Author's Preface: A book that will serve as a 'map' and 'navigation' for those who wish to travel the 'minds' of others.

Chapter 1: The Thinking Brain, The Thinking Me

Why Cats Can Learn to Open Doors, But Not Close Them
Harvard University Professor Walmsley's "3D Maze Passing Experiment"

Why do your pupils dilate when you fall in love?
Pupil diameter measurement experiment by Professor Hess of the University of Chicago and Professor Kahneman of Harvard University

In a money-making game of lottery, humans are always defeated by rats?
Professor Parkrisanu's "Lottery Game Experiment" at the University of William & Mary

Even the most frugal of shoppers can be persuaded to open their wallets with a clever use of "bait products."
Professor Dan Ariely of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Bait Effect Experiment"

They say bad rumors spread twice as fast as good ones?
Professor Hoffmann's "Moral and Immoral Behavior Assessment Experiment" at the University of Cologne

Why drastically reducing the number of jams on display led to a sevenfold increase in sales.
Columbia University Professor Iyengar's Jam Sales Experiment

Liars are actually more honest?
Professor Bruno of the University of Amsterdam's "Dice Rolling Game Experiment"

Which couple has a higher divorce rate: an arranged marriage or a love marriage?
Professor McNulty of Florida State University's "Marital Satisfaction Measurement Experiment"

Too novel an idea is not understood?
Northwestern University Professor Jones's "Experiment to Measure the Correlation Between Innovation and Impact of Discovery"

They say the more you endure, the less patience you have?
Professor Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University's "Gymnastic Press Experiment"

Why the brain learns more from failure than from success.
Johns Hopkins University Professor Hertzfeld's "Orientation Enhancement Experiment"

Why does the brain underestimate an invisible opponent?
The Antikythera Mechanism from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Why people with a low sense of humor tend to rate their own sense of humor highly.
Professor Dunning and graduate student Kruger's "Humor Comprehension Experiment" at Cornell University

If I force myself to smile, the person laughing at me will be helpless.
A case study on the fear of ridicule by Professor Platt of the University of Zurich

The Secret of the 'Fake Electric Helmet' That Doubles Your Concentration
Professor Magalhaes of the Free University of Brussels' "Stroop Effect Experiment"

Chapter 2: Knowing the Brain Improves Your Memory

They say that knowledge acquired with an exclamation of "Oh!" is remembered much longer?
Professor Gruber of the University of California's "Trivia Quiz Answer Guessing Experiment"

'Spacing out' dramatically improves memory?
Professor Dewar's 'Memory Test Experiment' at Heriot-Watt University

Is it true that you can learn while sleeping?
Professor Rask of the University of Freiburg's "Rats' Maze Experiment"

They say that somewhere in our brains, memories from when we were babies remain?
Professor Patanen of the University of Helsinki's 'Fetal Memory Confirmation Experiment'

Does drinking coffee improve your memory?
Johns Hopkins University Professor Michael Yasa's 'Behavioral Tagging Experiment'

Why Walking Dramatically Improves Memory
Professor Clayman of the University of Illinois' "Walking-Memory Correlation Experiment"

Are humans beings who like to retell their past to suit their own tastes?
Professor Conway of the University of Waterloo's "Survey of Enrollment in Learning Skills Programs"

Is it true that lack of water in the body causes memory decline?
Professor Armstrong of the University of Connecticut's "Experiment to Measure the Relationship Between Water and Memory"

Chapter 3: With the Brain and People

Studying together helps you remember things longer and more clearly than studying alone?
Professor Boothby of Yale University's "Study on the Effects of Sharing Experiences Without Conversation"

Why did 35 out of 91 orphanage babies, who were given adequate nutrition, die before their second birthday?
Psychiatrist Rene Spitz's "Investigation into the Causes of the Deaths of War Orphans at Orphanages"

Humans can identify trillions of different scents?
Professor Keller of Rockefeller University's "Artificial Fragrance Synthetic Detection Experiment"

Why is the human brain not good at handling letters and numbers?
The Truth About 'DYX1C1', the Gene Suspected of Causing Dyslexia

Can you freely control your brain's activity?
Dr. Bodurka of the Loriot Brain Institute's "Amygdala Activity Control Experiment"

What are the limits of 21st-century science and technology that blur the lines between gender?
Professor Tachibana of Kyoto University's experiment to turn male rats into females

