Test Your Brain|脑力大挑战

by Marcus Maurice

Magicians and directors are always trying to fool the brain.

The brain is the most complex organ in the body, but it can be misled at the drop of a hat. Examples of master manipulators would be Hollywood directors who devise new ways to elicit emotions, magicians like David Copperfield tricking millions of people with their grand illusions, and even pickpockets creating small distractions to swipe wallets. This month, National Geographic Channel goes inside human skulls to explain how brains are hardwired to make sense of what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste in Test Your Brain. This three-part series helps viewers get a better understanding about memory and how the senses can be easily distorted.

If the brain is the ultimate supercomputer, Copperfield is one of the best hackers the world has ever known. He, along with a group of experts, tests, tricks, and deceives a group of volunteers with audience control. Hollywood directors also know how to hoodwink viewers to make them feel the sensations they want. Have you ever watched a movie scene so gruesome that you had to turn away because you felt you were being hurt? Test Your Brain reveals why people actually feel illusions with their eyes.

Detectives don't have easy jobs, and to make it even harder, 10 witnesses to the same crime can pick 10 different suspects out of a police line-up. This means that every single person has his or her own selective memory, and sometimes false memories are created during recollection. Test Your Brain dives into the tiniest intricacies of the brains which make us who we are.

脑力大挑战

从魔术师到电影导演，每个人都想蒙骗你我的大脑。

大脑是人体最复杂的器官，但它也可能瞬间被误导。设计新颖手法以引发观众情绪的好莱坞导演、像戴维．考柏菲等以华丽错觉唬住数百万人的魔术师，甚至是使人稍微分心好偷走钱包的扒手，都是蒙骗高手的例子。本月国家地理频道的《脑力大挑战》系列，将探索头壳内的奥秘，解开大脑神经如何联结，以使我们理解五种感官知觉。这个系列共分 3 部，帮助观众更加了解自己的记忆力，以及我们的感官有多容易受到扭曲。

如果大脑是终极超级计算机，那戴维．考柏菲就是世界上最著名的黑客之一了。他和 1 群好手以操控观众的方式，试探、唬弄而骗倒一些志愿上台的观众。好莱坞导演也知道该如何蒙蔽观众，让他们的喜怒哀乐照自己的剧本走。你可曾看到某部片的恐怖场景，因为错觉自己会受伤而别过头不看？《脑力大挑战》系列将揭晓为什么人类用双眼看东西会产生错觉。

警探的工作一点也不简单，而让他们的工作更加艰难之处在于，同一宗犯罪案件的 10 个目击证人可以在警局的一排嫌疑犯中，指认出 10 个不同的嫌犯。这表示每个人都有选择性记忆，有时候在回想时还会产生错误的记忆。《脑力大挑战》系列探究人类头脑最细微错综复杂之处，就是这些成就了每个人的独特之处。

错觉（illusion）是感觉的扭曲，是大脑对刺激的错误分析。在心理学研究中，意指假性幻觉所呈现的状态。当一个人将畏惧或焦虑的感受投射在外在物体与经验上，或是因为想象、虚构或错误的联想而产生畏惧或焦虑的感觉，就会产生假性幻觉。大部分人都会有错觉，而最常见的错觉是视觉上的错觉。

错觉和幻觉其实是 2 种完全不一样的现象。前者是大脑对刺激的分析错误，后者是在完全没有刺激的情况下，大脑仍然感受到刺激。

举例来说，一个人听到有人在叫他，但事实上并没有任何人叫他，这是幻觉。一个人听到水流动的声音,但事实上该声音是其他类似水流动的声音，并不是真正水流动的声音，这叫错觉。

（数据源：维基百科）