WEBVTT - Poking Einstein's Brain 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.840 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.480 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.160 what do you want to happen to your brain when 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.639 you die? Oh? You know what I would really love? 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.040 What's that? I would love if someone would pack it 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.800 away in tupperware and take it on a road trip. 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:32.919 But only forty years after I'm dead and gone. Yeah, alright, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.320 because why not? I mean, my brain might want to 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.240 see the Grand Canyon again, like purple ble tupperware like 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.920 purple you know how they would do the like it. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.120 I mean I've just heard that back in the day 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.400 when they would do like tple tup aware parties. Like 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.559 one of the whole proofs that you would um that 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.000 you would put the tup aware through is the typeware 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.360 can be burped like somethingn do with like air escaping 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.240 the tupperware where you kind of go like you make 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:57.760 it open the lid like it's a little mouth and 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.760 it goes somehow. That's very fifties and tomato aspect and 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.280 burping tupperware very fifty stuff, because there's I mean, there's 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.839 a good reason why we're talking about that, right, because 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.959 we were talking about Albert Einstein's brain other. Yeah, and 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:14.960 not only all the weird things that happened to it 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.000 after it was done being Eidenstein, but also about some 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.800 of the really interesting stuff that we've learned from it 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.440 about everyone's brain, not just about his. Uh and you 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.320 know what was unique about it, because ultimately it wasn't 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:31.880 like super unique. It was a human brain. It's not 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.120 like they cut open his skull and found like a 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.440 little crab monster that flew here on a saucer and no, no, 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.800 but his long strange journey of his brain actually ended 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.360 up or it is contributing to the conversation about what 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.680 is genius. It really did end up illuminating some aspects 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.360 of Genius four, which is pretty exciting stuff because he 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.800 was undoubtedly a genius. Man was brilliant, no doubt, kind 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.280 of a klutz been in some respects, but but a genius. 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.760 Love the lays, but what are you gonna do? So 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.440 so yeah, he uh, after after he contributed so much 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.080 to the world, Um, he died and he just wanted 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.840 to be left alone in death, right, So yeah, supposedly 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.200 that was his His big request is like, just cremate me, 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.160 throw my ashes somewhere secrets, because I don't want people 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.840 worshiping my grave. I don't want, you know, any didn't want. Yeah, 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.520 don't deify me. I'm just Einstein. Um let me be. 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:31.280 So he's seventy six. He dies of a burst ortic aneurysm, 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.120 and the autopsy is performed by a guy, a pathologist 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.560 by the name of Dr Thomas Harvey. Alright, so Harvey 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.920 mostly kept to Einstein's wishes. He you know, he performed 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.360 his duties. But he I guess he's looking down at 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.000 that table and he's looking at that that big skull. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.160 He wasn't even that big, just that average looking skull 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.639 of Einstein's, and he was like, you know, it is 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:55.320 a shame to let a good brain go to wet 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.040 and it's not uncommon to remove the brain during an outopsy. Right, 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.480 So yeah, can see how it's sitting out there on 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.880 the table and he just cannot help him. Yeah, Like 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.640 I see him like about to put it back in. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.079 It's in his hand, you know, dripping, and he's like, 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:10.600 this is this is an important I mean, this is 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.120 his all argument is that this is scientifically an important brain. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.640 This is a specimen that needs to be preserved, not 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.960 turned into ashes and hidden away. I should put this 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:24.840 in a tuppleware um container and uh and and save 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:26.560 it and and let allow it to be studied for 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.320 the good of science, for the good of science. Of course, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:33.440 Einstein's family did not agree, but nonetheless, the Harvey's heart 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.560 took it. Yeah, and he stuck to his guns, even 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.000 though we got fired for it too, right. Yeah, And 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.400 there was apparently later our right rage when it was 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:46.040 revealed that another person, presumably at the same the same location, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:52.560 removed removed Einstein's eyeballs as a souvenir, which is even 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.400 creep here, and I think a little harder to justify. Yeah, 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.480 I think I've seen those pop up on eBay that 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:02.640 the eyeball. I can't say, you can't authenticate it, but yeah, 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.960 you do wonder what happened to those eyeballs. So yeah, 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.080 I mean this is this is the beginning of what 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.200 would be a very strange journey for Einstein's brain. Right. Yeah, 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.360 It's kind of like Weakened at Bernie's, except with just 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.440 this dude in a brain in a tup aware driving 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.920 around the country at one point and doing stuff like 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:24.000 apparently Harvey's former neighbor was, uh, you know a famous 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.000 writer of you know, like Naked Lunch and uh, you 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.599 know William pretty well known heroin addict that William S Burrows. