WEBVTT - Change Your Mind the Hard Way 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.000 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Tuglas and 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.320 you know Julie. We uh we recently did an episode 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.439 about cyber immortality and about the idea of preserving who 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.759 we are in electronic form, and we got into ideas 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:27.720 of like what is the mind? What is the soul? 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.160 And uh, something came up in the research so we 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.280 didn't really go into was was how the more modern 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:38.000 medical science analyzed how damage to the brain changes the 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.159 expression of who we are. Um that that that initially 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.599 caused a lot of concern with people over over how 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.479 we would continue to view the soul or or or 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:48.960 even who we are, because the idea of you know, hey, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.600 if if I am my soul, I am this person. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:53.479 And then if something can just like if I get 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.120 kicked in the head by a horse, that can change 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.000 who I am? Does that change who what my soul is? Uh? 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.000 You know, you get into a lot of tricky area 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.200 there and and uh and it's interesting that that we 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.920 have the little turn of phrase, change your mind. We're 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.480 always changing our mind about something and our mind is 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.479 continually changing. Uh. The person we are a year ago 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:17.920 again is different than the person we are now, and 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.560 the person we're going to be tomorrow is different than 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.520 the person talking right now. And certainly things act upon 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.039 us at times to change our minds for us right right, 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.399 Our mind is a complicated system, and uh, every day 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.399 something changes, something upgrades. You know how your computer is 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.640 constantly needing to reboot because it just got new upgrades 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.920 and updates have been applied. Well, updates are always being applied. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.480 And occasionally your mind, like a computer can uh can 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.240 something can spill some coffee in it, or um or 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:54.040 it'll get a virus, or name any conceivable computer related catastrophe, 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.320 and it could also happen to your brain. So it's 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:02.200 really illuminating to look at some examples of catastrophe happening 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:06.080 to the human brain and what the effects are. How 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:11.120 um external or internal stimuli alters the form of the 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:15.040 mind and then therefore alters the uh if if you 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.040 want to say it this way, the expression of our soul, right, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.600 and and uh, and then going back to like the 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.760 neuroscience of it too. We've talked about neural plasticity, but 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.760 how your mind changes in that way, how it may 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.640 take up for one part of the other or you know, 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.880 how it might be completely changed forever. Um. So yeah, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.079 it's kind of like, you know, it's like a new 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.280 car and then it gets sideswiped or something, and uh, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:42.880 but we gotta keep driving this car, so let's find 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:44.600 out ways to make it work. Oh, I can't nobody 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:46.720 can set in the passenger side seat anymore because it's 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.600 caved in. That means more people have to go into 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:50.800 back seat. Thanks, like the same things of that nature, 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.720 except with the brain X channel isn't working anymore, so 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.680 we're gonna have to send more data through Y channel. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.519 That's overly simplified, but that's kind of what happens. So 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:00.640 we're gonna look at a couple of example examples of 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:05.760 how this is played out in specific cases, um, particularly 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.280 with a guy, a very unfortunate guy I should say, 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.760 named Phineas Gauge. Yes, Phineas Gauge is this is this 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.160 is pretty awesome stuff. And I say that because right 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.960 now I'm I'm playing the new Mortal Kombat game at 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.320 home when I can, when I can squirrel away a 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.760 few moments here and there, and there are these moments 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.440 in the game where you'll you'll build up this bonus 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:29.359 meter and then you'll the you know everything, I'll go 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.839 into an X ray mode and you'll see like your 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.800 character like stabbing another character in the face or something, 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.720 and like, you know, something entering one side of the 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:38.600 school and going out the other. And that's exactly what 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.320 happens with Phineas Gauge back in all right. This guy's 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.400 a twenty five year old foreman for a New England railroad. 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.440 He's land track in Vermont, and each day he goes 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.720 through this particular job. It's like, you know, day in 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.200 day out. He drills a hole in a large rock, 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.320 he boares in, he pours in blasting powder, he lays 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.160 the fuse, and then he assistant covers the explosives with sand. 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.040 All right. Then he takes this uh three and a 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.600 half foot long inch quarter thick um camp what's called 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.960 a camping rod, the steel rod uh or iron nut, 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.480 and he uh he tamps the explosives down and then 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.000 he lights the fuse and he runs for cover. Alright. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.160 So you know, like any act that you do over 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.120 and over again, you're your mind stunar to wander and 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.359 uh and and it's easy to make mistakes. It's that 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.600 whole like the more vegetables I cut, the more possible 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.160 it does. It will cut off my fingers sort of thing. 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.200 You should always tuck your fingers in, by the way, 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.279 you'll never cut yourself if you touch your fingers in 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.680 the interesting. I will try that next time, avoid mutilation. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.320 But so he gets distracted, Old Phineas Gage and he 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:48.400 begins camping the blasting powder before his assistant adds the sand. 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.039 So there's an suddenly there's an explosion, all right, and 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.280 it fires that like the explosion blast this rod straight up, 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.760 all right, and it it connects with his face, uh, 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.800 just under his left cheek, all right, and it skewers 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.200 up behind his left eye, destroying it both the eye 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.640 and the entire front portion of his left brain hemisphere. 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.760 And then the rod goes through the top of his skull, 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.039 eggs to the top of his skull and continues to 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.240 fly on through the air and land several yards away. 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.480 And so then there, so here's Gauge standing with this uh, 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.920 this entry hole under his cheek, this exit hole through 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.520 the top of his skull, like a bit of his Um, 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.320 his scalp has flapped back, you know, to emerge, and 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.280 not only just standing, he's completely conscious. He's talking. Yeah, 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.479 he's not doing That's that's important to underscore here because 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.279 this sounds like like just a death blow. You just 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:47.039 had a metal rod dynamited through your skull, through the 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.279 through your face and out the top of your skull, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.800 a three foot eight inch metal rod with a more 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.120 than an inch diameter by the way. Yeah. And but 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:00.279 almost immediately after the accident, he's conscious. He's tall, king 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.360 and and and and he insists of walking to the 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.279 cart that's going to take him down to town to 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.720 be treated, and and along the ride he's lucid. He's 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.080 rational during the ride, and he's he's able to speak 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.039 with his attending physician, a doctor John Martin Harlow. And 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.680 so he Carlo treats him and uh and uh and uh, 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.160 and Gauge is actually able to return home to New 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.880 Hampshire ten weeks later. Yeah. And the thing is too 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.320 just so everybody understands that he did he bled for 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.200 two days so um, and then he had an infection. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.920 And what doctor Harlow did is that he he didn't um, 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.440 he didn't he wasn't able to suiture the hole in 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.280 his head, right, but he was able to cover it up, 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.839 and that's what got the infection. And it actually rendered 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.920 him semi conscious for about a month. And in fact, 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.560 his family started to prepare a coffin for him because 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.960 I didn't think that he was going to make it. Um. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.799 But then the infection resolved itself after the fifth week, 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:59.000 and um, and he seemed to be completely fine. Seemed 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:00.960 to be right. I mean, we we know that he left, 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.360 he lost his eyesight, his left eye, and then some 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.560 of his motor abilities on his left hand side of 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.480 his face. But again here he is like he's he 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.320 can still talk, walk and cogitate. Yeah, because we're talking 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.560 the brain portion here is the prefrontal cortex. Uh, and 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.440 this is uh the anterior part of the frontal logo 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.520 of the brain, and generally it has to do with 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:29.640 motor and pre motor areas. But let's but let's talk 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.520 about just how Gauge was before the accident. In addition 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.559 to having a little more brain and one more eye, uh, 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:40.040 he was also supposedly a pretty you know, efficient, capable employee, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.760 a decent guy to hang around. He's one of the 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.280 best foreman's They said, yeah, yeah, he was a good dude. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.680 His only fault was one out of maybe thousands of 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:54.160 times he got a little distracted. Well well yeah, but 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.920 after this accident once he's you know, he's he's up 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.880 and about really and and recovered from this uh these 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.360 this bout of unconsciousness. Uh. They find that he is, 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.640 uh is fitful. He's uh, he's swearing like a drunken 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.640 sailor all the time. It's like he's got to rats 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:16.080 or something. And and he doesn't seem to care, and 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.720 and he's childlike and bulling. Yeah, he doesn't seem to 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.400 have like he's lost this ability this like ethical um, 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:27.040 moral um governor in his mind. That's right, he's he's 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.760 lost his social inhibitions essentially, which we know now that 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.199 the prefinal cortex is sort of tamping that kind of 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.480 down force, right, so that we're not all screaming at 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:38.960 each other all the time. So and we know that 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.440 that's where the tamping iron went through. But of course, 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.600 you know, back in the day, they did not know this. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.400 And it was actually Dr Harlowe who was observing all 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.640 of this and saying, you know, my patient seems to 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.120 be physically fine, like there doesn't seem to be any 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:59.640 um neurological damage. But I think that his personality has 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.920 changed as a result of this accident. And people were like, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.200 they just summarily dismissed him. And the reason for that 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.040 is because phrenology was really in vogue during those days, 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.360 and it was thought that the personality was influenced by 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.800 the size and the shape and even like the bumps 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.600 on your skull. So they couldn't conceive of how your 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.320 brain could be changed because you could say internally. They 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:25.960 thought it was sort of set in stone in the 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.760 structure um, and that your personality was sort of set 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.079 in the structure of your brain. So Dr Harlow was 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.480 dismissed on this count, while another doctor came in and said, oh, no, 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:38.480 this person is completely fine. I don't know what Dr 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.840 Harler was talking about, because I mean, his intelligence was 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.600 still fine. He in so many other respects, he seemed 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:50.160 perfectly normal. Studies have have suggested that the frontal lobe 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.400 actually has separate functional areas, one in the underbelly of 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.720 the frontal lobes and along the mid line between the 0:09:55.760 --> 0:10:00.319 two brain spheres. That's that supposedly specialized for making social 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.800 decisions in an emotional context. In a second, more to 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.640 the side of the forehead, seems to specialize in abstract calculation, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:14.200 other kinds of decision making that call upon lesser emotions. So, uh, 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.760 this this is basically like the case of Gauge here 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:23.200 in addition to being a really grizzly awful accident, yeah, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.480 it's also yeah, more combat like incident. It's also just 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:32.560 a classic case in of a frontal cortex malfunction. And 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:37.200 uh in even these early studies about his condition were 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:42.120 really influential in neuro psychiatry uh and played a crucial 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.040 role in our discovery of behavioral syndromes resulting from frontal 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.880 low of dysfunction. And people continue to have dysfunctions in 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:54.119 this area the brain today, generally not due to dynamite 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.640 related rod insertion in the skull. But but there are 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.319 people that have dysfunction in this area and they perform 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.679 well and intelligence tests, speak normally, make new memories and 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.520 association and use use logic just fine. But you'll also 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.600 see similar disruptions in the expression of who they are. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.800 I mean he basically sort of had an unwinning lobotomy, um, 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:19.040 which ended up really helping science understand later on how 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:27.200 how the brain functions. This presentation is brought to you 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:34.599 by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. And like he said, the 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:36.200 other parts of the brain just kind of sort of 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.040 well function fine. But then you've got him, you know, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:45.120 losing his job eventually because he became I guess you 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:50.080 could say that he became so I guess, ballistic and 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.440 not not the best foreman anymore. They felt like he 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:55.600 was kind of unemployable, like he worked for I think 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:57.720 for like a circus kind of thing for a while. 0:11:57.880 --> 0:11:59.720 He took it on the road, he went to Chile, 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.920 and then finally in February eighteen sixty he began to 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.840 experience epileptic seizures and that led to his death on 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:13.559 May eighteen sixty. But, um, you know, he's famous now 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.199 we're talking about him now, many many years after his death. 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.640 And you can even see his skull and the rod 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:26.120 at the Warren Anatotomical Museum in Harvard Medical Schools count 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.079 Way Library of Medicine. I've seen the photos. Actually pretty 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:30.680 cool because I mean if you look at his skull 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.880 and you look at that three ft eight inch rod 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.800 and just amazing to think that that could have happened 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.520 and he would have survived it. Yeah, it really makes 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.359 you rethink. I mean, you know, life is fragile, biological 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.640 life is fragile and brief, but it's amazing some of 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.960 the damage that we can can be inflicted upon us 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:55.120 and we still survive. So yeah, and another another good example, 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.560 and this came out we actually spotted this when we 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.559 were doing research for the podcast about music Changing your Brain. 