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Biotech Science

Study Points to Sixth Sense in Humans 587

Posted by CowboyNeal from the sight-beyond-sight dept.
Ben Sullivan writes "St. Louis researchers say there's something to the notion of a 'sixth sense' in humans. A part of the brain known as the cingulate cortex, they've found, likely combines multiple, sometimes unconscious data streams to come to conclusions and send warning signals to the conscious mind. Example: Aboriginal tribesmen somehow sensed the impending danger of December's tsunami in time to flee to higher ground before the first sign of water."
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Study Points to Sixth Sense in Humans More

Study Points to Sixth Sense in Humans

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  • I have the feeling (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:23AM (#11722194)
    ...this topic is going to generate a lot of flames.

  • Isn't.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Seabass55 ( 472183 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:23AM (#11722197) Homepage
    ...that called being "the one"?

  • Tsunami (Score:4, Funny)

    by kdark1701 ( 791894 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:25AM (#11722205) Homepage
    "Example: Aboriginal tribesmen somehow sensed the impending danger of December's tsunami in time to flee to higher ground before the first sign of water." I do not envy the person who gets to tell the tsunami survivors: "You should have saw it coming"
    • I do not envy the person who gets to tell the tsunami survivors: "You should have saw it coming"

      I don't envy someone with such poor grammar either.

      • I don't envy someone with such poor grammar either.

        Poor grammar either? What is that? Can it even be had?

      • Pot? Kettle. (Score:5, Funny)

        by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:28PM (#11723378)
        Dude, your user id is "I be hatin'."
    • I do not envy the person who gets to tell the tsunami survivors: "You should have saw it coming"

      Logically, the survivors are the ones who did see it coming

    • Re:Tsunami (Score:5, Informative)

      by AngryAzul ( 860969 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:42AM (#11722348)
      Although it does seem that aboriginal people were forewarned, this is more responsibly attributed to their tradition of paying close attention to wildlife. While it is not well understood, animals seem to be more sensitive to the subtle environmental changes that precede events like earthquakes and tsunamis, and it's very smart of these people to take notice when the animals all flee to higher ground. BBC News article about this subject: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4144405.stm

      • Re:Tsunami (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Ithika ( 703697 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:50AM (#11722414) Homepage
        It's probably not "wildlife" in the general sense, but some small set of animals whose physical senses will play up whenever the earth undergoes strenuous subterranean activity. The rest of the animals - and aborigines - just haven't lost the habit of paying attention to each other.

      • Re:Tsunami (Score:4, Funny)

        by Velox_SwiftFox ( 57902 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @02:09PM (#11723636)
        You know, you could have something here.

        I live in an earthquake-prone area, and just a couple of minutes ago my dog suddenly indicated a frantic need to leave the building I live in.

        Remarkably, he was able to promptly demonstrate that had I not let him out, a local flood might have occurred!

    • The aborginals fled after they read the signs... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Which included beached deep-water fish due to seismic activity, retreating seas and the other classic signs. Nothing sixth sense about it. Anyone watching and dealing with the environment on a daily basis would have noticed it. In fact, fishermen off the coast of kerala in India warned the government that something was "fishy" when their catches started turning up unusual numbers of rare red-tailed deep-water fishes. Most people chose to ignore these warnings.

    • Re:Tsunami (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jc42 ( 318812 )
      Um, this isn't exactly secret knowledge. I grew up on the American West Coast, and I remember being taught about "tidal waves" in grade school. Not that there had been one of any size in living memory, of course. But we were taught that if we saw the ocean water retreating more rapidly than an ordinary tide, we should try to get away from the shore to avoid the incoming wave that would follow.

      I'd bet that this is known to shore dwellers almost everywhere. Of course, some people are too stupid to listen

  • Haha! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:25AM (#11722206)
    I had a feeling this article was coming.

  • Higher ground (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:26AM (#11722208)
    Did the aboriginal tribemen ever go to higher ground when there wasn't a tsunami, or was this the first time they went there?

