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Humans have a hidden “sixth sense” similar to that of many animals which can detect magnetic fields , allowing them to find their way around, scientists say.
A natural “compass” in the brain may have helped our nomadic ancestors to navigate without getting lost, and it still operates at a subconscious level, the researchers believe.
The study offers some of the best evidence to date that humans can sense Earth’s magnetic field, just as migrating birds, sea turtles, butterflies and fish do.
It was led by Dr Joe Kirschvink at the California Institute of Technology , who has been searching for this magnetic “sixth sense” in humans for some years.
His team conducted experiments in which more than 30 volunteers were exposed to moving Earth-strength magnetic fields.
Show all 20 1 /20Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there."
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Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year
PA
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Ye et al/Current Biology
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Reuters
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A. Gennari
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Steven G Johnson
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Clay Bolt
Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold
Faye Levine, University of Maryland
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Reuters/AP
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Viktor Radermacher / SWNS
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ESO/A. Müller et al
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Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs
José Iriarte
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Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth.
Pictures by: Tom Momary
They sat in a “cage” that blocked out interfering electromagnetic fields , and electric current was run through coils to mimic the Earth’s magnetic field.
The direction of the field was then rotated.
Electrical brain recordings showed a subtle response even though none of the participants could tell when they were subjected to the changing magnetic fields.
“Our results indicate that human brains are indeed collecting and selectively processing directional input from magnetic field receptors,” the scientists wrote in the journal eNeuro.
“These give rise to a brain response that is selective for field direction and rotation with a pattern of neural activity that is measurable at a group level and repeatable in strongly responding individuals.”
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The researchers concluded: “Given the known presence of highly evolved geomagnetic navigation systems across the animal kingdom, it is perhaps not surprising that we might retain at least some functioning components, especially given the nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle of our not-too-distant ancestors.
“The full extent of this inheritance remains to be discovered.”
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