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.360 And this was about a guy named Tony Sistoria And 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.439 in four he was forty two years old and he's 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.920 this orthopedic surgeon was in a phone booth when the 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.920 phone was struck by lightning. It entered his foot and 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.600 then it exited his head and he was blown backwards 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.000 by that force. And then the weird thing is, as 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.320 if that weren't weird enough, is that he had like 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.560 a big near death experience, big near death meaning that 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.520 he was sitting there watching as you know, according to him, 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.120 as someone gave him CPR, and he was feeling this 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.839 sort of like one with oneness with the universe and 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.760 was submitting himself and he was actually trying to say 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.320 to the person performing in CPR, please don't do this, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.160 and he could see his mother in law and you know, 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.800 he and he and all of a sudden he was 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.600 brought back in his in his words, was that all. Yeah, 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.000 I think we've discussed an unpassed podcast in the future 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.400 that all these near death experiences, there are a lot 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.280 of compelling scientific explanations for what's happening. So we're not 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:11.160 we're not attributing any kind of divine or or supernatural 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.520 occurrence here, No, but he is. Certainly this is a 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.280 big thing for Sosori and how he explains what happened 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.920 to him and and actually how he continues to live 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:25.480 his life. Um, so what happened then is that he 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:27.920 seemed to be fine, and actually they tried to call 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.880 an ambulance, but he said, no, no, I'm fine. It's 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.560 badly enough. I've been struck by lightning, struck by lightning, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.600 or have rods fired through their head. And they're like, WHOA, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.000 let's not don't call an ambulance. No, he's a surgeon, 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.360 he's an arthathic surgeon, and he has a PhD in neuroscience. 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.600 But he's stupid guy. Yeah, No, he's like he knows 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.120 what happened to him. Um, but he says, you know, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.760 I feel kind of fuzzy or whatever, but let's not 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.480 do this. And so later on he does get checked out. Um, 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.240 he gets an e G. And this shows there's no 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.440 cardiac arrest. Right, he gets an m R. Everything seems okay. 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.800 About four weeks later, during this forty eight hour period, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:11.920 he just has this incredible insatiable desire to hear piano music. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.920 And previously he's more of a zepe fan, right and yeah, 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:21.720 and it probably doesn't even have NPR programmed into his 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.320 his car's stereo system. I bet he does secretly, but 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.200 I bet most of the time when he's he's doing 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:29.440 or he turns in, he's just tuning in for like 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.680 Marketplace or whatever, and then uh, you know, instantly clicks 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:36.120 off when the classical starts playing. Right. Yeah, So I mean, yeah, 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.440 this is someone who never had sort of a predilection 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.040 for classical music before, but all of a sudden is 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:47.080 just completely taken by it. Um, obsessed with it. Has 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.560 to play, it, has to hear it, gets sheet music, 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.960 begins to learn it. Uh. Serendipitously, his babysitter asked if 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.560 he can store her piano for him. So all of 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.760 a sudden, the piano shows up starts playing piano, and 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.920 you have to understand he's he's resumed his job, right, 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.160 He's had a little bit of temporary memory loss, like 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.680 he can't remember some of the surgical procedures the names 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.840 for him. But then that all falls away and he's 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.760 once again whole in the sense that he can perform 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:16.920 his jobs to the best of his faculties. Except he 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.520 has this maddening desire to play the piano and compose 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.160 piano music. Yeah. So I mean he literally runs home 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.640 from his job and that is what he does until 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:27.240 you know, four o'clock in the morning, and then he 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.000 gets up again, I don't know three hours later, goes 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.840 and perform surgery. Yeah, and comes back and does it again. Yeah. 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.440 I mean, there's no doubt here that there's something odd 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.840 going on that that before this he never could have 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.240 cared less about classical music playing it, so on and 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.600 so forth. And then he has a dream that he's 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:49.840 in a text and he's performing in front of an 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.320 audience a piece that he wrote, and he begins himself 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:58.520 to be flooded by compositions. So he begins composing. It's insane. 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.480 And he's actually talking to Dr all of our Sacks 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.480 about this, who's the author of Music Ophelia and other 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:10.919 books neuroscientists as well. So uh, Sacks was completely taken 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.359 by this case because he could not figure out what 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.280 had happened. Um. And and let's just kind of step 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.680 back for a second and remember that he was struck 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:25.360 by lightning, so obviously something tinkered with him. If well, 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:30.080 that the brain is basically an electronic system, and electronic 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.840 impulses are are a vital part of how it operates. 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.360 So you you're disrupting that with a bolt of lightning. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.359 not just in the bolt of lightning, which could be 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.679 as high as thirty thousand am piers with one million 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.439 or more volts and could last you know, something like 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:52.840 second Um. So yeah, we're talking about getting your brain fried. 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.399 And it's amazing to think too that this happened and 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:01.520 that he's pretty much intact, you know, plus this obsession. Um, 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.280 when something like twenty five percent of lightning strikes to 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.680 individuals results and fatalities, and then those who do survive 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:14.920 sustained permanent damage. So I mean, this guy is sort 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.840 of like a unicorn among you know, lightning. Yeah, the 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.960 damage sustained is like the best possible damage. You know. 