    • Re:Higher ground (Score:4, Interesting)

      by robomepp ( 860973 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:21AM (#11722594)
      In a report on NPR, (and I can't get more specific because I was driving), it was stated that there are little used nerve endings in our knee cartilage that evolved specifically for the purpose of detecting earth tremors. I can remember one time in my life when I sensed a very faint earth tremor (I live in a geologically stable region) and I sensed it through my knees, as I recall (I confirmed it via a news report later). Tribal people, living in a quiet setting, are probably more attuned to the sensations delivered by these nerves. Also, if their ears are very keen (not damaged by headphones, machinery, and too-loud speakers, as mine are), perhaps they could detect infrasonic sounds associated with an earthquate of the extreme magnitude of that one. Animals certainly are very good at detecting infrasonics, so the tribal peoples could have noted animal movements prior to the tsunami.

  • Not another pseudoscience story (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:26AM (#11722213)
    "Aboriginal tribesmen somehow sensed the impending danger of December's tsunami in time to flee to higher ground before the first sign of water"

    No, they fled to higher ground after they saw the water level drop knowing that it would come back up the same amount that it dropped.

    • Re:Not another pseudoscience story (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pVoid ( 607584 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:51AM (#11722427)
      I agree with you but there is some merit in this. Not enough to make a story called "the sixth sense" though.

      All IMHO, the brain is a humongous pattern matching system. It learns by ways of emotional or genetic reinforcment. It might very well be that in fact seeing animals flee, even if they're just walking uphill might trigger a dormant pattern and pop up a completely irrational thought that maybe it's time to go up too.

      But this is the equivalent of software. Not an additional hardware function that perceives stuff (the sixth sense). That would be like calling intelligence your 7th sense.

      • I agree - I've experienced this personally (Score:5, Interesting)

        by DG ( 989 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:55PM (#11723546) Homepage Journal
        I agree with you, both in the claim that this phenomenon is not psudoscience, and that calling it a "sixth sense" is somewhat sensational.

        The article spells out the test methodology in detail, and it seems solid.

        But I have personal experience with this.

        I have had extensive navigation training, first as a pilot, and then later in a military career. The Army in particular had very high standards for needing to know exactly where you were at all times (to within 100m) without the aid of something like a GPS.

        So you learn to keep a visualization of your surroundings in your head, and to cross-reference that visualization against whatever tools you have (like a map, compass, or odometer) at regular intervals to keep the internal representation in sync with the real world. After some practice, this becomes second nature - muscle memory stuff.

        But there's an odd side-effect, at least there is with me. If I make a wrong turn, miss an exit, or make some sort of navigational mistake, something in my subconscious will pick up on it well before I'm ever consciously aware of it (especially if my conscious is somehow distracted away from navigation) It's hard to put into words... but I will get a profound sense of "wrongness", like an inaudible alarm bell. The more I ignore it, the worse it gets.

        I have learned not to ignore it. If that alarm goes off, I'll immediately make navigation the highest-priority mental task - and without fail, I will have just goofed somehow.

        Unfortunately, this ability does not convey any other information other than "you are no longer on the planned course". There is a recognition function in there, but no follow-on advisory function. It's still up to conciousness to correct the problem once discovered.

        When it happens though... it's really a very odd feeling, and it's quite strong.

        DG
        • "Unfortunately, this ability does not convey any other information other than "you are no longer on the planned course". There is a recognition function in there, but no follow-on advisory function. It's still up to conciousness to correct the problem once discovered.

          When it happens though... it's really a very odd feeling, and it's quite strong."

          I get the same feeling when walking into a mall. It's not a joke (despite looking like one) and it doesn't happen with other large or small indoor spaces. Crowd

    • Science beats pseudoscience every time (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dustmite ( 667870 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:04AM (#11722501)

      Some of the local indigenous people had stories handed down over generations from their ancestors who had also suffered through a tsunami, and from these stories some of them recognized the warning signs and knew what to do. No mystical explanation required in that case.

