Basketball on the brain: Neuroscientists use sports to study surprise
The gasp of surprise. Fans leap to their feet. Shouts ring out.
The most exciting moments in sports are often linked to surprise, an unexpected change of circumstances that abruptly shifts the anticipated outcome of the game.
Princeton neuroscientist James Antony decided to capitalize on these moments to study how human brains process surprise.
“We’re trying to figure out how people update their understanding of things that are occurring in the real world, based on how events unfold over time — how they set up these contextually-based predictions, and what happens when those are confirmed or contradicted,” said Antony, a CV Starr Fellow in Neuroscience and the first author on a paper published today in the journal Neuron. .. [read more]
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