A group of scientists with funding from DARPA, the Human Frontier Science Program and the Japanese Science and Technology Agency have been looking for evidence that humans possess an additional sense that detects the Earth’s magnetic field. Many other animals can do this, but past experiments with humans have yielded ambiguous results. The new experiment relied not just on participants’ subjective experiences, but also on EEG readings of their brain activities. While most participants felt no conscious sensation in response to changes in the magnetic field around them, their EEG patterns did change, suggesting a real but weak and subconscious sense is involved.
Key Takeaways:
- Scientists know that animals do have a magnetic sense such as birds and bees that help them to navigate through the world.
- There has been an endless controversy in the quest to determine if humans have a magnetic sense in their brains. Some results have been positive while others negative.
- The studies have failed to determine the existence of magnetic sense in humans because they were based on behavioral decisions from the participants.
“The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field, generated by the movement of the planet’s liquid core. It’s why a magnetic compass points north. At Earth’s surface, this magnetic field is fairly weak, about 100 times weaker than that of a refrigerator magnet.”