      A good example of the value that even conventional science holds over anything paranormal is the 10-year old British girl who recognized the warning signs from having listened in her geography class, and saved hundreds of lives by warning those on the beach and nearby hotel to evacuate.

      By comparison: Even though there are millions of psychics/clairvoyants and other people who claim to be able to predict the future worldwide, not one predicted the tsunami! Remarkable?

      This is not to say that there isn't something to the study descibed in the article; animals and aboriginals may all have 'felt' the earthquake (even from far - elephants' feet for example have specially adapted sensors that are very sensitive to vibrations), and just thought it prudent to get out of the way just in case. However the use of the term "sixth sense" implies a paranormal explanation, when in fact you can pretty much bet that the true explanation, whatever it turns out to be, is going to be quite logical and rational. This is perhaps more likely just poor journalism rather than poor science.

      (These stories with a 'pseudoscientific bent' seem to reveal a creeping trend away from rational thinking on slashdot, which several years ago used to feel like one of the few good places on the Net where one could get away from that sort of gullible mainstream uninformed discourse :/ Is Slashdot now officially "mainstream"?)

      • >>By comparison: Even though there are millions of psychics/clairvoyants and other people who claim to be able to predict the future worldwide, not one predicted the tsunami! Remarkable?

        I am certain that the responsible 'authorities' are reverse engineering the Bible Code(tm) and Nostradamus' Quatrains as we discuss this.

        wbs
      • However the use of the term "sixth sense" implies a paranormal explanation...This is perhaps more likely just poor journalism rather than poor science.

        Indeed. It might be more appropriate to say there are sixth, seventh, and eighth, etc. senses. It has been postulated that we are sensitive to a variety of stimula that other animals are capable of sensing (magnetic fields, pheromones, etc.) but that these senses are either vestigal or their input is overwhelmed by the high bandwidth requirements of visio

  • heh (Score:3, Informative)

    by Phil246 ( 803464 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:27AM (#11722216)
    It would be more useful to know precisely what triggers it, and why - then saying it merely exists.

    Im sure most people have at one point in their lives for an unexplainable reason (till now i guess) done something other then what they wanted to - and was better off because of it.

  • It's true! Everyday I use anonymous communication/travel methods in order to stop big brother from monitoring me. I don't have any evidence there watching me, I just feel it, because of my sixth sense you see.

  • Aboriginal tribesmen (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shreevatsa ( 845645 ) <shreevatsa DOT slashdot AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:27AM (#11722219)
    No, AFAIK, the tribesmen affected by the tsunami (were they aboriginal? I don't know) knew to run to high places for safety not because of any sixth sense, but because of wisdom passed down the generations saying that whenever water in the ocean very quickly receded, it would soon come gushing and flood them. No sixth sense there!

    • Also, from the article: (Score:5, Informative)

      by shreevatsa ( 845645 ) <shreevatsa DOT slashdot AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:34AM (#11722281)
      In addition to what I just said, I also read TFA and found this:
      Researchers provided study participants with a series of blue or white cues and asked them to push one button or another depending on the direction of arrows. Brain imaging suggested that an area of the brain had learned to recognize that blue cues indicated a greater potential for error, thus providing an early warning signal that negative consequences were likely to follow their behavior.

      The rest of the article says essentially the same thing -- the brain learns to recognise a pattern of making mistakes, not that is able to sense impending danger before it happens or whatever.
      The slashdot summary needlessly sensationalised this simple fact.

  • Duh (Score:5, Informative)

    by Reality Master 101 ( 179095 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .101retsaMytilaeR.> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:29AM (#11722230) Homepage Journal
    Your sense of balance in your inner ear is your sixth sense (it's a sense of gravity). It just doesn't get any credit.
    • Don't forget #7 - kinethesis, which doesn't even have "sense" in it's name, unlike "sense of balance"

      • Re:Duh (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Mike Schiraldi ( 18296 )
        That's not a sense (i.e. an input into your brain) .. it's your brain's model your body's current position. And it can get out of sync with reality, which is why baseball players punch their mitt before making a catch.

