{"id":2370,"date":"2019-08-27T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T11:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2021-07-22T10:10:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T10:10:49","slug":"6-ways-your-brain-cant-distinguish-real-from-imaginary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/6-ways-your-brain-cant-distinguish-real-from-imaginary\/","title":{"rendered":"6 ways your brain can\u2019t distinguish real from imaginary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2369\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2369\" class=\"wp-image-2369 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/brain_real_from_imaginary_smaller_iStock-970562350-e1612366836405.jpg\" alt=\"brain real from imaginary\" width=\"150\" height=\"102\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/102;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2369\" class=\"wp-image-2369 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/brain_real_from_imaginary_smaller_iStock-970562350-e1612366836405.jpg\" alt=\"brain real from imaginary\" width=\"150\" height=\"102\" \/><\/noscript><p id=\"caption-attachment-2369\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">image: iStock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>1) Belief<\/strong><br \/>\nResearch shows us that when a person receives a placebo that they believe is a drug, and subsequently experiences a placebo effect, it is because their brain has produced the substances necessary to give them what they expected the drug to do. For example, when you receive a placebo for pain, but you think it\u2019s a real painkiller, you expect a reduction in pain. Thus, your brain produces its own natural painkillers to meet this expectation \u2013 ie. a reduction in pain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Stress<\/strong><br \/>\nYour brain doesn\u2019t distinguish between whether you\u2019re facing a stressful situation right now or imagining it happening. Your brain produces stress hormones (like adrenalin and cortisol) when you feel stressed in a stressful situation, but it also produces them when you imagine a stressful situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3) Kindness<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen you\u2019re kind to a person or an animal and you feel a sense of warmth or connection, your brain and heart produce oxytocin (aka, the kindness hormone, love drug, hug drug, or cuddle chemical). Oxytocin acts on your brain circuits (to create a sense of bonding), on your arteries (to reduce blood pressure) and on your immune system (to combat stress damage). But if you close your eyes and vividly imagine the same kindness, your brain will also produce oxytocin. It\u2019s down to how you feel, and you can feel the same warmth and connection whether you\u2019re being kind in reality or simply in your imagination.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4) Eating<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/330\/6010\/1530\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Some research shows<\/a> that when you imagine eating (the full process of biting, chewing, imagining the taste, and swallowing), your brain can process it in much the same way as if you were actually eating. When you eat something, there comes a point when your brain says, \u201cI\u2019m full\u201d and thus the brain begins to supress your appetite (so you don\u2019t eat until you burst). Research where people imagined eating sweets or cubes of cheese found that their brain had processed it as if they really had ate the sweets or cheese, and thus also supressed their appetite for more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5) Movement<\/strong><br \/>\nResearch with athletes and stroke patients repeatedly show that imagining specific movements improve the ability to perform those movements. As such, imagining lifting weights makes you stronger, imagining swinging a golf club helps you hit the ball better, and imagining lifting your arm when your movement has been impaired improves your ability to lift your arm. According to brain scans, this is because imagining movements activates and builds the same brain circuits as actually moving does. Visualisation (mental imagery) techniques have subsequently helped sportspeople improve their performance as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24138081\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">helping stroke patients recove<\/a>r more movement and much quicker.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6) The immune system<\/strong><br \/>\nResearch shows that if we imagine increasing the numbers of particular immune cells or antibodies, we can actually increase these numbers. It has even been trialled in patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, where one group of patients, in addition to receiving their treatment as normal, also visualise their immune system destroying cancer cells. These studies show that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/19008099\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">patients visualising their immune systems working<\/a> have higher numbers of T-cells and more active killer cells than those not visualising.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Further info<\/strong>:<br \/>\nA discussion of the mind-body connection and how to harness it can be found in my book, &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/How-Your-Mind-Heal-Body\/dp\/1788171497\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2A4MP3HH80I8L&amp;keywords=how+your+mind+can+heal+your+body&amp;qid=1566906348&amp;s=gateway&amp;sprefix=how+your+mind%2Caps%2C149&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body<\/a>&#8216; (Hay House, London, 2018)<\/p>\n<p>I teach the mind-body connection and how to harness it in my Personal Development Club. Click on the image below to learn more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/david-hamilton.mykajabi.com\/personaldevelopmentclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2361 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-300x132.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-1024x451.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-768x338.jpg 768w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-1200x528.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-1536x676.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars.jpg 1766w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/132;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2361 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-300x132.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-1024x451.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-768x338.jpg 768w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-1200x528.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars-1536x676.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-key-pillars.jpg 1766w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1) Belief Research shows us that when a person receives a placebo that they believe is a drug, and subsequently experiences a placebo effect, it is because their brain has produced the substances necessary to give them what they expected the drug to do. For example, when you receive a placebo for pain, but you&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,32],"tags":[57,38,12,29,177,33,94,40,31],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>6 ways your brain can\u2019t distinguish real from imaginary - David R Hamilton PHD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"1) Belief Research shows us that when a person receives a placebo that they believe is a drug, and subsequently experiences a placebo effect, it is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/6-ways-your-brain-cant-distinguish-real-from-imaginary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 ways your brain can\u2019t distinguish real from imaginary - 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