Can 'genetic similarity' reveal 100 historical facts spanning 4,000 years?
Professor Myers of Oxford University's "Genetic Map of Human Breeding History"

Do bees also understand the concept of 'identity'?
Dr. Pago of the French National Institute for Scientific Research's "Experiment to Measure Bee Color Recognition Ability"

Why ancient humans gave up abundance and chose farming over hunting
Climate change theory due to Indonesia's massive volcanic eruption

Using 'motivation' to elicit 'motivation'?
Stanford University Professor Knutson's "Experiment to Elicit Maximum Motivation"

How does the brain see the color 'yellow' that doesn't even exist?
Professor Toen of the University of Queensland's 'Survey of the Color Recognition of Mantis Shrimp'

Are wild gorillas more like delicate and nervous herbivores?
Professor Yuji Ikegaya's "Wild Gorilla Ecology Observation"

The secret to diversity that enhances the adaptability and survival of an entire society
Professor Molman of the University of Groningen's "Collective and Individual Learning-Judgment-Decision Experiment"

Chapter 4: Brain Science for When You're Feeling Good

Is boredom more painful than an electric shock?
Professor Wilson of the University of Virginia's 'Boredom vs.
'Electric shock device pressing experiment'

Are humans creatures that feel pleasure from the misfortune of others?
Professor Tarupi of Free University of Berlin's "Experiment to Measure Happiness and Unhappiness Through Music"

They say that even rats regret their choices and actions?
Professor Reddish of the University of Minnesota's 'Rat Food Choice Experiment'

Some ways to obtain the innate pleasures of 'sweetness' and 'umami'

Why People with Many Goals Have a Hard Time Sticking to One Thing
Professor Amy Yale's "Motivational Style Survey"

Are ‘pleasure’ and ‘displeasure’ expressed with the same facial expression?
Professor Abiezer of Hebrew University's "Experiment on Guessing Emotional States from Facial Expressions"

The ability to understand humor evolved from the ability to perceive 'space'?
Professor Amir of the University of Southern California's "Aha Experiences: The Driving Force Behind Perspective Change"

Where in the brain are the genes that lead to altruistic behavior created?
Stanford University Professor Parvizi's experiment on generating emotions through electric shocks to the ACC.

If you're on the same page, you should be able to predict what the other person will say next?
Princeton University Professor Hasson's "Brain Synchronization Pattern Investigation"

Are humans the only ones who can enjoy music by following the rhythm?
Professor Patel of Tufts University's "Experiment Training Monkeys to Tune in Using a Metronome"

Does bullying inevitably occur in all times and spaces?
A paper on the "bullying problem" by Professor Liu of Hangzhou Normal University and Professor Kim Pil-won of Ulsan National University of Science and Technology

Why a newly discovered flavor gives more pleasure even when the taste is similar
Dr. Koechlin of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research's study on how the brain searches for information

Chapter 5: The Invisible World Through the Brain

The bizarre strategy of the parasite Toxoplasma to invade cats using mice as Trojan horses.
Professor Flerg's 'Rat Toxoplasma Infection Experiment' at Charles University in Prague

Insects are quicker on the uptake than humans?
Professor Bosshall of Rockefeller University studies insect sensory abilities using carbon dioxide sensors.

The Scientific Reason Why Exercise Is a Remedy for Depression
Professor Rohrer of the University of Bristol's "Research Design and Results: A Reexamination of Reasonableness in Interpretation"

Does the 'second self' that watches over you while you dream disappear?
Dr. Edelman of the American Institute for Neuroscience's "Gamma Wave Research: The Key to the Second Self"

They say there are 100 trillion bacteria living in the human body?
Microbiome Research Results from a German Research Team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Could autism be cured with brain bacteria?
Harvard University Professor Cohan's "ASD Patients and Gut Bacteria Testing"

Is the brain's intense gamma activity the brain's last gift to humans?
Professor Borjigin of the University of Michigan's "Experiment Observing the Moment of Death in Seven Rats"

Smartphone germs are 18 times more prevalent than toilet handle germs?
Sanitary scientist Francis's "Survey of Bacteria on Everyday Items"

How much trust should we have in the efficacy of artificial sweeteners?
Dr. Elinaf's "Artificial Sweetener Experiment" at the Wiseman Institute for Science

Chapter 6: The Brain that Sees the Future

Can a regenerated brain possess a 'mind'?
Dr. Nobleich's 'Study on the Potential of iPS Cells' at the Australian Academy of Science's Institute of Molecular Biotechnology

Will the era of genetically selecting children come?