    • Re:Duh (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dun Malg ( 230075 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:31AM (#11722654) Homepage
      Your sense of balance in your inner ear is your sixth sense (it's a sense of gravity). It just doesn't get any credit.

      Yeah, the whole "five senses" thing is crap from ancient greek philosophy. It's more accurate than their "four elements", but it's still not correct. There are numerous other senses. Balance (as you mentioned), sensed by the motion of fluid in the inner ear; proprioception/kinesthesia (as another poster mentioned), sensing body position; There are several "internal" senses-- hunger, full bladder, etc.-- as well. Basically, anything that your nervous system consciously registers (internal or external) is a sense. Technically, that tingling feeling you get just before a lightning strike during a thunder storm could be called your "sense of lightning". At best, those five senses Aristotle and his contemporaries enumerated could be called "the five most obvious external senses".

      • Re:Duh (Score:3, Insightful)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 )
        True, but I always felt that the "5 senses" were intended to be pretty general. Therefore, I'd group a sense of touch/feel as encompassing all those "internal senses" anyway. (You can "feel" that your bladder is full, just as you can "feel" pain or "feel" hunger.)

        It still seems like a very valid point that it's flawed when it comes to not mentioning our sense of "balance" though. The sense of body position is an interesting one... Amputees often report having sensations that their missing appendage is

        • Only Five Senses? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by VValdo ( 10446 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:33PM (#11723405)
          I've always felt those "five senses" were an overgeneralization. I mean, taste and smell are basically the same thing, aren't they? As I understand it, smell is basically your nose "tasting" molecules captured from the air. Your sense of taste, meanwhile, is pretty hampered when you plug your nose.

          Isn't hearing basically a type of interpreted "feeling"-- your inner ear contains small hairs that feel the compression of air, which are then experienced as sound.

          Since people are talking about phantom-limb, I think one might also mention the reverse-- the sense that your body extends beyond its normal self-- ie, that weird feeling that you've 'fused' with a car/game/musical instrument so that they feel like an attachment or extension to you-- that you become so comfortable with them that you don't think of the interface between you and that object.

          When I'm driving for long periods of time, I do sometimes feel as though the car has become to some effect an extension of my body. To move the car, I don't conciously think that I need to use my arms to turn the wheel, I just kind of will the car to turn, and my arms do what's necessary. I've had this experience with video games as well. In a way, your brain accepts that you've become part OF that object. Another example-- once I learned to type, I no longer needed to think about the mechanics of typing, the words just kind of flow to the screen as I think them.

          I guess one's brain just adapts itself to your physical "hookup" and tries to streamline the input and output streams so that they are as efficient as possible.

          So, yeah, I agree that the 5 senses idea seems kind of over-simplified. I suspect that whatever your nerves are wired to, after along enough your brain will adapt enough to accept it as a source of "input". I'm sure this has been tried. Does anyone know of an experiment like this one [cnn.com] where a person's senses were "extended" via hardware?

          And what about that creepy-- and often annoying-- feeling that someone's reading over your shoulder? That "feeling" that you're being watched? What's that all about? Which of the five senses is used to describe THAT? ;)

          W

  • Of course, they couldn't very well interview (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Snarfangel ( 203258 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:29AM (#11722234) Homepage
    the ones that headed for the coast at the first sign of danger.

  • Speaking for myself here... (Score:3, Funny)

    by radiotyler ( 819474 ) <tyler&dappergeek,com> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:31AM (#11722247) Homepage
    "...described by some scientists as part of the brain's 'oops' center..."

    My brains "oops" center is located in a more southern and groinular region.

  • Ugh (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:32AM (#11722252)
    Calling this a "sixth sense" is very misleading. The normal five senses - sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, for those few who don't already know - involve the intake of information through specialized organs or tissues (eyes, ears, skin, etc.) in addition to the processing of those stimuli. This so-called "sixth sense" is simply the subconscious reprocessing of the same information obtained by the regular five senses (and that description misses the real point of the discovery anyway*), and so it hardly qualifies as a sense.

