Some people have subtitles synaesthesia’ which means they see all speech appear as writing in their mind. And they only realised not everyone thinks this way when they saw a research study ad.
Some scientists believe the ‘free energy principle’ can explain the behaviour of all living things – but others say it paints the world with too broad a brush to be useful.
Ex-pats continually reconstruct mental simulations of scenes, smells, sounds and sights from those places – sometimes causing stressful feelings and anxiety.
Research highlights the importance of daily meditation, exercise and sleep for improving executive functioning, a component of attention that helps people focus.
Researchers used a test designed for babies to show that rhesus monkeys can sense their own heartbeats. The finding opens up important paths of research into consciousness and mental health issues.
Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts. Even microemotions — which are often fleeting and unconscious — can affect thoughts and influence attention.