WEBVTT - Splendid Isolation 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 --> 0:00:16.479 My name is Robert lamp and I'm Julie Douglas, and 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.720 today we're talking about isolation, splendid isolation, which I don't 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.479 know if anyone out there catches the the title here 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.119 with itself of the title of a warrant Sevon song 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.320 that that I've always really done, because it has this 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.560 It starts off by going, uh, I want to live 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:37.199 alone in the desert. I want to be like Georgia O'Keefe. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.239 I want to live on the Upper east Side and 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.720 never go down in the street like that. And it's 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:44.280 so it's kind of like it's it starts off with 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.080 this very very chipper kind of uh yeah, I wanna 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.120 I want to just get away from all these people. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:51.559 I want to just you know, I want to move 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.000 away from all these two souful social constraints in my 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.120 life and just sort of do my own thing. You know, 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.480 I'm gonna I'm gonna be like George o'keef and move 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.080 out in the desert, or I'm gonna to isolate myself 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.440 and you know, focus on my art or my my 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.399 writing or my video games or whatever a person solitary 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.160 thing is. You know, I just want to point out, 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.240 ladies and gentlemen that Robert Lamb just just sing for you, 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.640 and no other circumstance would he ever sing. So that 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.320 was that was right. There are other circumstances where I sing. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.560 You just don't really bust out songs much. So I 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.360 just wanted to to just say that was a really 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.200 special moment. Well, I think the thing is, we did 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.720 the Electronic Music podcast, and we we've used actual music 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:31.920 samples and that's all. I'm good, but it takes a 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.199 little more work. So it's it's not that I'm brave, 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.959 I'm just lazy because we could actually just sample the 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.800 Warren Yvon song, but or I could just sing it. 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.880 But anyway, that the song in question starts off with 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.440 this very idealized I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna get 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.640 to my isolation in my life. I'm gonna move away 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.640 from people and and social requirements and I'm going to 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.280 be better for it. Well, I mean it's the hermit fantasy, right, 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.120 I Mean, every once in a while, we just get 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.680 sick of our fellow humans and we say, oh, man, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.720 I'm just done with all you guys. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:01.160 if I could just be free of all of you, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.240 I would be free of what ails me. That that 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.920 is an illusion. But like a lot of warren Zy 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.360 Fund songs, the lyrics get progressively darker as the song progresses. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.320 And uh, and so by the end, the lyrics like 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.080 it's talking about Michael Jackson and Disney World taking Goofy's 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.000 hand and vanishing into the world of self, and which 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.440 is I think the darkest part of that song for 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.800 a lot of reasons. Yeah, I mean, because it's at 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:27.799 that point it's still kind of beautiful, but weird. It's 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:32.360 like just departing into into personal fantasy. And then by 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.200 the end he's talking about putting tinfoil up in the 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.840 windows and lying down in the dark to dream. And um, 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.240 and I find that when you when you look at 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.760 the research and when you look at human experience, this 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:45.560 is kind of how it goes. Like on one level, 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.880 there is the hermit fantasy. But when people actually do 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.959 find isolation, if they actually if it's thrust upon them, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.040 or they seek it out, or they just sort of 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.840 find themselves there at some point in their life. Uh, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.520 the effects are only detrimental um. Like what one example 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.920 that I come back to is U has to do 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:08.840 with one of my favorite authors, a guy in the 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.679 name of Clark Ashton Smith, who was a horror, fantasy, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:17.880 sci fi, weird fiction writer of the early mid twentieth century, 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.200 and he ended up living kind of a hermit's life 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.239 out in the middle of nowhere. And while he lived 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.160 longer than either HP Lovecraft or Roberty Howard's sort of 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.880 you know, famous contemporaries at the at that time, he 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.720 ended up spending the like the last like large portion 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:35.880 of his life just sort He would do some art 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.000 and stuff, he would do some weird sculpture, but he 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.920 didn't really write that much anymore. So I'll come back 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:42.440 to that. I'll think of, like, here's a guy who 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.880 moved out into the middle of nowhere and really didn't 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.040 get that much done, or didn't get that much done 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.040 that anybody would ultimately care about. Well, I think it's 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.160 interesting that he didn't write any movie because some of 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.119 that requires an understanding of relationships and and the way 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.760 that we interact with one another, right, and if you 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.520 don't would have that sort of feedback in your life, 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:07.440 than you could seriously lose touch with with that part 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.880 of yourself, part of your connition into the way that 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.080 our brains work, and our brains are quite simply not 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.880 meant to work in isolation. And so that's what we're 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.359 gonna discuss in this podcast. Before we do, though, let's 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.800 go ahead and hit on some loneliness stats. Uh. These 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.280 are some stats I got out of a Psychology Today 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:30.240 article called predict Predictors of Loneliness um And through not 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.559 only in this article, but throughout the literature, you often 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.039 find references to lonely people and non lonely people. I 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.599 find non lonely people to be a very clunky term. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:40.200 I don't know if there's a better line to use, 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.080 but yeah, I think we just have to put up 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.359 with it. Um. So, lonely people were more likely in 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.520 studies to be younger, to have less sex, to get 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.320 less sleep, to make less money, and have more health issues, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.839 with drug use being the number one health concern among 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.440 lonely people. Non lonely people were more likely to older, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:02.800 to sleep eight to ten hours a night, to have 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:04.800 sex at least once a week or a few times 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.760 a month, describe themselves as a religious or spiritual U 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.760 have a spouse or partner who access as email or 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:16.520 the internet, daily volunteer, belonged to local community organization, have 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.120 five or more people with whom they discuss personal issues 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.880 and be married. So there you go. Well, and then 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.440 there's this idea of social isolation to right, um, And 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.239 this is from Molly Edmunds article on how Stuff Works 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.080 dot com. It's called what are the Effects of Isolation 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:35.680 in the Mind? And according to researcher John Cacabo. Sorry 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.160 for our Italian listeners, if we have any um at 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.159 the University of Chicago, of all people are unhappy because 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.960 of social social isolation at any given moment. Okay, So 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.520 social isolation could occur for a myriad of factors, right, 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.080 I mean it could be because, uh, you know, you're 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.120 you're part of the senior population and you just don't 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.279 get to see people as often. Or could be that 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.320 you have a disability that limits the amount of interaction 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:04.960 you have with people, right, Yeah, and uh, and definitely 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.800 there's social isolation, and then there there's isolation as far 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.600 as your physical setting goes. And sometimes a person is 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.839 encountering both of these or just one of these, um as, 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.320 we'll discuss, right, And that's not to say that that 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.480 the senior population, where people of disabilities all are socially isolated. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.120 It's just certain circumstances sort of lend themselves more to 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:30.760 that um happening. So, and we also have social isolation 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.560 that we foisted upon ourselves, and then there's also social 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.400 isolation that we then coerced into. And we'll talk a 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.960 little bit about that, particularly with the prison population, but 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.400 let's talk about what actually happens in the brain when 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.120 you are socially isolated. One study that I was looking 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.039 at was from the University of Chicago, and this, like 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.120 a lot of these, involved like two groups. There's the 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.960 no non lonely group and the in the group the 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.920 lonelies and the non lonelies, which you know, I guess 0:06:57.920 --> 0:06:59.320 you just put out the call for it. I wonder 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.880 if it's easier to get the lonelies or easier to 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.000 get the non lonelies, because the non lonelies maybe have 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.400 stuff going on. And then do you run the risk 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.520 of poisoning your lonely test group by bringing them in 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.040 and having them hang out together, or do you just 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.800 make sure they're isolated? And I think you isolate them. Also, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.960 there's a question about extrovert and introvert too. Yeah, right, 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.640 so as being part of this, Like, if you're an introvert, 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.000 you're probably more lonely. I would say I don't know, 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:26.960 because I'm a part time introvert, but I wouldn't say 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.720 that I'm completely lonely. Okay. Anyway, this study University of 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.040 the University of Chicago. They showed the lonelies and the 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.320 non lonelies photographs of people in both pleasant settings and 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.800 unpleasant settings. So like one, uh, one photo will be 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.360 a person hanging out in a playground, and another one 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.120 will be a picture of somebody getting bit by a 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.160 poisonous snake in a playground. So okay, one's pleasant, one's 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.960 not pleasant, right so um. When viewing the pleasant pictures, 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.200 the non lonely subjects showed much more activity in the 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.960 section of the brain known as the event roll straight um, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:05.440 more than the lonely subjects. Right and uh. This particular 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.000 part of the brain plays an important role in learning. 