They say that in the future, there may be ‘painter robots’ and ‘poet robots’?
Oxford University Professor Osborne's "Simulation of Jobs That Will Disappear in the Future"

An artificial intelligence computer capable of producing infinite offspring has emerged?
IBM's new electronic chip, TrueNorth, nearly perfectly replicates the human brain.

Dementia drugs boost cognitive abilities in young people?
Dr. Kakic of the University of Sydney's "Smart Drug Usage Rate Survey"

The Secret of Rapamycin, the Drug That Usheres in the Age of Centenarians
Dr. Harrison of the Jackson Laboratory's "Rats' Lifespan Extension Experiment"

References

An inefficient brain that consumes a lot of energy
Why it is the most precious device that makes humans human

Let's start with a slightly odd question.
"Are there more species on Earth with brains, or are there more species without brains?" Most people would probably say there are far more species with brains. However, according to the author of "63 Most Interesting Psychological Experiments in the World - Brain Science," "there are far more brainless species on Earth than brain-wielding ones, like us humans."
Even in terms of biomass, which means the total weight of living things, the overwhelming majority are brainless creatures.
In this extension, it is said that 'brainless' is not necessarily disadvantageous to survival.


As mentioned above, among the species living on Earth, 'brainless species' make up the majority, and 'brained species' make up the minority.
So, let me ask you one more question.
Which is more common, 'cerebral' species with large brains or 'cerebellar' species with small brains? 'Cerebral' species are the minority, and 'cerebellar' species are the majority.
Humans can be said to be the representative creatures with a 'brain'.
Surprisingly, there are not many animals with brains as large as humans in relation to their overall body size.
In the history of biology, species that have evolved to grow larger brains are extremely rare.
Moreover, it is extremely rare to find cases where a species survived and thrived without becoming extinct after evolving to grow a larger brain like humans.
In that sense, we humans can be said to be a very lucky species in many ways.


“From the perspective of the whole organism, it is natural to see that brain development was not the right answer.
Because the brain is an inefficient device that consumes a lot of energy.
“This device is very energy-hungry, like the Kaonashi in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Spirited Away, so its maintenance costs are quite high.”

These are the words of the author, a professor at the University of Tokyo's School of Pharmacy and a leading neuroscientist.
Yet, he argues that “the brain has too much value and meaning to be judged solely on efficiency,” and that it is “a precious element that makes humans human.”
Those who read this book will clearly realize that point.

Surrounding the human brain and psychology, emotions and unconsciousness, relationships and communication mechanisms
A great psychological experiment that reveals hidden secrets and curiosities.

Why Cats Can Learn to Open Doors But Not Close Them
Professor Walmsley of Harvard University's '3D Maze Call Experiment'

The first chapter of this book, “The Thinking Brain, the Thinking Me,” contains content about “education.”
The author explains the meaning and direction of education in a very unique and interesting way.
According to him, there are two ways to educate.
One is education that restricts behavior through discipline, and the other is education that fosters spontaneity and increases proactive behavior.
To help readers clearly understand 'education by discipline' and 'education by spontaneity,' he uses the example of a child, or an animal such as a monkey or cat, learning to 'open a door.'


'Opening the door' happens through spontaneity alone.
Even animals like monkeys and cats, let alone children, can easily learn how to 'open doors'.
Even without being taught individually, they naturally learn and practice the act of 'opening the door' by observing the behavior of the breeder or owner.
This means that education that fosters spontaneity is effective.


Monkeys and cats can easily learn to open a door, but have difficulty learning to close a door.
In reality, few people have ever witnessed a monkey or cat open a door on its own and then close it again.
Why do animals like monkeys and cats easily learn to "open a door" but not "close a door"? Opening a door is a behavior anyone can learn spontaneously, while closing a door is a socially agreed-upon behavior, a behavior based on common courtesy.
In other words, 'closing the door' is an unnatural behavior that is not inherently built into the brain and must be learned and practiced through training.
Other examples include ‘cleaning up after playing with toys’ and ‘brushing teeth after eating.’
In the process of learning these behaviors, we cannot rely solely on ‘spontaneity’.
Proper 'discipline' is absolutely necessary.

