We all know that electromagnetic fields are magic and can do anything at any time for any reason. Sometimes, though, they can be harnessed to do certain things in particular. Electromagnetic fields can be applied to the skull, making your brain do strange, and sometimes completely inexplicable things. Find out how scientists use magnetic fields to rip your mind apart, make it better, and have it do tricks like a trained puppy.
10. Shred its DNA
Well, it's no surprise that not all the things a high electromagnetic field can do are good. Actually, even a mild electromagnetic field can wreck a brain if it's applied over a long time. Scientists found that an electromagnetic field applied to lab rats over time resulted in broken strands of DNA in the brain. Not just anywhere - the brain specifically. It's possible that this DNA damage is the cause of brain tumors, and the reason why people don't just walk around with brain-boosting electromagnetic hats all the time.
9. Stimulate its Growth
Oh, electromagnetism! It's such a trickster! One moment its ripping through DNA strands like a pit bull through an old sock, the next minute it's tenderly nurturing the growth of neurons. Scientists found that brains subjected to regular transcranial electromagnetic stimulation for only five days showed an increase in stem cells in the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that governs memory, making electromagnetic stimulation a possible treatment for Alzheimer's and stroke patients.
8. Train you off food and water
Rats who had been deprived of water were placed in a strong electromagnetic field and offered a sweetened solution. Although they did drink, they drank less than those given the solution without exposure to the electromagnetic field. When rats were given the solution and later exposed to the field, they developed an aversion to the solution over time. Enough electromagnetism may turn you off your favorite food.
7. Make you spin in circles
Other rats (who have a terrible time of it during experiments like these) were found to walk in tight circles under the influence of an electromagnetic field. Scientists think that the field takes out the rats' sense of balance, making them lurch in circles. The lack of balance also may have induced nausea, which causes lethargy and could be one of the reasons that rats go off their feed.
6. Pacify you completely
Transcranial electromagnetic stimulation - subjecting people to strong electromagnetic fields aimed at specific parts of the brain - is sometimes used as a treatment for bipolar disorder or clinical depression. Some patients find an immense relief in this. Other people, who don't suffer from depression, have reason to worry about it. People without any diagnosed medical illness while under such stimulation can be relaxed to a state where they can't think of anything, at all, that bothers them. If that kind of relaxation can be induced at will, it could be used to pacify large parts of the population.
5. Alter your morality
All that relaxation has a price. Sometimes we're meant to fret. For example, if someone is about to cross a dangerous bridge, and we're aware of the chance it can collapse, and they aren't. Those without a magnetic field dancing around their brain, think that allowing the person to cross the bridge would be immoral. Those with a field gaily capering through their neurons think that, as long as this hypothetical person made it to the other side in one piece, there's no real moral problem. Judging the morality of a situation strictly by the outcome makes any crimes with 'attempted' in their description no longer crimes at all. It takes away a person's intentions and bases morality entirely on what happens to occur. Morality becomes a matter of chance.
4. Take out your power of speech but leave your ability to sing
Broca's area in the brain controls the ability to speak. A large electromagnetic field applied to the area takes out that ability entirely. Subjects under this kind of stimulation simply stop speaking the moment the field disrupts that part of the brain, while the rest of the functions are unimpeded. One of those other functions is singing. Although many people think that singing words and speaking words are much the same function, the ability to perform each action is housed in completely different parts of the brain. So people who are unable to talk will sing perfectly normally.
3. Induce panic, disorientation, and deep fear
Although some kinds of electromagnetic fields, applied to certain areas of the brain, pacify people and put them in a good mood, others are said to induce fear. Sometimes people report a persistent, if mild, sense of unease. Others have a more visceral response, feelings of despair and paranoia, sliding into overwhelming terror.
2. Cause Seizures and Death
Under the worst circumstances, exposure to electromagnetic fields can cause a number of serious effects in the brain. Studies have shown that it can change the flow of blood in the brain, and turn off neuron groups. Some people, under the influence of high magnetic fields have caused people to have violent seizures, and even lose consciousness, slip into comas, and die. This is one of the reasons why houses under high electromagnetic fields have ghost stories associated with them. In conjunction with the deep feelings of unease, mysterious seizures and deaths start all kinds of rumors. Of course, those rumors aren't as bad as . . .
1. Make you see ghosts
Electromagnetic fields, or electric shocks, have induced specific hallucinations in people. Those who are exposed to them, even in laboratory settings, have caused people to complain about a feeling of people following them, talking to them, or watching them. This is not always an uncomfortable sensation. Some people interpret this presence as a malevolent presence, especially if it's coupled with a feeling of unease, but others say they felt an inspiring or comforting presence. Ghost hunters will sometimes say the reverse - that ghosts cause a high electromagnetic field, or sometimes that a high electromagnetic field will allow ghosts to appear. Nobody is sure, yet, what these fields do to ghost brain DNA.
