1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,400 Speaker 1: I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and you've seen the trope. A 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: mental battle rages between a heroic character and her nemesis. 4 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: As the struggle wears on, we see the first signs 5 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:18,640 Speaker 1: of the toll. It must be taking a trickle of blood. 6 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:23,480 Speaker 1: Ruby red appears at one nostril. The strain of invisible 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:28,040 Speaker 1: psychic abilities is admittedly difficult to illustrate in a visual medium. 8 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: Perhaps that's why so many authors of comic books, television shows, 9 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: and movies turned to this tried and true trope, the 10 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: psychic nose bleed. When blood comes from a character's nose, 11 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: it signifies that the character is exerting themselves. After all, 12 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: blood vessels can rupture things to physical exertion as many 13 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,160 Speaker 1: a weight lifter nose, So perhaps psychic powers could cause 14 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 1: some sort of cranial pressure build up. It's concise and 15 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: visceral in a way that a mere facial twitch, drop 16 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: of sweat, or vein throb can't cover. It's become such 17 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: a common way to imply a mind push to its 18 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: limits that the Comics meets Medicine blog Polite Descent has 19 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,320 Speaker 1: been tracking its appearance in comics for nearly a decade. 20 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: The site even gave the fictional phenomenon a name, epistaxis telepatheca, 21 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: the medical term for a nosebleed being epistaxis. The psychic 22 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,160 Speaker 1: nosebleed has appeared in more than just comics, of course, 23 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,479 Speaker 1: beyond comic book adaptations like the two thousand five film 24 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: Fantastic Four and the TV series Smallville, and media directly 25 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,959 Speaker 1: influenced by comics like Heroes and Chronicle to other genre 26 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: media like The Fifth Element, Star Trek and Carnival. It 27 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: also features prominently in the Netflix series Stranger Things, in 28 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: which a mysterious girl called Eleven escapes a creepy government laboratory, 29 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: then uses her telekinetic powers against her former captors and 30 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: some trans dimensional creepy Crawley's The internal severity of these 31 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: psychic abilities is evidenced by the blood that trickles sometimes 32 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: from Eleven's nose. Stranger Things pays homage to pop culture 33 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: from the nineteen eighties, with the Spielberg meets Carpenter meets 34 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: even King sort of vibe, So it's fitting that one 35 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,280 Speaker 1: of the earliest cinematic instances of the psychic nosebleed appears 36 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:10,079 Speaker 1: in the four film adaptation of Stephen King's fire Starter. 37 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: A seven year old girl named Charlie starts fires using 38 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:16,239 Speaker 1: the power of her mind evidence to not only buy flames, 39 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: but by the occasional nosebleed. But for some of the 40 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: earliest psychic nosebleeds, we're going to have to go back 41 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:26,799 Speaker 1: to the paranormal thriller Scanners from David Cronenberg. It's the 42 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: first film to clearly connect nasal bleeding with psychic exertion. 43 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: In the movie, Scanners are people born with telepathic and 44 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: telekinetic powers, the extreme use of which makes them subject 45 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:42,239 Speaker 1: to nosebleeds and more. But if psychic powers really existed, 46 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: how might this work. There's a theory that using psychic 47 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: powers could raise the pressure of your cerebro spinal fluid. 48 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 1: But pressure in this fluid, which surrounds the brain and 49 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: spinal cord, would not cause a nosebleed. It would cause 50 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,400 Speaker 1: a coma. It's actually more likely than nosebleed would be 51 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: brought on by enthusiastic nose picking. The scientific term for that, 52 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: by the way, is epistaxis digitorum. While the appearance of 53 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: nosebleeds adds to the nostalgic eighties drama of stranger things. 54 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: Actual nosebleeds can be dramatic and horrific on their own. 55 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: Anytime a body part starts spouting copious amounts of blood, 56 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 1: it's bound to cause a ruckus. It seems but a 57 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: small leap to connect nosebleeds to fictional worlds, but that's 58 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: all it is. Fiction. Nosebleeds are not caused by how 59 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,639 Speaker 1: hard we use our brains. If that were true, think 60 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 1: of all the situations would need to choose for tests, 61 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: job interviews, presentations. Surgeons might bleed more than their patients. 62 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: The majority of nosebleeds in real life are caused by 63 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: fist versus nose or finger versus nose collisions. Infections, allergy 64 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: and irritations, and foreign bodies can also be to blame, 65 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: and high blood pressure can cause one, although it's lower 66 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: on the list of dangers than strokes or heart attacks. 67 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: Most nosebleeds occur during winter months and are exacerbated by 68 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:57,800 Speaker 1: climates that are dry and cold. The vast majority about 69 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: of nosebleeds are of the and or variety, caused by 70 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: the rupture of a blood vessel at the front part 71 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,400 Speaker 1: of the nose. These nose bleeds are relatively easy to 72 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: control and usually stop within a few minutes. Posterior nose 73 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: bleeds are a different story and are caused by an 74 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: arterial rupture at the back of the nose. A most 75 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:19,039 Speaker 1: common and elderly people. Posterior nosebleeds are difficult to stop 76 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: and usually require hospital admission. Of course, all of this 77 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 1: isn't to say that we're not prepared to suspend our 78 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: disbelief just in case fiction starts bleeding over into reality. 79 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:36,799 Speaker 1: We wouldn't want to think about it too hard. Today's 80 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by 81 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,360 Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other 82 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 1: Bloody Pool topics, visit our home planet has stuff works 83 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: dot com.