WEBVTT - Augmenting the Brain, Part Two: Tech 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.240 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.360 podcast that looks at the future and says, my heart 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.000 is human, my blood is boiling my brain IBM. I'm 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.520 Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Focalon, and I'm Joe McCormick. Hey 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.120 you two. Yes, Joe, do you ever wish you were 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:31.080 smarter smarter than you are? Now? Yes? I constantly wish 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.520 I were smarter than I am. Usually every time we're 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.760 doing research about something like, uh, you know, the inner 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.360 workings of the brain or particle physics. That's what I'm like, 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.240 Oh man, that would be that would be great. Wish. Yeah, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.559 I wish both of you were smarter too, Thanks Joe. No, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.960 I also wish that I was smarter. It would be 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:54.280 wonderful to understand all those things that can be so difficult. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.240 But one of the funny things about intelligence is there 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.480 are a lot of different aspects to it, right. Yes, 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.520 it's not just one thing. So you have like a 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:08.919 memory retention or different types of information processing, spatial reasoning, 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:13.440 verbal memorization. Just memory memory, and then there's verbal memory. 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.680 There's there's linguistic processing. There's all this kind of stuff 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.839 that is, uh, you know, the domain of the brain. 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:24.759 And it's not like one tiny section of the brain 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.720 is in control of all of it. This is spread 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.840 across multiple regions of our brains depending upon what sort 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:32.319 of processing you're talking about, and many of these things 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.840 are very interconnected. It's not like, for just verbal reasoning, 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.400 there's one section of the brain that operates completely independently 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:43.040 of everything, right, Right, But so all I'm saying is 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.520 I'd settle for improving just one part of my brain. 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.240 If I could just improve my memory or just improve 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.360 my spatial reasoning or anything like that, that that would 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:55.160 also be great. I wouldn't even have to be the 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.160 whole picture. But it's hard to do that, isn't it. 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.120 Like how do you go about powering up your brain? 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.400 As if you you just like ate a berry in 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.960 a video game and and now you're larger or have wings, 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.440 or you throw fire leveled up somehow you got a 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:14.080 little ding and suddenly you can add a point to intelligence. Yeah. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.000 We talked about this a little bit in our last episode, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.400 where we were chatting about the various types of neuro 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:24.160 enhancing chemicals. Some of them being like dietary supplements or 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.320 or just stuff you would get if you're eating a nice, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.639 healthy diet. Some of them being things like medications used 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:34.120 for one purpose being repurposed to be a neuro enhancement drug. Um. 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.520 But that's not the only way that some people are 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.920 looking at trying to boost how the brain works. No, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.360 not at all. So the reasoning is that the brain 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:47.480 is an electrochemical machine. And in the last podcast we 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.560 talked about how, well, if it's an electrochemical machine, surely 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.079 there must be some sort of chemical ways to make 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.320 it work a little bit better. Now we want to 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.720 look at the other half of the equation. Are their 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:04.160 devices sort of a electrical or electromagnetic pieces of technology 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.079 that might actually improve your brain function, make it more efficient, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.240 more powerful in one way or another. Right, whether that 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.960 is something that you use to to alter your brain 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.680 in some way and therefore you from that point forward 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:22.280 are super smart, or it's something that you are apparently wearing, 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.920 either on a regular basis or maybe even permanently to 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.080 enhance your brain's function. So, if you think of it 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.919 from superhero terms, we're moving from say a a an 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:37.720 altered human like Spider Man to perhaps a human that 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.320 is using technology to boost their abilities, like Tony Stark 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.120 an iron Man. So we're going from the the chemical 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:50.480 changes to the technologically boosted type human basically like, can 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.160 you put on a helmet that makes you a genius? Yes, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.680 that's what we're looking at today. So, uh, what's interesting 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.720 is that that seems like a silly question to most 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.840 people like you, Like you're literally putting on a thinking cap. 