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.680 And so they went to see Williams Burrows. So it's 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.919 like I'm pictured him like setting around like playing a 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.799 backgammon or something, and it's it's william S Burrows Harvey. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.279 And then this tup aware with Einstein's brain in it. Yeah. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:44.960 In just to back up a little bit, Thomas Harvey 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:46.839 did try to do the right thing in in his 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.719 mind right, and he uh, for for years, for something 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.960 like forty years, he would send a little samples off 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:57.240 to other neuroscientists because in mayonnaise jars, in mayonnaise jars, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.880 because he felt like there was something that could be found, 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.640 and for years nothing was found. In fact, people were like, 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.160 you know what, stop sending me this, because you know, 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.000 what we're discovering here is that Einstein's brain doesn't look 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.160 unique to us. In fact, it's a little bit smaller 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.719 than the average brain. Um, they didn't see much that 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:17.960 would tell them that that this, you know, some sort 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:22.320 of markers of genius until he sent off in the 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.200 Mannad's Jar, uh, four sections of Einstein's brain, the most 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.440 that he had ever sent off to neuro researcher by 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.760 the name of Marion Diamond. So she requested this and 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.719 three years later, because you know, he's on it, he's 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:38.440 he's on a road trip. It's going to take him 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:42.240 a while, that the Manna's Jar arrived. And this was 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:47.080 a really big moment um for for science really but 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.440 still and we'll get to it um. You know, it 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.919 didn't become abundantly clear at first how significant this brain 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.360 to she was and what Marian Diamond found was so again, 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.560 Einstein was a genius. But what is a genius? What 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.760 makes genius is something you're you're born with the genius 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.040 brain or do you or does it come from like 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:12.080 having the right genius inspiring uh, you know nursery activity, Yes, 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.919 it acquired or is that inherent? Um? And according to 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.359 neuro researcher Douglas Fields, genius is kind of a grab 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.360 bag of genetic and environmental factors. But then you you 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.520 hear from people like Dean Keith Simonton and he says 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.080 attributes like your mental energy and your openness to new 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.400 experiences is genetic um. It's something you can cultivate, right, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.000 like the sense of being open to new experiences. But 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.080 if if you're sort of born with this attribute, then 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.279 you're a lot more predisposed to go out and explore 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.040 new ideas and experiences. And we already know that when 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:46.960 you do that, you're putting your brain through the paces 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.279 and you're effectively increasing the white matter in your brain. 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:54.839 And turns out white matter is is really important stuff, right, 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.880 and uh, to to to settle exactly what he is 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:00.320 white matter and what is gray matter, because that we've 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.479 all heard gray matters used to just sort of a 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.560 generic term for your brain, like like to start using 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:08.040 your gray matter there, exercise your gray matter a little, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.200 and you never hear white matter, of right, and in 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.280 fact white matter. Some people have made the analogy that 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.960 white matter to scientists has been like dark matter to 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.480 astrophysicists or a cosmologists, and that for so many years 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.360 white matter just was completely unknown. We didn't really know 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.760 what the deal was with white man. We know it's there, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.440 but we don't really know what it is. Just cottage 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.400 cheese or what. Yeah, no, it turns out, is not 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:39.280 cottage cheese, yogurt goat cheese. I wonder if the zombie 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:40.800 would prefer the white or the gray or is it 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.840 like is it like a white and dark meat in turkey? Well, 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.160 it depends, it depends. Um, I've never heard this this 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.200 this post before. That's a good question. Let's let's answer 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:51.840 that at the end of this podcast. Let's perclate on that. 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.960 Let's let's not steer completely off of course. Another way 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.120 of thinking about gray matter that I ran across was 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.200 a scientific American had had this a bit where they 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.880 were comparing it to soil. They said, the gray matter 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.239 is and this is you know where a mental computation 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.320 takes plays, memories are stored. Um, this cortex is the 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:12.760 top soil of the brain, all right, densely packed neuron 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:16.040 all cell bodies, decision making making parts of the nerve 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:20.120 cells or neurons. Underneath it, you have the bedrock and 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.239 this is the white matter. And this feels nearly half 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.200 the human brain. And and this is a really important 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.520 thing that we'll discuss here in a minute, is that 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:29.600 this is a far larger percentage than found in the 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.160 brains of other animals like humans are really packing the 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.520 white matter. If they are packing the white matter and 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.720 the Yeah, the white matter consists of bundles of long 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.280 nerve fibers and they conduct electrical signals between nerve cells 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.440 and they connect different parts of the brain together. So 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:47.280 it's really important to remember that because within the the 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.480 white matter or something called glial cells, and we'll talk 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.680 about that, but again, Einstein's brain contributed to our understanding 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.840 today which is not even complete of what white matter 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.280 is and what glial cells are and why they're really 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:04.160 important to of genius or just even intelligent thought. UM. