WEBVTT - Myths About the Brain 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.720 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:14.200 Stuff you Should Know from house stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.119 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.560 Chuck Bryant, and this is stuff you should know the podcast. 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:27.840 Greetings pricklings. Hello, everyone, brains, brains, brains. That's right, that's 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.320 my intro. Uh that you didn't do it ten times though? 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.199 About no one wants to hear that. And we're not 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.720 going to even talk about ten brain myths we even 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.160 though the this episode is called ten Myths about the Brain. Yeah, 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.480 if you're new to the show and you've never heard 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:46.320 us do one of our famous top tens, then you 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.560 probably don't know. We rarely cover all ten. We will 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.159 tease you a bit with six to eight and then 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.000 say go read the article if you want the other one. 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.440 And in this case, we've actually covered a couple of 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.920 the things before, so there's no point in rehashing exactly 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:02.800 so that. I guess I just probably need to explain 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:04.920 that you laid the ground rules pretty well man to 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.039 a top ten that is really not tin um. So 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.760 we we have brains in our heads. Uh, And I 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.399 think most people walk around feeling like they have some 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.679 ideas about the brain, some understanding, um, but it turns 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:21.640 out that some of them are wrong. There's myths out 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:26.200 there and so have kind of interesting weird origins too. Yeah. 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.120 I thought this is pretty cool article because we've covered 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.720 the brain a lot and it's one of our favorite, 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.000 favorite favorite subjects. So it's kind of cool to root 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:35.920 out some of these things that a couple of these 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.280 I thought were true. Well. Well, for example, like, um, 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.920 your brain is gray, I thought that to be true. Well, 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.680 and it's understandable why too, because people call the brain 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:53.760 gray matter. Um apparently Hercule Paul row I just said 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.680 that like a dog that was That was right, h 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:58.600 That's an odd name to have to say though. Yeah, 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:03.120 Hercules plaically especially from my tongue marble mouth. He used 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:07.680 to call his brains his gray cells. Oh yeah. Um, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.000 so yeah, everybody thinks the brain is great and it 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.520 is gray. There are very much, um lots of gray 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.840 areas called gray matter, but there's other colors to the 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.520 brain too. Yeah. This kind of knocked me out because 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.960 I had no idea that the brain was also white, black, 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.560 and red like our Georgia bulldogs in Atlanta, falcon starts 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.840 lapping in there, everybody's brains walking around the bulldog fan So, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:32.480 like you said, there is a lot of gray matter, 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:37.800 uh cells, neurons connecting to each other. There's also white matter. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.200 Well that's the stuff that connects them. Well, the white 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.760 matter is is the nerve fibers right right, So it 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.840 connects like your gray matter regions to one another. So 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.880 that makes sense. Yeah, but what about the substantia nigra 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.960 Latin for black substance that is part of your brain 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.399 is black? I would think that would be scary. Yeah, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.120 he was dead, dude, think so. But the that that 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:03.600 region of the brain um, it has to do with 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.959 motor control, like fine control, and that's that They think 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.800 that possibly that's where Parkinson's damage comes from, or Parkinson's 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.239 disease is located there. And the reason it's black is 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.280 because of neuromelanin, which is a pigment. And I was 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.280 very curious why your brain would eat any kind of pigment? Whatsoever? 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:22.639 Did you get to that? Yeah, it turns out they 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:27.240 don't know, but they think that it basically takes um 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.440 it removes heavy metals from your bloodstream. From that area 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.840 and that they they also think that it has to 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:38.640 do with there's a adrene of chrome, do you remember that? 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:40.880 From Fear and low thing in Las Vegas. So that 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.880 stuff is real, and your brain produces as a byproduct 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.160 of some of his normal processes, and we would all 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.040 be totally psychotic apparently from the stuff if it wasn't 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.320 for neuromelanin. They think basically getting rid of it. So 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.520 we depend on that color. Yeah, that pigment, at least 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.760 not for coloring in this case, but some other stuff. Yeah, 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.920 I couldn't. The reason we think gray besides people calling 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:05.680 it gray matters because usually when we see a brain 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.160 it's floating in a jar, then it has been turned 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.920 gray from the formaldehyde and stuff. But I couldn't find 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.480 any kind of picture of like an active brain with 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.039 all these colors. I guess it's impossible unless they just, 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.479 you know, peel your skull off and take a picture 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.480 real quick. Yeah, I'm sure that was exist. What couldn't 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.800 I find a picture? I don't know. I mean, yeah, 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:32.800 they do brain surgery, you know, with the healthy living brain. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.040 Didn't work super hard though, that's the secret. So there 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.080 there you go. Red black, white and gray your brain, 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:44.200 all right. Number two, listening to Mozart makes you smarter. Yeah, 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.200 this one I thought was did too, because Baby Einstein 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.719 if you've never heard of that, that is, parents are 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:55.960 living this stuff, big, big, multimillion dollar industry of packaging 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:00.080 classical music and poetry and stuff like that to a 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.320 not just to your baby and toddler and growing child, 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.520 but for your fetus as well. Even. Yeah, the Mozart 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.360 effect is what it's called, UM, and it's gonna be smarter. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.040 Apparently the Mozart effect is trademarked by a guy named 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:20.159 Dan Campbell. Basically, UM puts together Mozart and CDs and 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.279 books and stuff like that. Um. The thing is is 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.000 this Mozart effect was It was first noted in the fifties, 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.840 I think by an ear nose and throat doctor named 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:36.680 Albert Tomattus, and he said that he made it. He 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.680 said that UM, the his patients who were struggling with 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.960 speech and audit auditory disorders UM showed improvement when they 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:49.480 listened to Mozart specifically. And then in the nineties somebody 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.640 else apparently conducted a test at the University of California, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.640 Irvine that showed that people's IQ scores improved after listening 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.240 to Mozart, and then the Mozart effects was born. Well, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.200 so based on these studies, I would think that it 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.480 does make you smarter. So is that true? Apparently not 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.760 necessarily no, because these are all myths. Yeah, that that 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.599 that you see Irvine study in particular was kind of 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.919 taken out of context. I get the impression, and um, 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.560 they were saying, well, we never said it makes you smarter. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.919 We just said that it improved people's ability on the 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:31.800 specific temporal spatial test. Yeah, this one specific thing. We 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.520 didn't say it makes you smarter. That's the popular media 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.880 that did that. So things got a little twisted around 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.960 over time, and since then they have not been able 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.120 to duplicate these results from that original test. So it 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:46.400 turns out it probably won't hurt you any right, but 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.880 listening to classical music is not going to actually make 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.159 you smarter. But they have found that, um, learning to 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:57.000 play music, you can do a lot of stuff. Um, 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.800 it improves concentration, self constant competence, coordination. Really yeah uh 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.320 and you mentioned people playing Mozart to get the Mozart 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.800 effect for their fetuses. Yeah, Um, have you ever heard 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.800 the one that you get a new wrinkle in your 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.600 brain every time you learn something. I knew that wasn't true. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.200 It sounds a little bit like an angel gets his 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.920 wings every time. All totally, Uh, that is not true. 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.760 But there are some cool little factoids in here. Uh, 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.960 one of which is that by the time you reach 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.360 forty weeks old, you have the same brain. It will 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.320 get larger, of course, but you have all the same 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:39.440 little folds and crevices called jerry and sulci um, all 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.040 folded up together. And the reason it's folded up together 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.440 is because our brain is large and the skull isn't, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.600 so it needed to scrunch itself in there as we evolved. 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.000 And I think if you unfolded all that, the brain 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:55.880 would be the size of a tennis court. No, no, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.440 that's the intestines a pillowcase. Okay, that's still pretty Yeah, 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:05.160 it's huge. Um, and that's why we're so smart. Um, 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.480 which kind of leads us to another. Um. Another myth 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.040 all right, that humans have the biggest brain, which is 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.680 not the case, which makes sense to me. I thought 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.120 this one was pretty cool. Actually, Um, A lot of 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.600 people walking around I think that because we're so smart, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.920 we must have the biggest brain. But if you if 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:26.560 you think about it, no, a whale is going to 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.760 have a bigger brain than a human brain. That's true 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:33.320 because whales are enormous. Our brains about three pounds a whale. 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.520 Sperm whales about what's seventeen pounds, Yeah, which is a 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:40.400 huge brain. So why aren't sperm whales running the planet? 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.000 The reason why, It doesn't really matter the size of 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.480 the brain. It's the size of the brain to the 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.560 rest of the body. That ratio is what matters. Yeah, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:50.920 I thought that was super interesting. They used dolphins as 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.760 an example because the dolphin's brain is about the same 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.200 size of a humans brain. Dolphins are super smart, But 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.600 an average dolphin weighs about three fifty pounds. Uh, I 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:03.640 don't know. Does it say how much the average adultways, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.679 it's not three. I would say, depending on whether it's 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.719 male or female, anywhere between a hundred to two hundred pounds, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:15.840 whether or not average somewhere in there. Sorry. Uh. And 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.200 then they also go on to name some other animals, 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.440 which was just sort of cute to think about. A 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.199 beagle's brain is two point five ounces. Cute, little beagle 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.040 and a sparrow has a brain that weighs less than 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.280 half an ounce. That's adorable. So again though it's the 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.960 it's the brain size to body size ratio, and humans 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.160 it's one to fifty UM. Most other mammals it's one 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.080 to one eight UM, and then in birds it's one 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.800 to two twenty typically. Yeah, but we do have humans 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.200 compared to mammals, we have the largest cerebral cortex, which 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.560 is really where like that's the money section. It's also 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.559 the newest part of our brain. It's on the outermost surface, um, 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:56.760 and that's where all the higher functions are carried out. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.960 And that's what really separates us. That's why we run 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.959 the planet. Otherwise just be orangutans. Um. What about subliminal 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:09.640 messages and we learn from those? Uh, that is a falsehood, sir. 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.160 I guess that's the spoiler. All these are false but 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.280 their myths. Yeah, they're myths. Um. But back in the 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.840 nineteen fifties, there was a marketing executive, a researcher named 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.280 James Vickery who, uh did you know everyone always heard 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:25.800 you know, you go to the movies and they splash 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.720 up Coca cola and popcorn. I thought that was a myth. 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:30.880 I did too, but that was true. They did that 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.600 in nineteen fifty seven. Yeah, there's a there's a still 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:39.040 in this article from the movie and over Kim's face 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.880 it says hungry eat popcorns and it's from a frame 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.959 of the movie. So that's one three thousandth of a second. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.760 And um, Vickery said, you know what, Uh, sales increased 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.959 in the theater by eighteen percent for popcorn I'm sorry 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.520 for drinks, and by fifty seven percent for popcorn thanks 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.080 to these messages. Yeah, and everybody said, okay, well, we're 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:06.440 very interested in basically psychologically manipulating everybody into buying our products. 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.360 So they started putting that stuff in jingles and in 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:15.600 UM movies and television, and UM, they found pretty quickly 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.440 that it actually doesn't have an effect yet. Well, they 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.480 banned it first of all, the FEC band in nine, 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.840 because they did think it worked at the time. UM. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.079 But then later on it turns out that James Vickery 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.440 just lied about the results, not true at all. He's like, hey, 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.439 I was a sales guy, not a scientist, but you 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:40.040 expect uh so yeah, like you said, the FEC band 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.280 subliminal advertising in general, which was a good move because 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.040 if it did work, that's not okay. No, but a 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.280 lot of people still think that it's still around and 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.120 then it actually does work, Yes, but it is not true. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.280 And they even tested this in Canada evidently on TV. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.440 They flashed the message call now during a broadcast, and 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.000 I guess nobody called. Maybe they didn't give a number. 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.840 There's this right, I feel like I need to call somebody, 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.280 but I don't get it. I wondered though, like if 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.760 if they were studying the wrong thing, like call now 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.920 makes sense, but what if it has to be much 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:20.920 more explicit, like hungry eat popcorn? You can't eat popcorn? 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.120 Like maybe that would make you grab a bite of 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.800 popcorn fit we're in your lap. Maybe it has to 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.560 be more direct, like hungry, go buy popcorn at the 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:34.160 front concession stand now, you know, because then your brain 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.440 would obey that command rather than a roundabout command that's 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.920 the result of something you have to do, telling you 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:41.720 to go do that thing. Maybe that would work. So 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:43.840 you're leaving the door open for this for further testing. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:48.880 I could see it subliminal below the lineman or lemon, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.080 which is the threshold of our conscious awareness. Yeah, it 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.640 looks like Lineman when by itself, that's what's in sprit. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.040 But if he said subliminal, then somebody would just on 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.640 two upside the head, you know. Yeah, where are we now? 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.960 We are on the idea that brain damage is always permanent. 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.120 I didn't know that this was a thing. I didn't 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:14.240 know that people said that. Sure, I never heard that. Well, 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.160 I think the point of it is is you know 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:20.240 that the brain can't repair itself once it's damaged, And 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.360 that's absolutely not true. It's not true. The brain is 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.760 extremely resilient. It's it's so much so that there's this 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.480 thing called plasticity, um, which is it kind of ties 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:33.600 into that idea that you get a new wrinkle when 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.360 you learn something that's not true. But your brain can 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.120 rewire itself. That's how you learn and unlearned behaviors through 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.000 brain plasticity. Yes, so I guess there are some truth 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:48.079 in that. Neurons, once they are damaged, they cannot grow back, right, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.640 but thanks to plasticity, that will make new neural connections 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.120 in sometimes surprising ways, which is why if you've had 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:58.800 a stroke and damage part of your brain, you can 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.800 relearn to speak alps if you've lost that ability by 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.760 forging these new connections. There's a girl out there, um 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.679 who has only one hemisphere of her brain. That's it 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.480 that way. I don't remember she was born that way 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.400 or if it was the result of surgery or damage 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.360 or something, but she's got half of a brain. Her 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.120 brain has just one hemisphere, and she has binocular vision. 