Apologies if this story was posted before.
As reported in New Scientist, a new study suggests humans may sense Earth's magnetic field just like other animals.
Transduction of the Geomagnetic Field as Evidenced from Alpha-band Activity in the Human Brain
Connie X. Wang, Isaac A. Hilburn, Daw-An Wu, Yuki Mizuhara, Christopher P. Cousté, Jacob N. H. Abrahams, Sam E. Bernstein, Ayumu Matani, Shinsuke Shimojo and Joseph L. Kirschvink
eNeuro 18 March 2019, ENEURO.0483-18.2019; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0483-18.2019
As reported in New Scientist, a new study suggests humans may sense Earth's magnetic field just like other animals.
Transduction of the Geomagnetic Field as Evidenced from Alpha-band Activity in the Human Brain
Connie X. Wang, Isaac A. Hilburn, Daw-An Wu, Yuki Mizuhara, Christopher P. Cousté, Jacob N. H. Abrahams, Sam E. Bernstein, Ayumu Matani, Shinsuke Shimojo and Joseph L. Kirschvink
eNeuro 18 March 2019, ENEURO.0483-18.2019; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0483-18.2019
Quote:Magnetoreception, the perception of the geomagnetic field, is a sensory modality well-established across all major groups of vertebrates and some invertebrates, but its presence in humans has been tested rarely, yielding inconclusive results. We report here a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Following geomagnetic stimulation, a drop in amplitude of EEG alpha oscillations (8-13 Hz) occurred in a repeatable manner. Termed alpha event-related desynchronization (alpha-ERD), such a response has been associated previously with sensory and cognitive processing of external stimuli including vision, auditory and somatosensory cues. Alpha-ERD in response to the geomagnetic field was triggered only by horizontal rotations when the static vertical magnetic field was directed downwards, as it is in the Northern Hemisphere; no brain responses were elicited by the same horizontal rotations when the static vertical component was directed upwards. This implicates a biological response tuned to the ecology of the local human population, rather than a generic physical effect.
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