8 Scientific Theories That Totally Change Zombie Films

4. They Wouldn't Be Totally Brain Dead

Zombies are always trying to get into your head, but what if we got into theirs?

Figuring out what a zombie is thinking might not seem like an obvious thing to do, but they're obviously conscious, but are they self aware? It might be tricky to wrestle a rage zombie into an fMRI machine to take a look at its brain activity, but we can deduce a fair amount from their behaviour.

Zombies respond to sensory stimuli - smell, touch, sight etc. - so there has to be some kind of mental processing going on there. Judging by their behaviour, zombies are likely to have pretty extensive brain damage to areas such as the cerebellum (which controls movement), Wernicke's area (speech and comprehension) and the medial limbic circuit (memory, emotion and aggression), but there's a possibility that there's still a thinking, feeling being in there.

It could be that zombie brains are more along the lines of those belonging to predators such as sharks or crocodiles.

This, of course, raises a few difficult questions about the morality of driving pickaxes through their skulls.