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.760 You really are being able to boost your intelligence some 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:11.440 of these examples, Yeah, a little bit in a possible 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:16.839 future way. Yeah. The the downer is, folks, the brain, 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.880 as we said in our last episode. Despite the fact 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:21.640 that it's been a couple of days since we recorded 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.000 that last episode, there's a peak behind the curtain. It 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:25.920 has actually been a couple of days since we recorded 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.560 augmenting the brain with chemicals. In that time, we have 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:35.159 not learned significantly more about how the human brain works. So, yeah, 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.360 we as a species now it's still more or less 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.800 a mystery to us. We regret to inform you. Yes, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.680 So that means, of course that any sort of boost 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.640 we see is something that's based upon just a limited understanding, 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:49.880 and it may not mean you know, that doesn't necessarily 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.240 mean there's not an effect there. It just means that 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.200 we don't know how great that effect is. We don't 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.240 know if we are producing the best effect, We don't 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.080 know what the long term effects of it, be sure, 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.159 and it also unfortunately opens the door to a certain 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.800 amount of quackery and scam artists. Kennery, Well, we should 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.600 always start with scams whenever possible. You have you found 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.040 any or there any anybody out there selling like genius 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.320 helmets there? Well, I'm sure there's some novelty ones out there, 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.040 but there are also some that some devices that are 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.640 being marketed as things that can make your brain work better, 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.640 and most of them are based on no scientific rounding whatsoever. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.400 I've pulled one example, just out of all the different 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.039 ones that you could find if you really wanted to 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.880 do some searching, one is the ch Generator, which is 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.960 a device that supposedly can and I quote here charge 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:47.200 food drinks and supplements with trend characteristics. So what does 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.760 that mean? I don't know, And there's no explanation. I mean, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.279 it's if you look at the web page, it's all 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.440 meaningless babble that's meant to suggest that this little device 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.280 that looks like a key chain fall when you pointed 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.479 at stuff, shoots it with smart beams that then will 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.320 make it turn into smart stuff when you consume it. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:15.360 Sounds ye, it's it's mostly based upon the concept, the 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.440 cultural concept of qi, you know, the this idea of 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:22.679 energy that flows through the body that has very strong 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.160 significance in certain cultures but does not have any support 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.440 in the world of science. So, you know, I don't 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.599 mean to suggest that people who who follow that philosophy 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.320 are doing so in some way that is, you know, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.520 is bad. I don't mean that there's just not science 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.920 supported well, and I do believe that some research has 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.840 supported a certain amount of placebo effect if nothing else 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.840 absolutely related to so sure, Well, there's a difference between 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.680 something having a legitimate cultural significance or a meaning for 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.240 a person and being a physical substance. Right. Also, the 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.600 term trend characteristics makes me think that they're doing something 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:05.440 with I don't know, like Twitter and search search engine optimization, 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:10.400 hashtag quackery. Um no, it's at any rate, there are 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.560 things out there, There are devices out there that aim 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:18.760 to make people believe that they would help increase cognitive function. 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.840 In some way. Usually it's you know, the very vague 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:24.240 terms like focus and memory. But those are the same 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:26.400 vague terms that we have to use for the things 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.480 that are are actually supported by science, because, as we 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.240 just said, the brain is very mysterious and to be 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.880 able to zero in on a very specific function is 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.960 beyond our capabilities as of right now. But we might 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.720 be getting there. Yeah, we're certainly working on it, I 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.120 mean legitimately working on it. Yes, and then then you know, 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:50.840 beyond the the outright kind of you know, this almost 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:52.960 feels like a, like I said, a novelty item in 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:56.840 a way, there's a the idea of brain entrainment. Now 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.560 have you this before? I saw your note and I 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.080 was very intrigued. Right, So, have you ever heard of uh, 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:08.080 binaural beats? Have you ever heard that term? Binaral beats? 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.920 It tends to be this stuff that it's supposedly targets 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.040 your brain in very specific ways to get a specific result, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:21.160 such as being able to boost confidence or boost your 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:25.280 your ability to process things that you had learned that day. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.440 Wait a minute, but what are they? Okay? So binoral beats, 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.320 it's generally speaking, it's when you have a certain tone 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.360 of a certain frequency played within one ear, and a 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.160 different tone with a different frequency. I mean those are 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.920 that's kind of I'm being redundant, I guess being played 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.760 in the other ear. It sounds so it sounds. Yeah, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.720 you're actually listening to these and that's where the oral 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.400 comes from. It's binaural. You can also get monaural, which 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:53.040 are single tones in both ears. But the idea is 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.960 that these these different tones are supposed to create a 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.040 resonance in your brain waves. And that sounds pretty on 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.160 of you know, uh, like pseudoscience, but that actually is 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.680 based on reality. Are are We do have brain waves. Uh, 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:11.120 they do transmit in frequencies, but usually they're transmitting in 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.600 little bursts. Like when I say a little burst, I'm 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.840 talking about millions of neurons at once. But we have 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.120 like eighty billion of these in our heads, so millions 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.360 is a small amount over the grand scheme of things. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.719 But uh, they generally you don't have them kind of 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.960 resonating in in a frequency over and over unless you're 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.360 going to sleep, because your brain actually does the activity 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.760 changes during the different phases of alertness. Right, this is 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.839 all based on science. So when neurons fired, they give 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.120 up these little electric and magnetic fields which are usually 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.880 too weak to detect individually, like a single neurons electric 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.800 or magnetic field is so is so insignificant that you 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:53.440 if you actually in the face of all of the 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.160 other stuff that's going on in there, right if you 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.960 if you had an electrode attached to your scalp and 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.360 you're trying to pick up the activity of a single neuron, 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.200 that's pretty hopeless. But when they are firing together, you 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.959 can obviously detect that sort of thing. Um, So the 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.800 effect is real, this effect of being able to make 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.040 the brain resonate and and fire in frequency. This is 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:16.840 why if you have ever played a video game that 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.440 has that warning ahead of it saying warning there are 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.480 a lot of flashing lights. Yeah, yeah, gone into a 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.360 into a show or a ride an amusement park. Yeah, 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.000 a lot of these will say you know, there there 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.640 may be flashing lights. So anyone who is prone to 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:36.760 epileptic seizures might want to avoid. And that's because the 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.680 those lights can create what's called photic driving, which is 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.600 a rapid stimulation of the light affecting a part of 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.160 the brain that the visual processing center of the brain, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.960 which then can trigger this abnormal neural impulse, uh fit 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.720 an epileptic seizure. It's a it's sort of an overstimulation. Yeah, 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:57.640 it's it's kind of like, you know, your whole brain 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.520 just starts firing uncontrollably and that then you see the 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.040 various results, and you know, epileptic seizures manifest in different ways. 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.720 The one that we tend to think of as the 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.920 one where someone has lost motor control and falls over, 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.560 and it's it's incredibly stressful if you've ever witnessed one, 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.800 um or or if you've ever had one, I mean, 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:22.319 it's very a very stressful thing. But uh, that is 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.600 also something that we can induce like a brain resonance. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.319 Not not an epileptic seizure necessarily, but this this resonating 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:33.320 frequency in the brain, and its by purposeful exposure to 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.200 light pattern light pattern or or sound patterns. So the 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.000 binaural beats. While you know, they're suggesting that they can 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.240 do things like increase your abilities in some either vague 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.760 way or sometimes they'll claim a specific way, what they're 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.400 really doing is they might allow your brain to again 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.319 sort of sort of move in this this frequency, the 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.480 neural activity will kind of flow with this frequency, but 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.880 it doesn't change the activity itself. It does doesn't change 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.839 the function of the brain. So it's kind of like 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:09.079 you get Imagine that you have like a large body 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.040 of water and you see like all the little waves 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:13.760 that are on the water. Imagine that you were able 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.559 to get them to move in a perfect frequency. Well, 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.599 the water is still moving the water, the activity is 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.360 still going, but it's not like it's suddenly better at 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.120 moving water than it was before. And when you turn 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.439 the machine off, then it stops moving the water. Yeah, 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.040 and your brain and it turns back to normal. It's 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.680 normal thing. Yeah. So the thing is that the science 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.600 is there to suggest that that there are these times 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.840 when our brains will fire in these kind of resonating frequencies. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.440 Like I said, they offer rhythm. That's when you're awake. 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.319 That's the least likely for it to be really kind 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.760 of resonating, but that's when your brain is the brainways 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.040 are moving at a frequency between eight to twelve hurts 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.720 uh theda rhythm is when you're kind of getting drowsy, 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.680 that's a frequency around six to seven hurts, and deep 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.000 sleep is the delta range. That's when you're talking about 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.800 four to five hurts and by neural beats kind of 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.679 try to get your brain to fire in these frequencies 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.000 that are similar to usually the fada or delta stages 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.360 and so um, yeah, it's it's one of those things 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.480 that it is an actual effect. The entrainment really does happen, 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:22.800 but it doesn't it doesn't result in increased cognitive functions. Yeah, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.840 there's it just it just is a thing like and 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:27.960 you can it might be something that's useful for you 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.120 to relax, to get into kind of a meditative state 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.960 which might help you deal with stress or anxiety. It's 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.079 not that there aren't any viable uses for this. There are. 