    * The point of the discovery is that the region of the brain discussed in the article helps to determine, based on past experience and the current situation, whether something is a bad idea or not.

  • Slashcode decides to print this fortune when I enter the article:

    When you're dining out and you suspect something's wrong, you're probably right.

    Well, better head back to the Dreamland...(and no, that's not the name of the new Arnold restaurant)

  • Every mother knows this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by T1girl ( 213375 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:33AM (#11722268) Homepage
    Amazing how moms develop that "eyes in the back of the head." A sudden silence, absence of noise or motion around the house, and you just know the toddler is unravelling the toilet paper or eting out of the dog's dish (hey, it looks like Cheerios), or leaning over to retrieve a toy from the edge of the swimming pool. This extends to the tiniest facial expressions that tell you your kid's lying or troubled about something, or you notice the cookie jar lid is slightly awry, or someone got into your purse and didn't close it quite right, or a thousand other little signals. It probably helps the species survive.
    I can't explain the tsunami warning phenomenon, but a lot of subtle perceptions lie close to the surface, and I think there's a scientific explanation for everything.
    • Like Chad Pennington playing football for the NY Jets. Once, he was about to get sacked on his blind side by a linebacker who broke through blocking. Pennington instinctively scrambled out and rushed for a touchdown without ever seeing the pass-rusher. When asked about the play, he said that he had a feeling that he had to get out of there. What really happened, probably, was that he saw too few men on the field in front of his and knew there had to be someone behind him. However, this realization was on so

  • I've always known about this (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Spacejock ( 727523 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:34AM (#11722278)
    When I was 9 or 10 I climbed onto the neighbour's roof to get a model plane back. There was a staircase leading up to a flat area, a two foot wall and then the roof itself. I climbed that wall onto the tiles and put my hand out to grab the railing (a kind of stranded black wire).

    Then I realised it was an overhead power line. There were four of them, crossing the house at shoulder level.

    I don't know what made me stop my hand, inches from grabbing hold of that high voltage wire, but I've made the most of my life ever since. (And I never got that damned plane back, either.)

  • How do we know... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by astroblaster ( 600838 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:34AM (#11722282)
    ...that the aboriginals weren't just following the animals [google.com]?

  • Cold Fusion (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gvc ( 167165 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:38AM (#11722317)
    Real scientific results are reported in scientific venues like professional conferences and peer-reviewed journals. Not press releases.

  • Sixth sense (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cphilo ( 768807 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:39AM (#11722325)
    As an ex-cowboy (I'm from Montana), I can tell you that animals have sharp senses, and can find a small spring of water in a 10 square mile desert. If you spend enough time away from the noise, smells and chaos of civilization, you also develop sharp senses and can sense weather changes and natural phenomenon. Once in the city (when I live now) there is so much noise, weird smells and chaotic energy, this ability fades. I have no doubt that the aborigines sensed the Tsunami.
  • For claims of pseudoscience and paranormal, it's really just a little sensationalism on the part of journalists wanting to make a catchy introduction. Animals typically can "sense" these disasters before there's overt evidence something bad is going to happen. Why would it be so far-fetched to believe that humans have some element of this capability too? Unless, of course, you don't REALLY believe in evolution. :P

    Identifying a neurological component in our intuition by way of a reasonable study doesn'

  • Yeah, for example (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sam_handelman ( 519767 ) <samuel DOT handelman AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:41AM (#11722343) Journal
    I'm able to use my synaesthetic powers to detect complete bullshit!

    It's true that there is definitely a region of the brain that manages anxiety - and that all sorts of things can make people anxious - seemingly for no reason!

    However, neurotic != psychic. There are no *new senses* under discussion here, just a better understanding of how the brain manages that feeling of impending doom you sometimes get.

    Do other mammals have similar brain structures? Yes.