There are two main methods of discipline: 'reinforcement (praise? reward)' and 'weakening (scolding? punishment)'.
Which is more effective? Unsurprisingly, training that only applies "reinforcement" yields the highest results.
Second place goes to 'Discipline that combines strengthening and weakening'.
The third place is training using only 'weakening', which has almost no learning effect.


In conclusion, disciplinary education that reprimands and scolds without praise is neither effective nor desirable.
The reason is simple.
This is because when you are scolded, your will to explore on your own, that is, your spontaneity, is significantly reduced.
Proper learning cannot take place if you cannot take the first step on your own.


The results of an experiment on "weakening? strengthening" by Professor Robert Walmsley's team at Harvard University are full of brilliant insights.
First, the research team had 65 college students practice navigating a three-dimensional maze using a video game.
And the next day, we tested how much of the practice material we had remembered by applying the following three conditions.


① A reasonable reward is paid each time a task is successfully completed.
② Pay a certain amount of compensation first, and then reduce the compensation for each failed task.
③ No success bonus.

As a result of the experiment, group ①, as expected, achieved the best results.
So who's in second place? You might think it's group ②, but that's not true.
The answer is number ③.
Do you get better results with no compensation at all than with a certain level of compensation? It's true.
Why is that? For condition ②, the answer lies in the "fine," the money deducted each time a task is failed.
The 'balance' received after the compensation that was originally supposed to be received was deducted in the form of 'deductions' actually had a weakening effect.

In a money-making game of lottery, humans are always defeated by rats?
- Professor Parkrisanu of the University of William & Mary's 'lottery game experiment'

In experiments where humans play a money-making game called lottery, are they consistently defeated by rats? Is this really true? This is the result of an experiment conducted by Professor Parkrisanu's team at the College of William and Mary in the United States.
The rules of the game are as follows:
Have them draw a lottery with 1,000 won in either A or B.
The odds of winning are 75 percent for A and 25 percent for B.
Draw lots 200 times in a row.
The odds of winning are not disclosed to the experiment participants.
Experimental participants choose between lot A and lot B through trial and error several times.
As you make repeated selections, you gradually realize that the odds of winning A and B are different.
If you repeat it about 100 times, anyone will get the outline of the strategy, and if you add 100 more times to that and make about 200 choices, the probability will stabilize.
Most of the experimental participants chose options very close to the ratio of 75 percent A and 25 percent B.
Surprisingly, the numbers are almost 100 percent consistent with the winning probability setting.
This experiment makes us realize that our brain is a highly sophisticated and sophisticated device.

The research team played a 'lottery money-making game' with rats.
What choice did the rat make? He acted simply.
Nine times out of ten, you'll choose option A.
After the experiment under identical conditions, Professor Parkrisanu's team calculated which group, the 'human group' or the 'rat group', earned more money.
Who will be the winner? Surprisingly, it's the rat.
The average amount earned by the 'rat group' was 12,500 won more than the average amount earned by the 'human group'.
Another interesting fact.
Unlike adults, children used a strategy similar to that of rats.
In the experiment, 3-year-old children chose A 90 percent of the time.

As people age, they behave more illogically and their performance declines.
Adults make choices based on 'emotional theory'.
Because the feeling of aversion to failure is dominant, I cannot push myself to A.
Even if you choose option A, which has a high probability of winning, there are bound to be times when you get a blank, but the human brain cannot bear this small pain and sets its eyes on option B.
Since B also sometimes wins, it becomes easier to make that choice.
As a result, humans with complex calculations make the mistake of going back and forth between A and B, which lowers their returns.


However, it is difficult to conclude that human choices based on 'emotionalism' are foolish.
This is because in real environments, conditions are not constant and change frequently.
Even if A has a higher probability of winning now, B's probability can increase at any time.
In a life-or-death situation where you have to make a life-or-death decision, the rat's strategy of choosing only one option 100 percent of the time can be fatal.
There is also a risk that the entire group will be wiped out.
That's why the advice "don't put all your eggs in one basket" is considered a golden rule in business.

They say that even rats regret their choices and actions?
- Professor Reddish of the University of Minnesota's 'Rat Food Choice Experiment'

Humans are creatures who ‘regret’.
After some time has passed, you look back on your words and actions and regret it, thinking, 'Why did I do that back then?'
What about other animals? Do dogs, cats, monkeys, and gorillas, for example, regret their actions?