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.520 I did want to say that that Rex Young he 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.520 is uh he is. I believe that he's a psychologist, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.760 and he said that highly creative people usually have less 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.840 white matter integrity and less brain tissue in the frontal lobes. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.080 And this is important to remember because when they looked 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.720 at Einstein's brain, they saw this correlated in there and 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.000 they say this could be UM disinhibiting, causing a down 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.199 regulation of the decision making judging center of the brain. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.240 So we've talked about this before in a podcast about creativity. 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:36.480 Is that you kind of have to be able to 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.520 shut off that part of your brain that is saying no. Basically, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.640 there have been some some situations where the the inhibiting 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.920 section of the brain becomes injured or diseased, and you 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.040 see at what may seem like a burst of creativity, 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.679 but it's really sort of like the creativity is suddenly 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.880 unchecked by this inhibition. So it's not it's like column 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.960 A doesn't increase, but column B decreases. That's right, that's right. 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:02.920 And so it's important to know that if you have 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.880 you know, white cells packed in one area, that's probably 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:07.880 pretty great. Like Enstein had a ton of them in 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.920 the area that correlates with mathematics, but not so much 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.520 in the frontal loope. Right, So this allowed him to 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.200 perhaps turn off that part of his brain that might 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.600 have made him feel, uh, you know, preoccupied with other 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.520 thoughts and allowed you know, this other part of his 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.720 brain to to computate at crazy levels, like to to 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.400 to just throw out like sort of genius stereotypes. Like 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.960 if you have like the type of person who forgets 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.880 to sleep or forgets to bathe because they're like so 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.199 into figuring something out, Like that's a situation where the 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.360 natural voice that comes in and says, hey, maybe we 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.120 should put this away in bathe, or maybe we should 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.160 put this away and get back to the other aspects 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.079 of our life that are important, like that that voice 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.720 is diminished. Is the laundry list choice? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely, 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.040 And um, this was interesting. Some of this came out 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.200 of a panel that I saw at in New York 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:01.320 at the World Science Festival and was called the Enigma 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.400 of Genius, and artist Julie Tamer was on the panel 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.160 along with some of the other folks that we were 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.840 talking about today. Described to me who Julie tam she 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.880 is responsible for, like the Lion King, that's probably something 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:14.360 you know on Broadway that a lot of people know. 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:19.680 It's incredible puppetry, all of that. Um, what she's interpreted 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.920 a lot of Shakespeare works. Um, Titus is one she 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.720 you know for film and for for Broadway. But she 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.839 has a very unique vision, and so she's gotten the 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.920 MacArthur Genius Grant. She's someone who a lot of people 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.520 feel like have has changed her field. Okay, cool, Yeah, 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.720 I think some of her lanking designs were on display 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.720 at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts a few years back. Yeah, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:42.680 and and she was sort of saying, well, you know, 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.760 I'm hesitant to to, you know, call myself a genius 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:47.719 or even define genius. But what she was saying is 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.760 that in her own creative process, she finds that some 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.800 of her best ideas come from early morning sleep. Um, 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.160 and it was interesting. I think it was Douglas Fields 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.280 who was on the panel, uh that the scientists who said, oh, well, 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.320 that is when in the frontal lobes are actually less active. 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:06.520 So again we're seeing this correlation with frontal lobes disinhibiting 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:11.320 and the percolating of ideas happening. And we're seeing that 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.360 Einstein had this this low white matter in the frontal lobe. 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.280 So that's why you inevitably have that dream that is 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.080 either so awesome that you wish could keep going or 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.800 it is so horrible that you're like, thank goodness, I 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.280 actually woke up from that, Because that's the time when 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.680 the inhibition shuts down in creativity is more likely to 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.560 just completely slam you with something unbelievable. Yeah, and I 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.640 don't have this confirmed, but I have I've heard before 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.600 that you tend to dream a lot more in the 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.240 early morning hours anyway, so it makes sense that you 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.240 know you would remember those dreams. But um, but again 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.520 you know, frontal lobes dimmed down, so you can perhaps 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.240 have your best ideas then, but we should probably get 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.479 back to white matter any fales, right, Um, so sciences 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.040 that you're my my white matter was just causing me 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.480 to just go off and forget the time time table 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.800 here and yeah, you're about to compose a high who 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.400 I can tell it was all about like glial self. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.719 I saw you notating it there, um And so okay, 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.000 back to Einstein's brain. It's been hanging out for forty 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:17.440 plus years at this point. He quit traveling in UH 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.880 nine five. He died in nineteen forty I think is 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.880 when excuse me, forty years later he had his big 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.320 road trip ninety six. Yeah, he moved back to New 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:30.360 Jersey and he surrenders the remaining pieces of Einstein's brain. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:34.720 He the pathologist Thomas Hartrty to Dr Elliott Krauss. Yeah, 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.760 and this is because his road trip was was not 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.200 really effective, because what he was attempting to do in 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.840 this road trip is to deliver back the brain to 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:48.360 Einstein's granddaughter Evelyn, who was not interested in it. So yes, 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:52.600 it returned back to Princeton um and Thomas Harvey actually 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.080 died in two thousand and seven ruling not even understanding 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.840 you know that, but what he did indirectly did have 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.599 some bearing on how we understand genius today. Well, he 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:04.600 hung on the brain for that long. I suspect he 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.240 really clung to the notion that what he was doing 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.080 was a good thing. So yeah, absolutely did Yeah. Uh. 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.120 So many scientists at this point they've tinkered with the 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:14.960 tissue from mind sciins brain, and most of them have 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.160 done it under a microscope, which isn't telling us a 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.440 whole lot um And historically neuro anatomous found no clues 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.520 to to his his brain right again, his brain to 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.160 the naked eye look like everybody else's because this is 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:29.760 the thinking to wear white matter. I don't know what 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:31.920 it's doing, but gray matter. That's where the neurons, the 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.120 neurons are. He doesn't have any more neurons than anybody 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.400 else's what they're what they're looking at. And this is 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.040 the nineteen eighties, and scientists still believe that, um, you know, 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.720 at this point when they're tinkering around with it. Uh, 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:45.760 scientists still believe the important work in the brain is 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.200 done by neurons. Right. These are the powerhouses. These are 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.440 the brains of the brain, and they're out there doing 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:56.040 you know, specific things, um and mary and diamond. Again, 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.960 she observes a disproportionately high number of brain cells. There 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.239 are not neurons. They're there again what they're called glia, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.760 which means glue. Wow, And we will get to that 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:14.920 glib right out this quick. Right. That's right. This presentation 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:22.560 is brought to you by Intel sponsors of tomorrow. All right, 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:24.920 back to the glue, back in the glue goog. Yeah. 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.200 So this glue, this glia is found in regions of 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.160 Einstein cerebral cortex, which is involved in complex reasoning, mathematics 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.720 and imagery. And so she's seeing that like highly densely 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.440 packed glial cells. And so this shifts the focus from 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.920 neurons to glia, and it really upends the fundamental understanding 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.240 of how the brain works because heretofore we thought that 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.440 the glial cells were basically just the custodians of the brain. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.200 They were clearing away like dead matter essentially, which is 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:57.920 like oversimplification of it um and they didn't seem to 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.800 have any electrical impulses. And it's not entirely crazy to 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.080 the idea to think that the brain isn't like a 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.120 perfect design because I've heard it the you know that 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.440 there might be something there that is kind of useless, 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.640 Like because I've heard it proposed before that the brain 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:16.000 is kind of like an evolutionary ice cream cone where, um, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.520 each level of evolution it's just a new scoop of 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:23.640 ice cream cortex because evolution. Not to personify too much 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.400 is kind of lazy. It's gonna work with what it's got. 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:29.640 It's and it's not gonna I'm really personifying like nuts here. 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.000 But but but you get the idea. It's the process 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.760 is not going to go back and fine tune everything. Um. 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:37.920 So it's it's it's not ridiculous to think that the 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.360 white matter wouldn't be doing anything and at the time 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.080 that that was flying right and it was okay, the 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.120 white matter it must be helping out the neurotransmitter, right 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:50.920 and and just keeping things clean. Um. But glial cells 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.560 do communicate, not through synapses, but through gap junctions. That's 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.880 found there's protein channels that connect one cell to one 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.520 another like a spaceship talking at the mother station. Okay, 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:07.080 but it's non electric communication. Well, they it's they still 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.400 don't know everything about glia yet. UM, So I'm hesitant 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.000 to to say that in any certain terms. UM, but 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.439 I will say that, you know, in the nineteen nineties, 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.320 you had to two or excuse me, new techniques that 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.919 emerged from the development of lasers and personal computers grafted 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.400 it onto microscopes to better visualize the way that glia behave. Uh. 