Is there someone you’d love to ask out this Valentine’s Day? Do you regularly imagine how you’d declare your feelings, but shy away at the last moment?
As we play out secret desires in our heads, our brains start rehearsing the actions necessary to make them a reality. So when you’re dreaming of how you would ask someone for a coffee, the bits of your brain that directly drive your mouth to speak and eyes to make eye contact are all busy functioning. Usually, this is at a level which is easily suppressed by your inhibitions.
With a magnetic brain-stimulating device, it’s possible to temporarily zap the cells responsible for inhibition. Your body would then enact your hidden desires as soon as you thought about them.
This avoids the need to pluck up the courage to ask, but unless your love interest is your lab partner, wearing such a device is probably a bit of a mood-killer. While some may choose to turn to alcohol to lower their inhibitions, disruptions from the norm, like Valentine’s Day, can offer the perfect opportunity for your subliminal desires to make themselves known.
Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London