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.920 She can see out of both eyes, which they had 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.960 no idea how that was going on. And they finally 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.000 went in and looked, I guess using an m R 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.800 I and they found that her optic nerve that should 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.800 be connected to the missing hemisphere had basically grown, had 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.320 grown to go patch in another part of her brain 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.120 on the other side, and it basically hijacked this other 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:42.840 part of her brain and was using it for sight. 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.040 That is unbelievable. That's the brain. I wonder what you 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.720 lose though, I wonder if it forges a connection and 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.200 at the expense of another, you know what I'm saying, Yeah, like, 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.040 could she be like, man, I can see through both eyes, 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.520 but I can't tie my shoot any longer. Yeah, maybe, yeah, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.480 it's possible, But I mean the brain would would say, well, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:03.800 it's better you can see somebody else can tie your shoes. 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:05.920 Well that makes me wonder, though, I wonder if there 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.120 is an order to it all, like if the brain 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.880 knows what's more important. Yes, there is. As a matter 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.520 of fact, this ties into that idea that you only 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.000 use ten percent of your brain. Wow, all right, let's 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.720 hear it. Well that's not true, by the way, right, 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.720 And actually that one has a pretty interesting origin, doesn't it. Yeah, 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.200 they're not quite sure where it came from. Um, it 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.960 seems like it's always been around though, the notion that 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.560 you only use ten percent of your brain. But um, 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.680 they think it may have come from American psychologist William 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.240 James in the early nineteen hundreds when he said the 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.320 average person rarely achieves but a small portion of his 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.000 or her potential. And that was just sort of twisted 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.160 into ten percent of your brain is used. And people, 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:51.960 you know, you see people taking advantage of this notion 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.400 all the time with self help books like Tap into 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.920 the Other and it's just bunk, right, And this is 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:03.200 where it ties in. It is in that all regions, 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.760 all physical regions of your brain are being used. But 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.480 there's a theory that's around for savantism. Explain savantism, which 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.480 I want to do someday, we need to write the 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:19.080 article on it. But so fascinating. There's a theory right 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.760 now that savanta is um is from the result of 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.400 like brain damage. What what savantism is the result of 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.280 the brain's tyranny of the frontal lobe is what it's called. 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.960 And basically the idea is that your frontal lobe decides 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.840 what's important, and it bosses around all the other regions 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.440 of your brain to carry out this very smooth, efficient 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.280 streamline process that basically it decides is the most important, 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.360 and in doing so, it cast to the side a 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.720 lot of other stuff, like the ability to make great art, 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.160 or the ability to count a bunch of matches that 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.360 just fell on the floor, whatever, And that savantasm is 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.920 the result of this executive function, this tyranny of the 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:06.320 frontal cortex being disrupted, so that maybe you aren't just 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.439 the most efficient shark in the tank any longer, and 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.399 you're not out there and like going, going, going, and 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.200 like trying to compete and beat everybody else. But there's 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:18.760 all these other things that are now free to just 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:24.600 kind of blossom, like artistic deep, amazing, artistic, interesting abilities. Yeah, 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.080 that's that's this theory point and we're just now learning 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.760 this stuff. But it suggests that maybe we do only 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.680 use a portion of our abilities, not physical, like we're 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:37.960 using a dred percent of the physical parts of our brain, 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.800 but what we're using it for is that issue. Yeah, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:42.760 you see what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, so there's definitely 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.240 something to that. Yeah. I trip out on the brain 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.919 a lot, Like when I'm studying it for the podcast, 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.959 I'll get sidetracked. Like this morning, I was reading this 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.280 article and I just had one of those little flights 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.719 of fancy where it amazed me that I was looking 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.320 at these printed shapes on a pay paper that formed 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.960 words into sentences that I understood and had meaning. And 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.159 I just was amazed by the brain. Just laying in 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.240 bed this morning, I was like, oh my god, Like 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.639 I'm reading these words that makes sense, and I'm speaking 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.920 words that have a symbol form on a paper, And 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.919 I promise you I wasn't on LSD this morning, but 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:21.320 I just had one of those moments where it just 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.400 like totally amazed me that I was even able to read. 