Nine amazing brain quirks

published Jul 12, 2007, last modified Jun 26, 2013

You probably didn't know about the following amazing things going on in your brain. Here they are, as a short list:

  1. Your short-term memory has a max capacity of seven.
  2. Chartreuse is the most visible color.
  3. Your subconscious is smarter than you are.
  4. You have two nervous systems.
  5. Your brain is awful at probability.
  6. Your memory isn’t great either.
  7. You can perceive depth with one eye.
  8. Long-term memory shuts down during sleep.
  9. You have an instant playback feature.

Want to see them explained?

What captured my attention most particularly was the instant playback feature. Years ago, I would constantly ask people who had just spoken to me: "What?", leaving them baffled. And then I noticed that, if I waited one or two seconds after hearing what they just said, I could tell.

True.