According to the author, there are two emotions that make one feel dissatisfied with one's situation and feel sorry: 'disappointment' and 'regret'.
What's the difference? First, "discouragement" is simply an emotion that arises when the outcome is worse than expected.
On the other hand, 'regret' is a more logical and rational negative emotion that stems from the belief that one's choices and actions, or inactions, resulted in bad outcomes.
In other words, regret can be said to be an emotion of a higher level than discouragement.
This is because regret is the emotion that arises from the process of taking a step back, looking at yourself, and reflecting, thinking, 'Wouldn't there have been better choices?'

According to the author, other animals, such as monkeys, also get 'disheartened'.
So what about "regret"? "Do animals other than humans experience regret?" Some have boldly tackled this question using laboratory rats.
The main characters are Professor David Redish's team at the University of Minnesota.
Their research results were published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience, and according to the paper, mice also know how to feel 'regret'.


The experiment was cleverly designed to incorporate behavioral economics techniques.
The research team placed rats in a square circuit and made them walk in a circle to the left.
At each corner of the circuit there is a fork in the road, and inside it is a plate with food.
If you wait at the entrance to the fork in the road, food will automatically appear.
The waiting time is not constant, so it is set to 1 second at the shortest and 45 seconds at the longest.
The length of the waiting time can be determined by the sound.
The rat decides whether to wait after hearing the sound or just pass by and move on to the next food source.
The choice of what action to take is entirely left to the rat.


Even rats have tastes.
The guy would wait for some time for his favorite food to come out.
On the other hand, if the waiting time is long and the food is not particularly appealing, I boldly ignore it and move on to the next gate.
It turns out that this choice leaves room for 'regret'.

If you observe the behavior of rats, even if the waiting time is not that long, they just pass by and move on to the next spot, but when the waiting time gets long, they look back several times towards the food they just passed by with a gesture full of regret saying, "Oh no!"
Then, he hurriedly ate the food that had just appeared and immediately ran to the next food.
This is a behavior that shows the psychology of trying to make up for lost time, and this kind of behavior can be easily found in people as well.

The research team recorded the brain activity of mice that were in the midst of regretting something.
Then, a nerve that responds to 'missed food' was discovered in the orbitofrontal cortex (ORC).
It is an important discovery.
This is because the orbitofrontal cortex is known to be a brain region essential for regret in humans.
It seems that humans and rats use the same brain mechanism to ruminate on past failures and regret them.

Surrounding the human brain and psychology, emotions and unconsciousness, relationships and communication mechanisms
A great psychological experiment that reveals hidden secrets and curiosities.

● Professor Dewar's 'Memory Test Experiment' at Heriot-Watt University
Seventy experimental participants were divided into two groups and given the task of memorizing words.
The research team presented 15 everyday words, such as 'sunlight', 'station', and 'expert', on a computer monitor for one second each.
After that, one group spent 15 minutes doing nothing, while the other group spent the next 15 minutes playing a 'spot the difference' game.
Then, they were tested to see how many of the 15 words they could remember.
Interestingly, the group that spent time "just sitting around" doing nothing performed 15 percent better than the group that spent time playing the "spot the difference" game.
Does 'spacing out' help improve memory?

● Harvard University Professor Walmsley's '3D Maze Passing Experiment'
65 college students were asked to play a video game called 'Passing a 3D Maze'.
The next day, the research team tested the participants under three conditions to see how much they remembered about the practice.
1. A reward is paid each time a task is completed successfully.
2. Pay the reward first, and then impose a fine for each failed task.
3. No success bonus is paid.
What was the worst score you ever got? 3? No.
Surprisingly, it's number 2.
Why is that?

● Professor Parkrisanu of the University of William & Mary's 'lottery game experiment'
For the 'people group' and the 'rat group', have them draw lots to choose one of two boxes containing 1,000 won.
The odds of winning are 75 percent for one and 25 percent for the other.
They had each person draw 200 lots without telling them the odds of winning, and then repeated the experiment 200 times with rats.
The research team averaged the amount of money earned by the two groups.
As a result, the 'people group' earned 62,500 won, and the 'rat group' earned 75,000 won.
Why did humans lose to rats?

● Columbia University Professor Sheena Iangar's 'Jam Sales Experiment'
We compared the sales figures of Booth A, which sells 6 types of jam, and Booth B, which sells 24 types of jam.
60 percent of customers showed interest in booth A, while only 40 percent stopped by booth B.
However, the actual sales results showed that 3% of booth A customers and 30% of booth B customers purchased jam.
Why did this difference arise?