Top Image: Softpedia
Ghost Image: Wikipedia, Public Domain
Via IT Business, HOUP, Guardian, PoPSci, How Stuff Works, Telegraph, Neuroprotective, and NY Times.
I'm looking forward to the unveiling of the new supervillain: Dr. Electromagnetism!
A neuroscientist studying the effects of EM fields on specific parts of the brain loses his grant due to questionable ethics, so he turns his experiments on himself (or constructs a horribly unsafe homemade version in his garage) and accidentally gives himself the power to manipulate electromagnetic fields, which, he uses in conjunction with his knowledge of the brain to commit dastardly crimes, often through proxies.
I'm picturing him as an enemy for a hero like Spiderman or Nightwing, someone acrobatic just so every time they fight, he could frak up the hero's sense of balance for some quick, cheap drama in the fight before the hero drags himself over and beats up the physically weak Dr. Electromagnetism.
Also, costume: Totally skintight supervillain jumpsuit showing off a nonexistent physique, covered with inexplicable gadgets. In lieu of a mask, goggles, and of course, crazy white mad scientist hair.
There's already several characters with that basic shtick. Count Vertigo is probably the closest, and that's exactly how he ends up losing pretty much every fight. DC has occasionally done similar things with Captain Atom, Dr Light (the Asian lady who was around immediately post-crisis), and at least a couple of the crappy Flash villains. Marvel has also chipped in with Monica Rambeau in her Avengers days did this on occasion and a one-shot Spidey villain called Bugeye appeared to have this power also (they never got into the details of this character's powers because the entire issue was incredibly racist against Appalachian culture and was promptly ignored.)
But none of them are named Dr. Electromagnetism. I mean, if that's not the name of a cheesy supervillain, none of the writers of comic books throughout the history of the medium have ever done their jobs right...
Those who are exposed to them, even in laboratory settings, have caused people to complain about a feeling of people following them, talking to them, or watching them.
I wonder, if animals (including ourselves) can generate their own magnetic fields, might this susceptibility to magnetism could actually have been bred into ourselves through selection? You know, so we don't get snuck on?
One of my doctors tried to convince me that I had an EM field that was centred in my heart that extended many feet outside my body and it was what I used to sense people from far away.
Except—I don't actually sense people from far away. She's a bit woo woo.
If I'm correctly recalling the study that involved "sensing a presence" from electromagnatism, the procedure required pretty intense stimulation to a small portion of the brain that made people hallucinate a presence being nearby. They were detecting things that weren't actually there. I know I saw a video about this not too long ago. I'll see if I can find it and reply back later.
There we go. This isn't presented in a particularly scientific manner. [youtu.be] I also found a Wikipedia article that includes some more detailed information (and casts a lot of doubt on whether the thing actually works at all.) [en.wikipedia.org]
When you say "doctor", ...?
"Take out your power of speech but leave your ability to sing"
What if I can't sing now? Because "ability" is a pretty loaded term.
Are you completely incapable of singing? I'm assuming you just sing badly.
I can completely verify that this exists. I used to work as a special educator and several of my students had speech disorders that drastically improved when they were singing or setting normal speech to a tune. One student was able to speak quite clearly after we worked to have him speak in a single tone; if he stopped holding that tone, his rather severe stutter came right back. (The specific tone didn't matter - he just picked a note in his head and "sang" sentences at a time in whatever register he picked.)
It's possible that what I do doesn't meet the criteria of singing. Quite possible.
I've always been fascinated by Dr Michael Persinger's EM helmet. By tweaking certain patterns he can allegedly produce the effects outlined in number one on this list, that is the sensation in the brain of the other. The experience of ghosts, aliens, all paranormal entities Persinger believes are most likely the result of people coming into contact with naturally occurring EM fields.
But I think the thing I like best is that he looks like an evil scientist with his severe almost cruel looking features. Plus his device is slapped together using a football helmet. That just screams discredited from major scientific associations for unethical purposes and forced to work in the basement experimenting on unwary students.
I've seen that helmet before. On a Discovery Channel program.. I think.
Through the Wormhole, with Morgan Freeman!
Ah yes, that's the one. I like how the test subject felt she was in the presence of some greater being. I think I need a few of these helmets to rule the world.....
So, if I want to build an EMI helmet and want to avoid the paranoid, ghost seeing, seizure having, DNA tearing side effects, but get all the "growth stimulation" how does one go about doing this? I want to make sure that I don't, ya know, kill myself or ruin my brain.
Also, you forget about "Makes you better at Math".
[www.scientificamerican.com]
You just need to build a faraday cage for your brain...
or one of these:
[aliensandchildren.org]