But human's don't have a parietal eye. And the pituitary gland seems a bit too far back to feel that kind of thing.
Well, let's put it this way. You've observed the effect. It's known that some creatures have an observable organ in that location that is light sensitive. That organ is associated with the
pineal gland, which humans do have, and is
also light sensitive. And there happens to be thousands of years of tradition stating that humans
also have an organ at the brow between the eyes in the same location that the parietal organ exists in other creatures.
If you want a more-sciency-less-mystic way of looking at it, I suppose we could suggest that there may be evolutionary leftover circuitry in the brain connecting where a parietal organ would be to the pineal gland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland#Function"The production of melatonin by the pineal gland is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light.[20][21] Photosensitive cells in the retina detect light and directly signal the SCN, entraining its rhythm to the 24-hour cycle in nature. Fibers project from the SCN to the paraventricular nuclei (PVN), which relay the circadian signals to the spinal cord and out via the sympathetic system to superior cervical ganglia (SCG), and from there into the pineal gland."Clearly light is getting to that gland somewhow, as it affects melatonin production. Wikipedia says it gets there through the retina. However, according to
other research, it's not only the pineal gland that is light sensitive, but rather it's many regions:
"Their research localized the OPN3 protein - known as the light-sensitive photoreceptor protein - in all of the 18 evaluated areas of the brain. These brain areas include the core areas of serotonin and melatonin production and storage, which play key roles in mood, sleep and depression. The study shows that the human brain is sensitive to light also outside of the visual system.
"The human brain is broadly photosensitive. The photoreceptor proteins we found are known to take light stimulus and transfer it into neural signals. Channeling light directly to these brain areas via ear canal will generate a response in the photosensitive cells", commented Juuso Nissilä, Valkee co-founder and chief scientific officer."So, yes. I'm making some assumptions and putting two and two together rather than quoting broadly accepted ideas. But you've observed the effect personally. How would you explain it? If many animals have a light sensitive organ in exactly that spot, and humans brains are light sensitive in many places...I don't think it's such a stretch to suggest that the human brain may also be sensitive in the same place that other creatures are, eve if we appear to not have the organ in that spot that they do.
Author
Topic: Transhumanism Discussion Thread (Read 54715 times)