You feel you are being watched - it turns out, it's not just a fantasy but a scientific explanation.

Try to see if this is true for yourself: if you do not understand why, then suddenly you are completely convinced that someone is watching you, even when you are home alone.

If so, surely many will wonder where this feeling comes from? Was the brain "fooled", or did we really feel something?

The answer lies in a study on visually impaired people. They have shown that humans can completely perceive what is going on around them, even though they do not actually "see" them.

From research on visually impaired people ...

Tom Stafford, a BBC Future expert, said studies have shown that the images we see are information obtained by the eye, processed at the visual hills that produce images.

For example, a study in 2013 on a blind man (TN code). This person has normal eyes, but the visual area of ​​the brain is damaged. In other words, despite eye activity, still transmits information, but visual acuity can not handle. Science calls this "cortical blindness".

The researchers gave TN a "look" of face pictures, some of them staring at the viewer, others turning away. As a result, TN still could not see anything, but experts found that the amygdalal area was irritated as he watched the pictures of people staring at him.

Almond nodules are the areas of the brain that help us to feel fear and some other emotions, and are responsible for identifying the human face. Is this the way the brain feels someone is watching, even when we do not really see it?

"Being able to see someone looking at you is an important social skill," says Ilan Shrira of Lake Forest University. It helps us communicate and communicate better, and that explains why the brain evolves to possess this ability.

However, feeling the followers of others seems to need more solutions. For example, many people still feel that someone is watching from behind, even if their eyes do not send any information. Then shivered back, then you obviously have someone behind you.

... to some other solution

So, science has given the answer to these cases.

First, the answer is coincidence. When you feel something is wrong, you come back. But getting back makes people pay attention, too, and they look at you. Eye to eye, plus ... deceased souls, and then you were watched.

Another possible solution is that there may be some warning signs that you are in the presence of another person, in a way you do not know. For example, the image is very small, flashing through your eyes. Or simply an innocent noises.

In addition, a study by the University of Sydney conducted in 2013 suggested that the brain perceives a watcher as a self-defense mechanism. In it, the brain automatically assumes this every time the visual information becomes incomplete.

In general, the exact solution to this is unclear. However, scientists are confident that answers can only lie in what they have given.