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.800 It's just a question of is the is the the 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:49.000 advertised effect of getting some gained cognitive ability actually scientifically grounded, 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.960 and that so far is not the case as Yeah, 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:55.800 pending further research. I'm sure if you, I don't know, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.680 reverse the polarity or something like that exactly, but well, 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.000 I'd like to transition to a different topic, something that 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:07.840 actually does have some science behind it, albeit limited science, 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:12.199 but there have been actual results around something called transcranial 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:16.199 direct current stimulation. Now Joe are you about to suggest 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:23.320 that a person could maybe put a couple of electrodes 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.680 against their head and zapp some current through their skull 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.200 and actually change the way their brain is functioning. You know, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.600 I don't know, but there are some preliminary scientific results 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.640 that suggest that might be the case, and it's something 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.280 that we need to learn a lot more about. But yes, 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.400 that is essentially what is being suggested. Put direct external 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:51.080 application of electric current to the scalp and that that 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.480 affects the way the brain works positively is the allegation 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.600 the goal. You don't, we don't. We're not talking about 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.200 some sort Jack Bauer torture device from twenty four where, 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.640 you know, flip the switch, make them talk. It's not 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.400 quite like no, no, no, no no, okay. So, transcranial direct 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.920 current stimulation or t DCS is the technique of stimulating 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.760 the brain with small amounts and we want to emphasize 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:19.520 small amount of electrical current applied directly to the scalp, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.280 to the skin on your head. And it's possible that 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.120 this could treat certain diseases or disorders in the future, 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.680 but right now it is not FDA approved for these purposes. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.520 There's an FDA approved method that's similar to this they'll 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.920 talk about in a little bit, but this particular case 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.280 not yet approved by the FDA, but it is being 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:43.800 used in experimental cases in various researches. We'll talk about 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.560 that in just a minute. But why would this work, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.880 I mean, why would it actually even have an effect 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.040 on the brain to apply a little bit of electrical 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.840 current to the skin on your head. Well, in general, 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.160 we we do run on electrical current. Yeah, our our 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.040 neurons are communicating with each other or through these electrochemical reactions. 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.680 And we covered the chemical side. It turns out the 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.240 electric electric side also plays a part. If you bus 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:09.880 any part of your body, it's going to have an 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:15.280 effect on your not a system, yes, yeah, I have 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:17.840 Usually it's a negative effect in my case, So please 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.680 do not buzz any part of my body. I would 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.320 appreciate that. This is just a note for everybody, including 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.720 the people in this room. Okay, but what's going on 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.720 here specifically, Jonathan, Well, specifically, we're talking about stimulating the 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.280 activity that's already going on in the brain by kind 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.360 of boosting the current. Now, the general ideas that if 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.400 you have a like a microprocessor, one of the ways 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:43.080 you can make the microprocessor work faster is by pouring 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.680 more juice into it than it normally would have. Mean electricity, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:53.440 not literal juice, orange, just particularly affective UH antioxidants. Aside, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.280 we're talking about electricity here. Yeah, electricity is specifically what 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:02.280 I'm referring to. But as we need to stress multiple times, 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:06.120 I'm sure this small amount of current is what's important 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.960 because if you if you were to overload your brain, 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.680 you could do severe damage. You could injure yourself, you 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.320 could kill yourself. Um, I mean that's electrocution is a 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:20.280 real thing. So it's very, very vital that anyone working 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.760 in this kind of arena would practice lots of caution. 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.760 And the reason we say that is because while we're 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.560 gonna be talking a lot about some of the research 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.240 that's gone around this particular field, there are a lot 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.359 of people out there who are just charging ahead with 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:40.320 d I o Y projects to create these do it 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.280 yourself electrodes attached to their heads so that they can 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:48.880 try and get a boost from electrical stimulation. And if 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.320 you don't do that correctly, you could really really hurt yourself. Yeah, 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.240 we do not personally recommend trying this at home, even 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.919 if you do do it correctly. I think we're not 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.879 entirely sure what the long term of facts with doing 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.879 this over time might be. Either. We have no clue 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.239 if there are any long term effects that could end 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.760 up being detrimental. We know that in the short term. Uh, 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:13.560 we've seen what can happen, and and the results are 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:18.399 pretty interesting. Yeah, under very specific conditions. The Air Force 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.600 was doing some research into this. Yeah right, yeah, so 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.199 the Air Force was using t dcs to help train 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.680 drone pilots. So what were the effects. Well. Scientific American 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.879 covered this story in November two thousand eleven after scientists 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.600 from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.920 Force Base reported their findings at a meeting of neuroscientists 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.120 earlier that month in November two thousand eleven, And what 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:49.280 they found was they tested t dcs on drone pilots 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.560 who were learning to pick out potential targets from radar feedback. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.320 The pilots practiced this on video simulations kind of like 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.200 you know, like a video game. When the pilots just 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.880 their skills, they received small amounts of electrical current from 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.080 patches placed on the scalp and they said it was 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.440 two milliampiars of continuous DC current for half an hour 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.280 thirty minutes. And the study found that tDCS could potentially 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.879 cut training time in half. That's doubling the speed of 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:23.760 learning really significant, which is quite significant. Yeah, on the 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.720 other hand, it's not a done deal because I mean, 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.280 could the placebo effect be partially or wholly responsible. One 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.760 of the things about this is when it's happening, you 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.920 feel a tingling, you know it's going on. So it's 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.880 hard in this case to give somebody a placebo pill 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.439 basically too to cover the you know. So it's like 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.800 if you if you hooked up patches to somebody's head 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.000 and didn't give them the current, they would know because 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.320 they didn't feel it. Actually, there is another study where 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.639 they did try to control for that to replicate the 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:01.159 tingling sensation without actually running an electrical current through the 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.280 uh the electrodes, so that the subjects would not know 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.960 whether or not they were uh having me any current 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.120 passed through their brain. Uh. It was a Vanderbilt University 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:16.399 study and they used a a sham condition that replicated 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.680 the physical tingling sensation under the electrodes without affecting the brain. 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.080 I don't know exactly what that was like. I don't 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:25.800 know how they achieved this, but what they did was 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:30.159 they took subjects and they attached these electrodes to their 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.840 to their scalp, and in some cases they ran the 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.520 occurrence and the control they did not, and the subjects 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.399 were told to play a game essentially where there was 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:41.639 a color shown on a screen and they were to 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.960 hit a certain button on a video game controller that 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.399 was going to correspond with that color, and then occasionally 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.400 they would get a message saying not to push any 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.560 button at all. And it was done at about a 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:57.280 second per image. And it was one of those things 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.679 where it was just complicated enough where most people, you know, 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:01.880 there's a there's a learning curve you have to figure out. 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:07.000 Oh wait, no, no, no, no, not exactly. So it 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.000 was one of those things where there were a lot 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:13.320 of potential ways to get something wrong. And they found 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.840 that when they ran the current UH, they were actually 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.399 able to boost people's ability to learn from their mistakes. 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.240 They would learn more quickly and be able to complete 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.720 the task with fewer errors in the long run because 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.360 they picked up on things faster than the control group did. 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.240 So here you're talking about not just a continuous level 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.400 of direct current, but you're talking about dynamic transcranial stimulation, right, 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.240 so that it responds to what they do with different 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.120 levels of current. It was meant to. Uh So, when 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.480 we make a mistake and we're aware of it. When 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.480 we become aware of a mistake, there's little spike of 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:52.280 neuronal activity that happens in our brain. And these scientists said, 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.639 what happens if we amplify that spike, which to me 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.000 just makes me think of Egon saying, let's see what 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:02.960 happens when we take the puppy A yeah, but they 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.880 want the goal. Remember when you tried to shock your brain. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:09.360 Actually I was trying to drill a hole in your head. 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:17.159 No current topic. That's current topic. Very good, So you 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:19.359 brought it onto yourself, all right? At any rate, that 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.280 what they found was that by by boosting the signal 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:24.639 that was going through the head, whenever someone realized they 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.200 made a mistake, it didn't make the person feel bad. 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.680 They didn't. All they would feel was a little light 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.520 tingling from the electrodes. Okay, so you're not talking about 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.520 like negative reinforcement with like shocking you painfully. This was 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:40.440 literally a type of activity in the brain that we 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.679 are unaware of consciously, but it does guide us in 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.680 learning through our mistakes, and that they found that by 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.920 boosting it, people learned faster, which is kind of cool. Yeah. 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.120 I like that. If it means that I will learn 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.879 more quickly, but I won't be feeling like super stupid 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.840 for making mistakes. I'm all in favor. If, however, it 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:03.600 just makes me learn so that I haven't because I 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.120 have an aversion to feeling dumb, that's not so good. 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.159