WEBVTT - Neuromyths: What You Think You Know About Your Brain 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.920 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.160 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. You know, Julie, 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:21.440 we're setting here using our brains to speak and uh, 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.000 and listeners are out there using their brains to to 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.840 hear or to interpret the sounds coming through their ears 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:32.280 and uh. And it just really gets crazy mind blowing 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.680 when you start thinking about about ourselves as a brain 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.559 and and and and think about the walls that are 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.839 off and up when the brain tries to look at 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.600 itself and tries to view itself and understand itself. WHOA, 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.480 hold on a second, when you're shattering my brain right now. 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.400 But yeah, there's also often this this kind of cognitive 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.040 blindness that it sets in when we when we're trying 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.360 to understand what we are, I mean, you know, will, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:03.160 we're also guts, were also all these things we leave, 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.560 as we've explained in another podcast. But are you telling 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:10.319 about consciousness? Yeah, consciousness itself? YEA, what are we? What's 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.959 going on in our mind? And so recently we actually decided, hey, 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.280 let's go ask an expert on this, right, Yeah, we did. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.160 We actually talked to neurosurgeon Dr T. Glenn Pate from 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.639 the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and we wanted 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.520 to talk to him about one of the biggest myths 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.479 out there about the brain, um, which is I'm sure 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.520 everybody knows, is that that we only use ten percent 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.160 of our brain. And he's actually been in brains, right, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.240 I mean he has been like elbow deep in brains before. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.520 That's right. He yeah, he's he's, uh, he's I was 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.640 about to use some sort of fly fishing metaphor, but 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.440 I'm sure he doesn't have to wear fly fishing kids. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.120 But yeah, he's deep in there, and um, he's the 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.400 guy to ask about this. So we do know that 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.480 this was perpetuated by psychologist William James, who in the 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.600 early nineteen hundred said that the quote the average person 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.040 early achieved but a small portion of his or her potential. 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.119 So I mean that seems you know, yeah, okay, that's 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.760 that's true, right, that's yeah. Everybody has great ideas, not 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:14.920 everybody acts on them, that kind of thing, right, But 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.120 somehow that got perverted into this, well, we really only used, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.120 you know, one part of our brain, which we know 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.119 is not true? Yeah, or the tim percent right, that's 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:28.240 the ten percent has been thrown out there. It's all 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.799 over the place. Like sci fi and comic books love 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.720 to run wild with it. You're always encountering that. It's 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.919 like the normal. We don't normally we only use ten 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.840 percent of our brain. But you know, but in this 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.120 summer movie, our hero will learn to use another five percent. 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.960 Oh yeah, yeah, as as evidenced by the recent movie Limitless, right, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.360 Oh is there is there psychic craziness and that well, 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.799 they take it. He takes a magic pill, the hero 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.079 of that, and and then all of a sudden he's 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.560 on He's firing on all cylinders and writing books overnight, 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.359 like Stephen King in the eighties. Yeah, I know, right, 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.440 we just need to tap into Stephen King's brain, see 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.520 what's going on? Tell us a lot more. Um. But 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.120 so we do know three brain scans we can verify 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.200 and say, no, it's not just one part of your 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.160 brain working and everybody else is just hanging out up 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.440 there being lazy. Um. Brain scans tell us that our 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.680 brains are always active, with some parts more active than 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.720 others depending on the activity that we're engaging in. Right, 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:26.720 So we talked to Dr Patar said, please tell us 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.680 why this continues to persist, And this is what he 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.480 had to say. You know, with every myth, you know, 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.600 it gets repeated over and over again. Every generation will 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.600 have it. It will change perhaps a little bit of 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.720 a band or it's leaning, uh and it it's just perpetuated. 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.200 And you know some of them, as you know, they're 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.000 couch and what seems to be a little bit of 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:52.160 common sense, right, um, but we need something to hold 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:59.000 onto and if we do not understand um, our environment, Um, 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.720 we need some to explain and the beliefs and in 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.800 the world around us. So you get to the brain, 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.480 which is a land of mystery for a lot of us. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:15.360 The concept mind is still a mystery for us. So 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:19.800 we think that, well, we're not using all of our brain, So, um, 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.440 can we light up New York City with our brain 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.159 because we're only using ten That's that's a myth. No, 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.520 that's that's not the case at all, um, Because the 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:36.320 brain is such an incredible mystery environment. In factually, hear 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.479 all the time. We hear it on television and radio 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.039 and all the broadcasters will say, well, this is not 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.320 this isn't brain surgery. Correct. You hear it every day 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.520 on television, just the end of day. And I think 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.159 because of the mystery of the brain not knowing what's 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.600 what's going on with the rain, we have incredible expectations 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.640 of it. Beth is absolutely incorrect, And I think it's 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.720 an expectation appointing us to achieve or the brass that 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.560 we already have. And it's a way in which we 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.240 cannot explain to all the mysteries of the brain that 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.359 we hope the mysteries will be unrattled and once we 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.520 reach our capacity, we will be able to, you know, 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.840 become super people. Okay, So basically the comic books in 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.040 the sci fi films are just completely full of it. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.320 and and and but it makes a really interesting point 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.760 about this whole wish fulfill fantasy that we have, you 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.640 know that if we could just it's sort of an 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.159 excuse and a hope, right like, oh, yeah, I'm not 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.440 getting to that book I meant to write overnight because 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.640 I'm just not using all my brain. But maybe one 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.279 day I could. Yeah. And and also the kind of 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.000 like a sense of guilt too, I don't know, it 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.320 kind of reminds me of there's sort of like an 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.240 original sin kind of a thing to it. You know. 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.000 It's kind of like like there's here's this creature with 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.360 all this potential, but oh, it's held back because it's 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.719 lazy or something. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, but then again, 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:57.640 not to bring up that movie Limitless, but I just 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.560 keep thinking about it because again, it's such an interesting 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:06.600 seductive idea. Who's in this somehow? Mr Bradley Cooper's in it? Um? 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:08.720 I think for provert de Niro's in it. I haven't 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.400 seen it. You thought I thought you'd loved it and 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:13.880 to keep talking about it. No, No, I just think 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.560 it as an example of or we're talking about right now. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.320 I mean, I've I've read about the plot. Obviously, that's 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:21.760 not all I know that he takes a superpill and 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.599 becomes Superman. I'm not I'm not judging it. It's it's fine, okay. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.360 It's not that I don't like Bradley Cooper, Robert Denier. 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.280 I just haven't seen it. All right, So the movie, though, 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.960 it made me think, could you actually through science, could 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.839 could you create some sort of magic pill? And a 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:42.640 lot of people have asked that question too since that 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.479 movie came out, and we do know that researchers have 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.919 been working on memory enhancing drugs for Alzheimer's patients and 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.400 that a memory boosting molecule in the brain has been identified. 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.360 But I mean, this is a far cry from enhanced 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:02.800 cognitive development or even know, super crazy cogitive thinking. Now 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.400 when I go to the health food store, though they 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.599 are countless um little bottles that claim to supply this 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.160 kind of power. Well, I mean, you know that if 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.480 you take riddle in right, you're gonna become more focused. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.160 So there are certainly things that you can do that 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.880 can help you, but it's not gonna turn you into 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:24.760 a super brain overnight. I'm sorry, And you don't need 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.320 any more super brains over there. I need all the 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.840 brains I can get. I don't know, I don't know. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.400 So you know, once again, we talked to Dr pat 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:34.760 about this. We wanted to say, well, okay, so we 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.960 know why why this myth has persisted, But how has 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.520 technology changed the way that we actually think about the brain. 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.360 And he had this to say, It's it's allowed us 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.640 to appreciate the anatomy the brain is better and as 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:54.840 a surgeon, we thrive for anatomical consistency. You know, it's 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.640 like compendix. It didn't have consistency, so it sort of 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.880 confused us for a while. But we look for m 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.480 anatomical consistency as surgeons whom in or asurgence, and that's 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:08.160 what I want. So the imaging allowed us to better 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.200 appreciate the anatomy of an incredible orgy of the brain. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.920 And then from that we went once that further, we 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.440 got into the function of the brain, and now we 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.760 have functioning imaging, and this has given us better insight 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:24.080 into the normal function of the brain, because if you 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.400 don't know the normal, it's difficult to understand the abnormal. 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.080 And the imaging has allowed us to better appreciate the 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.679 brain and normal and abnormal states, therefore allowing us to 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.160 unravel some of those mysteries of diseases or at least 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.040 begin to attack them before they announced themselves in such figure. