The human brain anticipates our perception of the outside world. For example, it is capable of predicting if we are going to perceive tactile stimulation of weak intensity or, on the contrary, if a more intense stimulation will be perceived more or less painfully.
If people can make these observations empirically, a team of researchers at the Coma Science Group of University of Liege (Cyclotron Research Centre) and Neurology Department at the University Hospital of Liege (Belgium) is today demonstrating it scientifically through measuring the spontaneous activity of the brain and the relationships between the different cerebral regions involved.
In a study published this week in the prestigious American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team of scientists led by Dr Mélanie Boly and Dr Steven Laureys shows that the spontaneous activity measured in certain parts of the brain have a direct influence over our conscious perception and our perception of the intensity of pain. ‘Our brain is never really at rest, but science does not have a good understanding of how the spontaneous and continuous activity of our neurons influences our perception of the world. Our study contributes to lifting a corner of the veil over these mechanisms’, the researchers state.