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.440 It's also the part of the brains the reward center 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.520 that's generally stimulated by things like food and love. So 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.280 the lonely subjects displayed far less activity in this region 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.320 while viewing pleasant pictures, and they also had less brain 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.400 activity when shown the unpleasant pictures. When non lonely subjects 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.600 view the unpleasant pictures, they demonstrated activity in the temporal 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.320 parietal junction, an area of the brain associated with empathy, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.600 and the non lonely subjects had a had a much 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:41.600 lesser response. So this is an interesting view into how 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.760 loneliness affects our empathy. The non lonelies were able to 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.040 demonstrate more empathy for the person in the bad situation 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.480 in the unpleasant photo than the lonely people, which I 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.840 found found really interesting. Yeah. Well, and again that's because 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:58.840 you know, we've got the mirror neurons, right, We've talked 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.760 about mirror neurons and how we can't help but mimic 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.000 each other, and in mimicking each other, when we are 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.480 faced with each other and um communicating with with one another, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:13.480 you know we are experienced an emotional jolt because we're mimicking. 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:15.600 You know, if you're smiling at me, then I'm going 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.760 to smile back, and I'm going to feel that emotion. 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.959 So that makes sense that if you're isolated, then you're 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:22.640 not as connected to those feelings of empathy. Well, we 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:25.679 can't help but think of the the stereotype of the 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.800 crazy hermit with a shotgun, right, Yes, I wasn't thinking 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.640 shotgun now really I think shotgun or maybe pitchfork or something. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.120 But well, yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's different. You 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.959 grew up like in Michigan, right, but in the South, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.080 which in theory actually shotgun should be you know, front 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.679 center in my mind. Okay, well, well, Michigan people know 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.199 what I'm talking about here. Okay, So the crazy hermit 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.280 with a shotgun, and the idea that he's going to 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.319 come up to you and he's going to be very 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.080 obtuse and belligerent and he's gonna be all, get off, 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:58.920 model daan Ander, I'll shoot you kind of a thing. 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.320 Um with that accent, with that accent, I guess that's 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.600 more of a that's my Michigan hermit accent. It would 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.360 be more Southern are No, I'll roll with that. But 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:10.079 that's interesting that you you look at it that way, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.560 because people who undergo sensory deprivation, right, which is part 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.640 of isolation, they find that the central executive center of 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.760 their brains are affected, and those that part of the 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:24.840 brain controls language, memory, and vision. Yeah. Yeah, so you know, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:26.640 we'll talk about that a little bit more too when 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.920 we talk about prisoners and hostages. Okay, but but yeah, 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.800 just on a on a very basic level, you can 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.679 imagine the hermit who is not able to empathize with 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.760 the person. He's he's he's he's getting onto. He's maybe 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.400 not able to communicate as well, and he's his brain 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.679 seems a little foggy too because he has no or 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.360 very limited interaction with people, and and and it's affecting 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.360 his brain. It's crazy hermit brains. Well. And now that 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:56.400 he's probably really stressed, because apparently lenliness actually leads to stress. 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.240 And researchers have had subjects estimate room temperature. This is 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.160 interesting room temperatures after recalling a time that they were 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:07.880 snubbed or socially excluded, and the subjects reported colder temperatures 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.760 than the participants who were asked to remember times with friends. 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.800 And this actually suggests that we can we can feel 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:20.320 social chills if we feel excluded or isolated. Um again, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:24.600 this is you know, acting on our body or physiology, 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.360 and that you know, that's a type of stress that 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.480 you would feel. Now another interesting study that relates to 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.040 how loneliness affects just our basic mental process and um. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.240 There have been various studies with mice where they look 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.160 at the effects of exercise on neurogenesis, which is u 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.760 creating a new brain cells, just basic brain upkeep I 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.199 guess you can think of it, uh in those terms. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.040 And that's one of the rewards of exercise, right right, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.240 right when you exercise, you get this big burst of 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:55.160 new neurons and neural connections, right yeah, and and another 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.080 great reason for exercise. So in these studies, they would 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.320 put the mice through the wheels and then then study, 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.240 you know, how much neurogenesis was going on. And then 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.240 another study came along and they decided, well, we're going 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:06.960 to test it with rats because rats are a much 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:12.600 closer neurological for humans. Yeah, And so they put these 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.320 rats in and the rats tanked across the board like 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:17.800 the ones that had exercise and the ones that didn't. 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.200 And they're like, what happened? So they studied it and 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.440 they found that the problem was that these rats had 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:27.240 been isolated beforehand. Okay, rats are are very um, they're 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.679 very social, secial creatures, right, Yeah, that's why they're always 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.920 hanging out together, you know, chatting coffee houses, coffee houses. 