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.840 So neuro imaging has managed to actually really bust some 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.400 of these, uh these myths we have right, we're actually 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:54.280 see what's going on, or at least get get a 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:59.840 visual um perspective on brain activity, what's going on, what's 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:01.920 going going on, where it's going on, and how much 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.880 activity is taking place. Well, and it's definitely busted some 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:06.760 of the assumptions that we have about the way that 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:08.400 we operate. And one of the things that I was 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.800 thinking about is this study about love and hate that 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:16.319 we talked about love hating robots, and this was um 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.600 research because the research scientists was thinking, you know what, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.959 there's this guy at work that I know he hates me, 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.040 and so I want to see, um, what's going on, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.120 you know, with people when they hate. Because his his 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.680 thought was, it's got to be some sort of impassioned, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.400 irrational thing that's happening, that part of the brain has 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.960 got to be connected to this emotion. But what he 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.079 found is that it was actually um that hate is 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:44.800 actually hanging out in the part of the brain that's 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.480 very rational and calculating. So it makes us have just 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.599 a different view on what exactly is going on or 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.560 how we perceived the way that our behavior is being 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.240 expressed around us. And then there's another thing too, that 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.480 brain damage permanent. Right. We used always think, okay, well, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.360 if if you're getting a horrible accident or something happens, 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.600 you know it's permanent. But we know about neuroplasticity and 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.800 that's the ability to bring to heal itself. And of course, 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.600 if you've got extreme damages um then you probably do 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.959 are are going to sustain permanent damage. But if you've 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.360 got low level to mid level damage, your brain can 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.920 actually kind of go in there and start reforming synaptic connections. 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.720 It can't recover neurons that have been lost or damage, 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.719 but those synaptic connections can be rebrown, which is really incredible. 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.400 I feel like that's one that that's still has has 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.160 some has some spreading to do, because I feel like 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:40.800 there's still that idea out there that if like I 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:42.480 would have walked behind a horse and get kicked in 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:46.760 the head, whatever damage I've suffered would be permanent. I 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.400 think that we've seen this in other areas too, and 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:50.800 we've talked about this with the music and U Can 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:52.920 Music Rebuild Your Brain in that podcast, and we we 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.400 looked at Alzheimer's patients and people who have had strokes, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.160 and again we saw these examples of neuroplasticity where their 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.600 parts of the brain could pick up and help you 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:07.079 to relearn words, for instance, as a stroke patient. A 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.200 stroke patient might not be able to to speak, but 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.800 she may be able to sing and eventually be able 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.440 to speak again through music because that part of her 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.120 brain is taken over the faculties, which is pretty interesting, right, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.640 Or or people who really learned to to speak via say, 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.440 using their tongue to to to draw the letters on 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.000 the roof of their mouths. I've heard of that as 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:33.079 a as an example of someone overcoming stroke. Yeah yeah, so, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:34.880 but like Dr Pat says, I mean, this is it's 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.240 still very much a mystery to us, the brain. Um. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.640 But you know, we've got all of this exciting technology 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:42.720 in front of us today that can really help us 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:48.000 to better understand ourselves and maybe even consciousness, right, like 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.040 what it means to be a conscious being or as 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:55.400 sentient being just you know, not not nothing, No, but 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.880 it's a that one's that one is on is one 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.400 of the uh, I don't know. It kind of feels 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.400 like a Pandora's box at times. You know, I wonder 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.319 the more we unlock about consciousness and the more we understand, 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.319 you know, what we are and who we are? Uh? 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:13.960 Do we do we stand the risk of demystifying ourselves 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:21.760 too much. This presentation is brought to you by Intel, 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:29.360 sponsors of Tomorrow UM I think I've mentioned it before. 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.960 There's a there's a quote from author Are Scott Baker 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:38.160 who makes the argument that that consciousness is um It's 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.200 it's like a coin trick and uh and if you 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.600 explain the coin trick, then you can no longer see 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:47.640 the magic. And in this scenario, we are the magic. UM. 