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:22.920 It's like how many people out there wish they could 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.240 be struck by lightning and it would wake up some 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:30.360 artistic creative you know. Just I mean, because even assuming 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.600 even he and he's really good at playing piano and 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.359 and and composing, but even if he wasn't, like the 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.080 idea that lightning turned on this new area of his 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.920 life that he just criminously enjoys, you know, even even 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.320 if he just really sucked at playing piano, he would 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.520 at least be enjoying it. You're right, it wouldn't matter, right, 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.159 because he's he's getting so much out of it. And 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.639 I did actually wondered about that because I went online 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:52.080 to listen. I thought, oh no, I wonder if he's 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:53.840 put all this effort into it, and it's kind of 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.320 like my dog has please, you know. But he's actually right. 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.160 He's he's a very good pianist um and does compose 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.200 his own original material. UM. So it's kind of hard 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.919 to get some sort of medical revelation out of this 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.880 because Csoria, as we talked about before, he doesn't he 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.960 attributes this to some sort of um, mystical religious experience, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.960 and he doesn't want to be studied because he doesn't 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:21.959 want to lose that feeling, which again is kind of 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.640 maddening because because he's he's a he's a surgeon, he's 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:27.560 he knows how the body works, he knows how the 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.600 brain works, and and so it doesn't really seem like 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.200 there would be much room, uh too, for the for disillusionment. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.320 It seems like he would already basically have all the 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.840 answers right there before him. Yeah. And that's what Sax 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:41.960 has too, is like, Okay, this is again, this is 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.720 a guy who has a PhD in neuroscience. He knows 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.159 on some level that there's there's a basis for what 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.000 has happened neural neurologically. Um. And you can tell that 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.119 Sax really wants to get in there and like study 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.320 because he's because he's sitting there thinking, you know, there's 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.040 this one clip of sex and he's sitting there talking 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.399 about he's like, there's something that happened in that forty 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.600 eight hour period, um. And then he even talks to 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.159 about you know, there's we've seen correlations that parts of 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.320 the brain in the temporal lobe UM can give rise 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.639 to a mystical euphoric feeling. We know this when and 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.480 that part of the brain is stimulated um. And in fact, 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:21.000 when we sometimes talk about religious experiences or even experiences 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:22.920 with music, we know that that part of the brain 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.800 is going nuts, right right. Uh. So it's fascinating. You know, 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.320 I understand where he's coming from. I mean, this is 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.000 uh you know with sasoria, that this is something that 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.680 has happened to him and this is his great love 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.200 and obsession in his life, and he doesn't want to 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:42.040 look under um, you know, under the covers and see 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.200 what's going on. At the same time, it's like, and 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.360 why piano music? Like I think of all the the 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.320 the less appealing things he could have been struck with, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.040 Like what if he was like struck by lightning. He 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:54.760 wakes up and he's like, I've got to become a 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.280 prop comic. Give me give me some watermelons in a 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.760 in a chest and a hammer I'm gonna yeah yeah, 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.040 and a big mustache. It could have been much worse. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.880 I know it is. It's fascinating. So it also brings 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:10.960 to mind, you know, we're talking about brain is an 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:15.399 electronic system UM. Lightning is electricity disrupts it UM. It 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:20.560 also brings to mind transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS UM. 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:22.000 And this is a much it's kind of like a 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:28.040 much lighter controlled and uh and far far less severe technique, 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:31.639 and that is actually used in treatment of some cases 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:36.520 of depression and other anomalies. It's uh, you'll have what 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.439 basically looks like a little rod, a lower little paddle, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.520 and you move it next to a person's skull in 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.119 just the right area, and it produces magnetic fields to 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.080 stimulate nerve cells in the brain. And and this can, 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.040 if used correctly, can improve symptoms of depression. So you 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:52.919 have people that will go in, you know, it's like 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.639 people who have generally it's people who have a number 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.199 of mental issues and you don't want to actually go 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.240 to the met to the extremes of using electro shock, 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.840 which is a more severe version of uh, you know, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.480 a little more akin to lightning than this. But they'll 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:09.800 go in and they'll they'll get a TMS treatment for 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.800 like half an hour, and they found that they can 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:17.080 actually be pretty pretty successful. Yeah, and this is UM actually, 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:21.320