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:35.880 And incidentally, as we discussed in the past, that's why 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.920 they can be tickled and laugh. That's actually you're right, 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.360 that can be We're not making that up. We have 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.199 to go back to our humor podcast for details on 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.400 that tidbit. Yeah. So they were putting them in there 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.480 without without any socialization. They've been isolated, and it actually 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:55.640 prevented the exercise from having a positive effect on brain activity. Yeah. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.360 And they think that is because when when you undergo exercise, 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.440 it's a type of stress, right, and so the stress 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:07.520 of isolation, the stress of exercise didn't allow this neurogenesis 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.760 to take place, these new neural connections to take place. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:15.800 Whereas you know with with the the rats that were socialized, right, 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.920 they did have they went back and there they started 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.240 socializing these rats. Then they were benefiting from the exercise. Yeah, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.400 but the solitary ones not at all. Yeah, which it 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.280 makes me think of the various sci fi films that 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.080 we've had where they'll be like a lone solitary person 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.520 in space, generally with some robots be it. You know, 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.360 Bruce Dearn and Silent Running, or Sam Rockwell in Moon 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.600 or or you know Joe Robinson on the Mystery Sentence 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.679 Theater to a lesser extent because they don't really get 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:45.959 into the science there. But you'll see somebody like running 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.080 on a treadmill, staying in shape, uh and uh and 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.520 going a little crazy and uh. And now that I 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.520 think about it, I'm like, well, Bruce Tern's character probably 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.560 isn't benefiting from any exercise that he's doing because he 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.840 doesn't have anybody to talk to except these two robots 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.000 that are very not very expressive at all. It's interest 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.200 thing that you say that, because they have noticed that 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.160 people who are in isolation and animals who are in 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:09.080 isolation begin to pace. And the reason they do this, 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.880 they pose it that because they don't they're not getting 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.720 this sort of stimulation that they would otherwise, they're creating 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.800 it for themselves. Like the brain needs constant input, it 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.440 turns out, and so being on a treadmill pacing back 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.080 and forth, we'll give you at least something with the 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.320 something that your brain can play with, some sort of input. Yeah, 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.960 it's like you you know how like some or maybe 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.080 a lot of I'm not really an engine person, guys. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.120 But you'll have like an engine on a boat, right, 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.320 and it'll be designed to work in the water. It 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:41.880 will depend on the water. If you run it out 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.200 of the water too long, it's gonna overheat because it 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.840 doesn't have water interacting with the mechanisms. I kind of 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.760 think of that in terms of the brain, because our 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.640 brains have evolved to help us navigate. As we've discussed before, 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:57.120 a world of fixed and movable objects, multiple fixed and 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.880 movable objects, a world of symbols, a world of social interaction, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.000 and just evolutionary we've survival has selected for those those 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.160 those properties. So if you take us out of that 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.840 environment and put us in a situation where things are 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.440 not changing, where things are not moving, where there are 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.080 no symbols, or there's the same symbols are are there 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.160 and they're staying the same, and there's no social um 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:24.000 strata to deal with, then what does the brain start doing? Right, 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.000 as you say, it starts having to create work for itself. 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.720 It starts having to Uh, this is where you end 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.120 up with with situations of paranoia where someone has to 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.160 sort of aspire some sort of movement or logic to 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.200 the world around them. It needs a story to glom onto. Really. UM, 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.840 this was interesting. There's a documentary called Alone. It's documentary 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.520 by the BBC, and what they did is they recreated 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:52.480 an experiment from the nineteen fifties in which um, some 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.400 some college students were put in isolation for forty eight hours. 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.360 And this documentary by a man with an axe, Yes 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.000 with this with the hockey mask on UM. But in 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.600 this documentary, what they did is they took six people 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.840 and isolating for forty eight hours in various ways. But 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.400 in the documentary, you see this woman becoming convinced that 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.200 the sheets on her bed that she's in complete darkness 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.160 by the way, are are sopping wet, and she becomes 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.880 very angry about it. And what's happening is that she 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.600 doesn't have that sensory input and so she's becoming confused 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:30.280 about the you know what she can pick up around her. Um, 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.040 And although the sheets were cold, they certainly weren't wet, 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:38.000 and so she couldn't accurately square her sensory perceptions with reality. Again, 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.080 that's that feedback that we really need. Yeah, and it's 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.360 a it's also important to note and this is something 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.800 that's definitely been observed in prison systems with people in 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.680 solitary confinement. Is that there if there are pre existing 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.320 mental conditions, if there's any kind of um, you know, 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.000 psychosis going on already, Um, solitary confinement is just going 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.520 to aggravate it and make it worse. And and and 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:01.680 so people with with previousing conditions are going to be 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.800 able to cope with it far less. Yeah, And we'll 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.560 talk a little bit about that in a second. But um, 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:09.399 i'll write up this break, we'll talk more about that 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.480 BBC documentary. We're gonna leave you alone for a minute. 