    Do they probably use them to avoid danger, incl. forest fires and tsunamis? Almost certainly.

    Do we, higher mammals, probably retain whatever hard-coded sensory cues cause our little forest friends to flee natural disasters? We probably do, yes. When someone is in the supermarket and they have a panic attack for no reason, might it be because the kiwi display is triggering the same mechanism that is supposed to make us flee from a tsunami? Maybe.

    "In the past, we found activity in the ACC when people had to make a difficult decision among mutually exclusive options, or after they made a mistake," Brown said. "But now we find that this brain region can actually learn to recognize when you might make a mistake, even before a difficult decision has to be made. So the ACC appears to act as an early warning system -- it learns to warn us in advance when our behavior might lead to a negative outcome, so that we can be more careful and avoid making a mistake."

    This has nothing to do with psychic powers! Fucking idiot journalists.

  • My spidey-sense is tingling.

  • A new icon needed in ./ (Score:3, Insightful)

    by stm2 ( 141831 ) <(moc.selatigidseneg) (ta) (issabs)> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:42AM (#11722352) Homepage Journal
    Last week black box project (or global conscientious), now the "six sense", shouldn't a PSEUDOSCIENCIE icon needed in Slashdot?

    • Re:A new icon needed in ./ (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fafalone ( 633739 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:09AM (#11722532)
      Only after a moderation option for 'doesn't know what they're talking about' is added.
      Whether you agree with calling it a sixth sense or not, they observed an effect, formulated a hypothesis, designed and executed an experiment with sound methodology in a controlled environment, and applied the results to validating their hypothesis. Their theory is supported by scientific evidence and can be used to predict new things. This is science, and is quite obviously not pseudoscience if one RTFA.

  • More than six already (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ozmanjusri ( 601766 ) <.moc.liamtoh. .ta. .bob_eissua.> on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:44AM (#11722366) Journal
    We already know we have way more than six senses. The idea that we only have six is one of those enduring fictions which we've inherited as part of our cultural mix.

    Just try closing your eyes and touching your fingertips together. That's your sense of location working. Ever fly in an aerobatic aircraft? That strange feeling in your stomach is your sense of acceleration telling you which direction you're being shoved in. There are plenty more, if you care to think about them.

    The headline is misleading though. The activity being measured in the tests;
    "an early warning system -- one that monitors environmental cues, weighs possible consequences and helps us adjust our behavior to avoid dangerous situations."

    is a consequence of analysis, not sensation. It looks like we have mechanism in brains which can reflexively assess and respond to novel dangers.
    Quelle surprise...

  • No it doesn't (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mike Schiraldi ( 18296 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:47AM (#11722385) Homepage Journal
    What about the guys who "got a feeling" they should head to higher ground when there wasn't a tsunami coming? What about the guys who didn't get a feeling when it was?

    People get feelings and act on them all the time. We only hear about the rare times when they coincide with an actual event.
  • Don't we have six senses anyway - sight,hearing,touch,taste,smell and time. Our sense of time passing may be wildly inaccurate at times, but I can 'sense' the difference between a day and a minute pretty easily. Presumably there's some sort of time-keeping circuitry in the brain somewhere.

    That would make this the seventh sense, unless there's some reason that time is never included.
  • and they just won't shut up!

  • But can it... (Score:3, Funny)

    by aj50 ( 789101 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @10:50AM (#11722416)
    ...be used to make peril sensitive sunglasses?
  • The human mind really is a fascinating thing. Think about all of the things that you perceive during the day. All the sights, smells, tastes and everything else. You're continually bombarded with so much information that you cannot possibly be paying attention to everything coming in. Doesn't it make a certain amount of sense for evolution to put some sort of mechanism into the brain to help collate those little signs that you would otherwise ignore into a larger, more apparent picture if it adds up to

  • Sounds like Bayesian filtering... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by danielrm26 ( 567852 ) * on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:01AM (#11722483) Homepage
    ...rather than a sixth sense. Just as many have pointed out, it's still the 5 senses that are doing the input gathering here -- it's just that another part of the brain is doing some number crunching.

