Question: is it true that the brain can tell what's about to happen, so sort of telling the future, so it knows what to do?

Jen Todd Jones answered on 12 Mar 2013:

This is sort of true in that the brain processes information a lot faster than we can use it. For example, when you see something your eyes collect the information and pass it back along the brain the visual area at the back (just above your neck), this happens really very quickly, easily with a quarter of a second! BUT after this it has to send the information to the other parts of the brain to deal with, like perhaps the memory area to remember what you’ve seen, or the movement area so that we can move if we need to.

If we see something alarming or dangerous, like something coming towards us quickly, sometimes the seeing part of the brain has processed the information before the movement part can react and in this case the brain starts to speed up your body movement before you’ve even had a chance to think about it, to get you out of the way of what’s coming towards you!