to themselves – living on the remote, scattered islands – in life-styles that have remained almost unchanged over the centuries. You can say that that they are almost “untouched by our modern civilization”. In fact, a few of the tribes have (what can be best described as) a healthy disdain for modern man and his civilized world!

On 26 December 2004, a massive, underwater earthquake took place near the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering off 20 feet high tsunami waves that ravaged the coastlines of 12 countries along the rim of the Indian Ocean.

Now, it so happens that the beautiful islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago are situated a mere 60 nautical miles to the west of the probable underwater epicenter of those tsunami waves!

A Trail of Destruction

The tsunami waves left a trail of death and destruction wherever they struck along the coastlines! The islands of Andaman and Nicobar bore the brunt of the sea’s fury on that fateful day. The village of Kakana – on the central Car Nicobar Island – was once considered the ideal village, based on which the neighbouring villages modeled themselves. It had a power station, electricity, a school, banks, shops, concrete houses, roads and television. After the tsunami struck, however, the village was almost reduced to rubble.

Village after village on the coastlines of the scattered islands showed similar heartrending scenes. In addition, there was tremendous loss to life and thousands of persons were reported to be “missing”. A week after the disaster, the figures sent in from the islands showed about 700 dead and over 3,000 others missing.

And what about the natives?

Had the island tribes survived the fury of the tsunami? After all, most of the villages built on more modern standards had been flattened by the waves. The initial reports about the tribes that came in sounded most grim. At first, there was every reason to believe that none of the five tribes had survived!

Geographically, the southern islands of the Nicobar group are closest to the epicenter of the tsunami. And it is mainly on these islands that the aboriginal natives still live. (95% of the tribal folks live in the central and southern Nicobar Islands).

Initial sorties showed that many of the smaller islands of the Nicobar group had been totally submerged by the disaster. And there was a fear that many would never be seen again. And what about the natives?

In recent years, these tribes had already dwindled to very small numbers. The smallest tribe – the Sentinelese – numbered only 32, while the largest group – Jarawas – had about 226 members.

Had the indigenous tribes vanished under the waves?

A most welcome shower of arrows!

A few days after the tsunami struck, a Coast Guard helicopter was making a survey over Sentinel Island – the home of the Sentinelese tribes. On spotting some of the tribesmen on the beach, the curious pilot veered the helicopter towards them.

At once, the tribesmen sent an angry shower of arrows at the helicopter. That was taken as a sign that the tribe had not only survived but was as fighting fit as ever! Their arrows said it all – we have survived on our own and do not need your help – thank you!

The personnel in the helicopter clicked photographs of the tribesmen, with their bows in hand, as proof to show that the aborigines had survived the natural disaster.

On other tribal islands, it was found that the salt water from the tsunami had contaminated the water holes. In these areas, the Air Force airdropped food packages for the tribes.

Ancient, native warning systems

The next question that surfaced in everyone’s minds was – just how did these simple, unsophisticated people manage to save themselves? After all, many of the larger bases on the islands had almost been flattened and hundreds of civilians – caught unawares -- had been washed into the sea.

The probable answer lies in the ancient, ancestral warning system that these tribes have evolved over the centuries. Their system is simple and unique. The tribes-people live in close harmony with nature and with the local flora and fauna. They seem to have an intense system of by which they observe their fellow-creatures. The cries of the birds, the frenzy of the smaller mammals, even the change in the swimming pattern of the marine animals – all give them clues and signals of approaching natural calamities -- like storms or tidal waves.

It is a system that has been developed – almost through natural instinct – by their forefathers and which have been passed down from generation to generation. Probably, as the tribes-people read the signs on that fateful day, they began to move their people inwards and upwards to higher grounds just before the tsunami struck.

The surveys made later by the Coast Guards confirmed this – all five of the indigenous tribes had “instinctively” moved to safer, high ground.

A lesson for the civilized people

Anthropologists have further confirmed that these tribes probably trace their traditions back 20,000 years – each generation adding its own knowledge to the existing pool of information.

This knowledge has not yet been completely recorded and studied by “civilized” man. Probably hidden somewhere in the knowledge that the tribes have there may be some methods that can be developed to form a warning system that will save future generations of the civilized world from the destruction by the forces of nature.

With the trauma of the tsunami fresh in our minds, this may be the right time for the “civilized people” to start that study – in a spirit of true humility. And probably this is the right point to end this narrative, but not before adding this moral to the tale -- the next time we refer to ourselves as the “civilized world” -- stop and think!

There’s a lot we have to learn from the so-called “primitive” people!

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