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According to a new study, the "sixth sense," which is also known as extrasensory perception (ESP), is merely a myth. The researchers headed by Dr. Piers Howe from the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences in Australia reported that for the very first time, they found scientific evidence that people are capable of noticing change even if they cannot identify what exactly changed. The researchers concluded that people's ability to notice change has nothing to do with ESP.

"There is a common belief that observers can experience changes directly with their mind, without needing to rely on the traditional physical senses such as vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch to identify it. This alleged ability is sometimes referred to as a sixth sense or ESP," explained Howe reported by Medical Xpress.

In this study, the researchers examined ESP and created an experiment to test people's ability to notice change. The team presented their subjects with two colored photographs that were of the same woman. In one of the photographs, the researchers had made very small changes to the woman's appearance, such as slightly altering the woman's hairstyle. The observers saw the pictures for 1.5 seconds followed by a one second break before seeing the second picture for another 1.5 seconds.

The participants were asked whether or not they noticed a difference between the two photos and if so, they had to identify the change. The researchers found that the majority of the participants were capable of noticing a difference between the two photos. However, the participants could not pinpoint the exact change or changes that occurred. The researchers concluded that people have the ability to sense or feel a change even though they might not be able to identify the change specifically.

"We were able to show that while observers could reliably sense changes that they could not visually identify, this ability was not due to extrasensory perception or a sixth sense," Howe said.

The study was published in PLOS ONE.