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.240 And then that's when Douglas Fields and other folks began 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.000 to describe the glia as the other brain at work, 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:35.960 because they were seeing that these brain cells that actually 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.240 were communicating with each other, and they were actually not 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:44.640 just communicating with each other at eavesdropping on neural cells. Right, So, Uh, 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.800 glia actually sense electrical activity in the neural circuits and 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.520 they can control it. And Field says that if glia 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.439 can do this, and it's not unreasonable to assume that 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.360 they are one of the reasons for the extraordinary capability 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.680 of the human brain, and ignoring them until now might 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.080 help explain why the cellular basis for a genius has 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.879 remained elusive. So what we're talking about here is that 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.920 the glial cells are giving you the sort of supercharged 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.840 um ability to communicate with the rest of your brain. 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.280 So it's really it's sort of like the motor of 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.040 the sort of like the engine of the car. It 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.720 provides the processor speed for yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:28.800 in fields book The Other Brain, he says, here are 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.080 cells that can build the brain of a fetus, direct 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.520 the connection of its growing axons to wire up the 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.240 nervous system, repair it after it's injured, release neurotoxic or 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:42.000 neuroprotective factors, plug and unplug synapses, give birth to neowe neurons, 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.640 communicate with the vascular and immune systems, insulate the neuro 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.919 neural lines of communication, and control the speed of impulse 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.280 traffic through them. And some people ask could these cells 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.240 have anything to do with higher brain function? How could 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:58.240 they possibly not? But it's just how he said it. Okay, yeah, 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.199 So it's important to us though, because what they've discovered 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:08.040 is that glial cells are there, they continue to form 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:13.000 until like greatly to a certain degree, until you're okay, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.320 So what is this point to that you need to 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.000 use those You need to grow these cells when you 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.600 have a chance. Yes, And that it's not it's not 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.200 just that you are born with a brain and there's 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.560 your brain. It means that your brain is developing rapidly 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.560 still up until you're twenty. But essentially that everything, all 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.159 the experiences, everything that you're doing until h twenty are 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:36.960 really going to highly determine this sort of brain that 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:38.480 you have for the rest of your life. But and 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.479 it doesn't even stop there. But we're just saying that 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.600 the bulk of the brain is being developed. Wow, So 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.320 I dare say, are under twenty listeners are doing exactly 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:48.960 the right thing by listening to this podcast right now? Yeah? Yeah, 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:51.159 And I mean this that's the other thing. You know. 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:53.600 I hope that you're playing chess. I hope that that 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.720 your mathlete um, you know. I hope that that you're 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.240 you're messing around with music, because these are again, all 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.440 these things, all these paces that you're putting your brain through, 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:06.119 all these new experiences, are really helping to shape what 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.119 your brain is wants to be, yes, yeah, or what 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.359 you wanted to be really yeah, just throw some stuff 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.959 at it, see what sticks and d open to new exactly. 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:16.680 I mean, it's it's all about like I mean, it's 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:18.960 kind of like beliefs. Try believing something new every day, 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.520 you know, learn about learn about something new every day 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.720 to find out about the different system and don't like 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.080 close your mind off to different visions of you know 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.640 what reality consists? Up? That's right, because I mean you 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.280 can actually see it. Um you know this, this sort 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:38.040 of this transformation take place in your brain. You see 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.800 new pathways being created. How cool? Is that? Cool? Now? 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:45.440 What happened now? After twenty though it's not necessarily it's 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.280 not closes because I know that the over twenty listeners 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:49.879 are like, well, great, what am I doing? Waste of 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:51.760 my time? And they like switch off and go straight 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.760 to I don't know whatever you listen to if you 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:59.119 don't want to learn anything, Um, I don't. Yeah, just silent. 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.840 That's just like Islands silence. No, I think it's not 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:06.400 Kardashian Kardashians. Yeah, not to be conclude fused with Kardassians 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.800 right from the start from Star Trek. No, yes, exactly. Yeah, 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:11.360 because I was talking with some people the other day, 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.520 what if there was a show meet the Cardassians. Surely 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:15.600 somebody has done a periody of that already. But anyway, 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:20.520 for over twenty, white matter over twenty, Yes, hope for 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.919