Your Brain Is Glowing Right Now. Literally.
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Your Brain Is Glowing Right Now. Literally.
This gives new meaning to the proverbial lightbulb going off in your head.
- The human brain actually lights up with signals known as ultra weak photon emotions (UPEs), which are a byproduct of metabolic processes.
- Researchers have now been able to detect UPEs and determine what they were revealing about brain function.
- A new imaging technique called photoencephalography could someday harness UPE signals as a diagnostic tool to supplement PET scans and MRIs.
From bioluminescent mushrooms in the undergrowth of a rainforest to alien sea creatures eerily glowing in the abyssal depths, glowing organisms light up some of the darkest places on Earth. But humans aren’t among them—or, at least, we thought so.
As a team of researchers—led by Haley Casey from Algoma University in Ontario, Canada—found out, the human brain can actually luminesce. They called these glimpses of light ultra weak photon emissions (UPEs), and they are a result of metabolic energy flow. As electrons degrade during a process known as oxidation, they lose energy and release photons with it. Our brains emit them in visible light, meaning that if we had the X-ray vision to see through each other’s skulls in total darkness, we might be able to make out a faint glow.
Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Ars Technica, SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Den of Geek, Forbidden Futures and Collective Tales. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she can be found drawing, playing the piano or shapeshifting.