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.400 This podcast is brought to you by Intel, the sponsors 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.919 of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.879 curiosity is the spark which drives innovation. Join us at 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.800 curiosity dot com and explore the answers to life's questions. 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:34.760 And we're back. I thought you would be back. See 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.560 there's there's some feedback going on. Um, okay, So the 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:42.280 BBC documentary alone, they just more specifics on this. There 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.600 were six people. They're deprived of sensory input. Essentially, they're 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.480 put in solitary confinement for forty eight hours and observed 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.200 by researchers. UM. One of the findings is that around 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.800 thirty hours into the experiment they began to pace back 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.480 and forth, which we talked about and UM, it was 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.600 also noted that they began to hallucinate and they began 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.040 to get very aggressive. UM. And just so people know, 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.880 like there are two groups of three, one of them, 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.000 one of the groups were given UM these I think 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.800 they're called arm cuffs, and so they can't feel anything, 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.280 that just covers their entire arm. And then they are 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.280 also given goggles and so although the lights are on, 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.520 they can't see anything too clearly. It's just it's sort 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.280 of fuzzy. And then they they're given white noise or 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.879 sort of that's piped into their cell and a horror movie. 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.680 Because I'm sure, I'm sure, And part of me did wonder, 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.760 you know, because it's a documentary like where was the 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.280 anti upped? Psychologically, because when people know that they're being filmed, 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.160 obviously they behave in different ways. But then I thought 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.040 to myself, no, I think that anybody who is under 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.560 walk and key for forty eight hours by themselves, you know, 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.359 either with arm cuffs on and goggles and white noise 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.280 or in a cell that's completely dark for four hours 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.200 is going to start ago a little bit nuts and um. Again, 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.680 this was an experiment from the nineteen fifties that they 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.280 recreated for this documentary. There was a two thousand seven 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.879 study the ties in with this from the University of 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.159 Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, and they reported that 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.080 anxiety and aggression that results from social isolation trace to 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:21.760 altered levels of an enzyme that controls production of a 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.240 brain hormone. The two enzymes that are needed for the 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:30.160 production of alo pregnant aline, a brain hormone that acts 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.239 to reduce stress, to the regulation of gabba um and 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.600 which is a really important neurotransmitter UH. They found that 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.000 the level of one of these enzymes, called five alpha 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:46.119 reductase type one, was reduced nearly fifty in lonesome mice UH, 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.119 and levels of the other enzyme did not change. But 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.439 but this is an interesting insight into how um, you know, 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:58.919 aggressive behavior emerges in isolated individuals or mice. Right, the 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:04.680 hermit becomes super as for the gun and starts freaking out. Yea, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:07.879 I you you're going to bring it back to the hermit. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.399 So isolation can't be used as a weapon. Yes it can. Okay, okay, 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.320 back go to your room. Well yeah, right, and in 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.560 the corner. And if you're depriving your kid of social 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.480 interaction and here's grounded, yes, and they have to go 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:25.560 in the room, then I mean obviously they're bothered by 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.560 unless they have access to their PlayStation and without no 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:32.040 no computer, no internet, grounded from the internet for a week. Well, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:33.679 I never thought about it before. I mean, you know, 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.199 I have a kid. I never thought about it. Was like, 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:39.119 solitary confinement might go to your room. Okay, you have 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.760 to think about that. So the roots of that go 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.600 to the box. Kid. I'm gonna start saying that the 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:48.600 roots of this actually go back to dr Well, actually, 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:50.720 the roots of this or you know, this has gone 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.680 back for a very long time, this idea of solitary confinement. 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.800 But the first time a cave man was not invited 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:01.720 to a party, yeah, felt chills, ye, and then painted 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.960 about it in the cave. Uh. Doctor Donald Hebb, he 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.080 was a prominent fixture in the nineteen fifties and sixties 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.879 psychology community. Um, and there's not a lot of definitive 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.879 information about his experiments with isolation. It's kind of you know, 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:18.240 the heaven. Some people who say that he was sort 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.880 of the feeder system for the CIA in terms of 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:25.240