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:49.720 So I don't know. I think about this sometimes. Well, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.160 there's actually that We'll get to this in a little bit, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.959 but there's actually something called the Blue Brain Project that 0:12:55.120 --> 0:13:02.400 is exploring this this very idea. Who's in that is that? No, No, 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:07.679 this is an actual project that's going on. Oh this 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.160 is the model. Yeah. Yeah. But before we talk about that, 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.280 we wanted to talk with Dr Pete a little bit 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.600 more about the future of neuroscience and as a neurosurgeon, 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.520 what he would love to see. Let's find out technology 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.720 has has prompted UM or the disease process has prompted, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:29.000 you know, the blossoming of technology. As soon as we 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.000 get a handle on one item, there's always another question 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.760 to be answered. And so I'm always cautious to say 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:40.600 I think as a as a physician, surgeon, UM, an educator, 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.200 we always think that we're at at that the greatest 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:49.000 point of discovery, UM, and at this time of our 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.520 being we are that's the greatest thing, and one would 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:57.120 hope for marvelous things to come about. UM. The best 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.320 thing I think we're gonna be looking at in the 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.920 future is uh is uh is um at least with 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:09.200 the brain is continued understanding and to define you know, pathology, 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.719 how the brain responds to tumors, whether their primary tumors 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:15.920 or their tumor on the outside of the brain is 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.199 pushing on the brain. How the how the brain responds 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.400 to pathology. Execondly, I think the great thing that I 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.880 would hope to see in my lifetime is the ability 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.240 of the spinal cord and the brain to come about 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.880 with as you put down the plasticity, the ability to 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.240 repair itself and every turn of functioning. To have a 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.320 stroke patient UM as a dobbin he is very in fact, 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.480 the ability to communicate or speak better the spinal cord 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.480 injured patient who's uh, who's destined today to be on 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.000 the ventilator, wheelchair, dependent for life and and rely upon 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.440 others for all care, to be able to arise independently 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.320 from a chair. That's what I would hope. So I 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.960 think that's that's actually I can see as a certain 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.720 how he would really want to see the spinal cord 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.720 and the brain be able to better talk to each other. 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.720 Um and for eventually patients to be able to walk. 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.440 It makes a lot of sense that that is what 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.320 he's after right now. Um And and surely you know 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.040 we'll be making some good strides with that. But I 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:16.680 was thinking, you know, we should probably talk a little 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.560 bit about some existing technology right now as it relates 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.080 to the brain. And we know that there's a portable 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.720 m r I available, and we know that there's a 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.760 MEG scanner, which is super cool. This was I believe 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.040 this came out in the two thousand one, two thousand 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.120 two something like that. There's only about a hundred of 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.720 them in existence. But a MEG scanner is a magnetic anencephalography. 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.720 It's imaging technology that can non invasively detect brain electromagnetic 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.640 activity lasting only milliseconds and the speed of communications in 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.760 neural circuits, whereas other functioning brain imaging l fMRI I 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.560 technology can only capture activity that last seconds or minutes, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.760 and some involve radiation exposure. So this is this we 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.480 talk about this a little bit about when we were 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:08.560 talking about dogs and um people's connection to infants and puppies, 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:10.640 and they actually put them in one of these mag 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.200 scanners and within one seventh of a second they could 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.440 detect that it was I believe it was the overallllle 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.600 cortex was looking at these pictures of puppies and infants 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.440 and lighting up and going nuts. So it just gives 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.000 us a little a little bit more of a fine 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.520 tuning mechanism to look at the brain. And this is 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.640 some of the technology that we was we discussed in 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.960 the Eat Popcorn episode that could eventually lead to a 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.920 situation where you could have advertisements reading your mind and 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.360 seeing what your reaction is to various uh physical on 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.640 that physical, visual or auditory stimuli. Yeah. Actually, and it 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.160 was Paul root will Be. He's the director of ethics 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.720 at Emery University, and he was the guy that said, look, 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.640 it is possible right now to beam light into your 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.200 front cortex and that the receptors would get a reflection 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:03.280 of that light, essentially scanning your brain and interpreting your 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.439 thoughts as you concentrated on something. And that's why we 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.040 brought it up in the eat popcorn podcasts because it 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:10.840 was like, you know that that could be used in 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.800 marketing so very easily. Yeah, I mean it could be 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.679 happening right now, who knows. Um, But I didn't want 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.560 to talk a little bit more about the Blue Brain Project, 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.520 which is a model of the brain. Yes, yes, not 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.000 a Tom York song, not a Tom York song, and 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:27.840 not a model of the brain like the little plastic 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.639 one that comes out of the Visible Man skeleton right right, 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.399 There's there's no plastic going on here. It was started 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:35.680 in June two thousand and five and it's a ten 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:41.520 year joint venture between IBM and ep f L, which 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:47.520 is short for Equal Polytechnique. I apologize for that. It 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:49.720 was the best I could do there, and it's the 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.000 main focus is to reverse engineer the brain. And they're 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.359 building a detailed, realistic computer model of the human brain 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:01.400 and it's one hundred trillion synapses. Yeah. So the first 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:05.720 phase of this was actually completed in two thousand and seven. Um. 