    I liken it to Bayesian because it seems to be based on analyzing what happened in the past in order to attempt to predict what is *going* to happen in the future.

    For spam:
    Stuff with these characters are often spam, let's bump this score up a bit.
    For danger:
    Everytime x happens, y seems to happen afterwards, so I should flee.

    This isn't magic, guys. It's just another advantage of the subconcious doing work behind the scenes. /., like Wired, is just prone to blowing these sorts of stories out of proportion.

  • Tribesman (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pardasaniman ( 585320 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:09AM (#11722530) Journal
    While I personally believe in a Sixth Sense. I remember reading that Indian tribespeople avoided the tsunami for two reasons:

    1) Their land was not deforested and the trees slowed down the onslaught of the waves.

    2) An ancient legend warns them to seek higher ground when the ground shakes.

    Thus, all of them survived.

  • The Mac analogy (Score:3, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:21AM (#11722596)
    This is like saying we've discovered a second Mac mouse button just because you can make more use of the single one you've got if you're smarter and more experienced, or because you're so used to using the control key that you're no longer conscious that you're doing it.

  • They headed the warning signs (Score:4, Informative)

    by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @11:22AM (#11722601) Journal
    Even CNN was able to report this diligently. They passed on knowledge through their generations that retreating water was a sign of disaster, so when the waters went out (whatever the technical term is) they all scarpered.

    I am sure the brain does have sub systems that try and trigger responses from us, like when we tune into a baby crying or other things, I am sure that our senses are more sensitive than we realise, but mostof it is filtered out.

    Sounds like headline grabbing terminology bending.

    But saying it is a sixth sense does not mean that IT KNEW MORE than what was being told to it by the 5 senses we do actually have (perhaps we can like pigeons sense magnetics also).

    So please, like robotics, nanotech and every other buzz word that gets recycled, make sure you really are saying what you are saying.

  • Generational knowledge (Score:3, Interesting)

    by saddino ( 183491 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @12:57PM (#11723229)
    Interestingly, an article in the Washington Post (can't find it now) mentioned that one particularly old tribe of fisherman also fled, but only after the waters receded (the ultra "low tide" effect that occurs before the tsunami hits). Apparently, folk stories passed generation-to-generation included references to ancestors who experienced tsunami. Armed with this cultural folklore, they fled while others gawked at the strange sight of the sea leaving the shore.

  • I have a sixth sense (Score:3, Funny)

    by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) ( 613870 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:01PM (#11723246) Journal
    It's called a bullshit detector. Most humans come equipped with them but some people choose to ignore them. Mine was tingling when I read
    Aboriginal tribesmen somehow sensed the impending danger of December's tsunami in time to flee to higher ground before the first sign of water

  • Equilibrium? (Score:3, Informative)

    by adolfojp ( 730818 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:03PM (#11723256)
    Equilibrium is the 6th, so this other one should be 7th.

    Cheers,
    Adolfo

  • It's the violins, stupid! (Score:3, Funny)

    by infolib ( 618234 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:33PM (#11723399)
    Whenever you hear half the symphony orchestra join those jagged dissonant minor chords, you know there's something deadly just around the corner. How hard can it be?

  • Attention: TFA has nothing to do with psychics (Score:4, Insightful)

    by porcupine8 ( 816071 ) on Saturday February 19, 2005 @01:36PM (#11723413) Journal
    So could all of you who are whining about the paranormal and pseudoscience just calm down and read it?

    They're using the term "sixth sense" because that's what many people call this ability - and attribute it to psychic, mystical phenomena. They're using the colloquial name for it, but demonstrating what it really is - an ability to subconsciously process subtle clues that you're not even consciously aware of, and use them to determine when danger is coming. The article makes no claims of psychic powers or mysticism or paranormal activity - if anything it's the opposite. It's like showing that people don't get sick because a bad spirit infested them, but because germs infested them. They're still getting sick, but for a real reason.

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