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.320 So the brain basically made you impressed with itself. Yes 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.600 it did. And while you mentioned ls do we I 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.800 guess we can say in passing apparently drugs do not 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:39.080 create holes in your brain. That is not true, um. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.520 And there's a lot of uh back and forth over 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.600 how much damage drugs due to your brain at all, 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.000 how reparable that damage is. And there are studies going 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:51.960 on on all all the all the time about long 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:57.200 term drug use and the results. One of them, interestingly 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.199 found that they think that some long term use of 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.320 some drugs can cause structures in the brain to grow, 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.520 and that is why addicts may have a hard time 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.439 kicking the habit, because they've grown a certain part of 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.920 their brain. I guess to Yeah, your limbic system is 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:19.000 strengthened through that. Very interesting and alcohol um does not 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.639 kill brain cells. It damages the dentrides that we've talked about, 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.840 and those are the ends of the neurons where the 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.960 connections are taking place. I guess right. So it makes 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.200 your neurons talk sideways to one another like the brain 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.520 cells are still there, but they just can't talk about yeah, 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:40.439 pretty much. And there's something a neurological disorder called Wernikey 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:45.679 Corsicov syndrome, and that is uh can result in a 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.359 loss of neurons in the brain. But that's basically what 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:50.159 I think of when I think someone has like pickled 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.480 themselves with alcohol. But that's kind of what's going on. 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.360 It's actually not the alcohol that's killing brain cells. It's 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:03.040 from it's from a uh A deficiency and thymine. That amazing. Yeah, 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.719 So if if you have a thymine deficiency, you can 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.919 get this war Nikki Corsicov syndrome and um, that's a 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.000 B vitamin. And if you are an alcoholic, you typically 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.119 aren't absorbing your your thymin like you would if you 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.760 weren't an alcoholic, which is why it's associated with alcoholism. 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.320 But it's not alcohol killing brain cells, right, And it's 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.120 much easier for me just to say they've pickled themselves, 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.720 which is really sad. We're laughing, but it is. It 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.359 is super sad. Yes, it is. If you've ever met 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.600 anyone that was pickled, well, yeah, and here's a alcohol 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.600 Any addicts suffering as a result of their addiction is 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.560 extremely sad, it is. So that's all I got. How 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:42.960 many was that? Seven? Is eight or six and a 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.520 half something like that. Um, if you want to learn 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.480 the fate of the other remaining brain myths from this 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.119 top ten list. Type in brain myths in the search 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.880 bart how stuff works dot com and it will bring 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.840 this article up. And actually we sort of have issue 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.160 with one of them we left off was the decapitation. 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:04.960 They said it was a myth. I guess I didn't 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.760 even read it, kind of but didn't we say it was? 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:11.480 They say, and they're like, yeah, it's gonna last for 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.040 a couple of seconds or whatever, like, which is what 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.919 we said in the podcast. But for some reason they 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.560 made that seem like, but that's nothing right. But then 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.680 they said that it's an extremely painful way to die 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.000 because you are conscious. Afterwards, it was it was kind 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.840 of a cluster mixed messages. Yeah, all right, uh so 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:34.760 I said, such partians this time for a listener. Now, yes, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:39.520 I'm gonna call this poop poopy time. We did our 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:43.240 our podcast on fecal transplants, and we've had all manner 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.240 of poopy emails coming in and I'm gonna share one 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:50.199 from Jacob Carnes, U, Hi, Josh, Chuck and Jerry and 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.280 he spelled Jerry right. I just finished the Fecal Transplant 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:55.720 podcast and felt compelled to write in after you mentioned 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.159 the Nora virus, which I was afflicted with about two 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:00.760 weeks ago. Didn't last long, just about twenty four hours, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.240 but it hit instantly, like someone flipped the switch. I 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:06.720 will spare you the details, but it was nearly the 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.320 worst I've ever felt. The day after was nearly the 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:12.480 best I've ever felt, due to the euphoria of still 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.200 being alive. But for the following week, my gut felt 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:16.960 like it just wasn't right. My hunch is that it 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.040 was really messed with the internal flora. He needs some 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:24.800 Kombucha's that. Oh it's this um. It's just like fermented 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:31.640 basically like probiotic drink. Um. I guess it's Eastern. It's 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:35.040 really delicious. There's some very delicious kombucca drinks out there, 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.959 and it's supposedly promotes um colonization in your gut. You're 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.760 drinking this stuff. I love it. Yeah, where you get it? 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:46.600