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:10.560 This is actually from the director of this project, and 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.680 this quote is current technology is now allowing us to 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.639 qualify that tabula rasa hypothesis which argues that our brains 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.000 are a blink slate at birth and we only gain 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.520 knowledge through experience. It's an idea that has permeated science 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.040 for centuries. There is no question that knowledge in the 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.679 sense that we typically understand it, reading and writing, recognizing 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.280 our friends, learning a language is the result of our experiences. 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.119 But the ep f l's teams work demonstrates that some 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.040 of our fundamental representations or basic knowledge is inscribed in 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:45.560 our genes, which is like whoa, Okay, because neuro scientists 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:47.400 have been saying this for a long time. Okay, if 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.320 you've if, um, if you have a d D or 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.119 a d D h D. These are things that aren't 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.080 necessarily things that came from your environment, that you acquired 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.800 through your environment. So we should start looking at this 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.440 and through neuroscience and ways to treat it, and start 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:09.000 considering the person as a whole um, knowing that they 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:14.120 came prepackaged with some of these things, which is pretty cool. Um. 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.160 And this is from ned City News there their articles 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.720 called brain stimulation is a goal of the Blue Brain 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:24.399 supercomputing project. Blue Brain can model components of the mammalian 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.840 brain and precise cellular detail and simulate neuronal activity in 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.360 three D. Soon blue Brain will be able to simulate 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.800 a whole rat brain in real time. Wow, I know. 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:36.840 I mean that's been a personal dream of mine to 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.119 live long enough to see a rat brain, you know, 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.960 generated in your Yeah. Yeah, yeah, well, I mean the again, 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.320 the project director, Henry Markham. I don't believe that said 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.520 his name before, but Henry Markham, he has a really 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.440 good Ted dot Com talk on this. He was basically saying, well, 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.399 we can't use mice forever, and I don't know why. 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:57.760 He thinks maybe we're going to run out of myce um, 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.520 But for him, obviously it's just a better way to 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.840 look at the human brain. And so he thinks that 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:05.800 this computer model is actually going to bear out a 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.360 theory that the brain creates a version of the universe 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.000 and then projects it like a bubble all around us. Yeah, 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.760 so that that's the consciousness part, right, Well, that's pretty 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.199 mind blowing right there. Yeah, it's crazy, and um, I 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.520 mean it's basically basically like mathematics is animating our neurons 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.760 for us to look at. And Seed Magazine's article Out 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.399 of the Blue says that if the project succeeds, it 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.840 will have taken the self and turned it into something 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.960 that we can see this sense of self and then 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.439 will we be horrified will be enlightened? Well, I mean 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.560 that's the whole thing, right, the magic trick. It's like 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:43.000 the jig is up. I mean, do you is it 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.080 what we thought it was? Or you know, do we 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.600 are we just these you know, freeasembled packages. I mean, 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.680 does it really matter the environments you know that we're 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.399 in and how much we learn from that or you know, 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:59.560 it's that whole nature versus nurtural question. But John, you know, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.119 I don't think it's actually gonna answer it definitively. No, 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:05.879 probably not. I mean, there's there's This is one of 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:08.679 the things that we're gonna continue to chew on for 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.639 quite some time. I feel like that the the technology 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.320 is going to improve tremendously. It's gonna give us even 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.960 more tools to better analyze. But uh, it just feels 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.080 like one of those things that we're just the more questions, 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.960 more questions are going to come up with every answer. Well, 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.679 and there's always been the philosophical aspect of it too, right, 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.160 that the brain is the seat of the soul essentially 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.240 um when in fact we know that our guts are 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.520 telling us a lot our guts right now are telling 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.200 us how we feel, you know, in an emotional sense, 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:42.719 like sending all sorts of signals. Um. So it's not 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.679 just you know, the three pounds of gray matter sitting 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.920 atop our next you know, doing everything. But it's certainly 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.880 interesting that people are reverse engineering and looking at um, 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.719 the seat of the soul, so to speak. Well, hey, 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:59.719 let's move on to some listener mail then, all right, 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.360 and this one from a listening by the name of Malachi. 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.840 Malachi gave us a rather long email and I don't 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.479 I can't read it all, but um he picked up 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:13.320 some some particularly mind blowing stuff from a pharmacology class 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:16.160 that he was that he was a part of. And 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:18.560