WEBVTT - Do you have a hidden savant inside your brain?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,

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<v Speaker 1>could you have a savant hidden inside your brain? Savants

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<v Speaker 1>have amazing skills. You may have seen them on the

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<v Speaker 1>news or in some kind of documentary. For example, they

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<v Speaker 1>might have the ability to draw or sculpt an incredible detail.

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<v Speaker 1>Or they might have photographic memories that allow them to

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<v Speaker 1>recall things just after one exposure to a book or

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<v Speaker 1>something like that. Or there's a guy who can recite

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<v Speaker 1>pi to twenty two thousand digits for a memory. Any

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<v Speaker 1>kind of thing like that seems amazing to normal human

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<v Speaker 1>beings because we can't even approach that sort of capability.

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<v Speaker 1>But is it possible that we all have some of

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<v Speaker 1>these capabilities embedded inside our brains and they're simply lying dormant,

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<v Speaker 1>or they're being overshadowed by other parts of our brains.

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<v Speaker 1>One of my favorite books of all time is called

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<v Speaker 1>Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards,

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<v Speaker 1>and she gets it this from an interesting angle. Her

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<v Speaker 1>book's goal is to teach ordinary people how to draw,

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<v Speaker 1>and the way she does it is by teaching the

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<v Speaker 1>reader how to turn off the left side of the brain.

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<v Speaker 1>So she has this set of exercises in the book

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<v Speaker 1>that are designed to get the left side of the brain,

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<v Speaker 1>the verbal side of the brain, to shut up so

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<v Speaker 1>that the right side of the brain, which can do

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<v Speaker 1>the drawing part, can actually do its thing without interruption

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<v Speaker 1>from the left side. So, for example, one of her

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<v Speaker 1>exercises is to take a line drawing and just turn

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<v Speaker 1>it upside down and start sketching the upside down version.

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<v Speaker 1>And the idea is that when it's right side up,

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<v Speaker 1>the left side of the brain is chunking every thing

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<v Speaker 1>symbolically and saying, well, this is an eye and this

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<v Speaker 1>is a nose, and then the right side of the

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<v Speaker 1>brain can't really see what's going on and gets overshadowed

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<v Speaker 1>by this chunking. When you turn off the left side

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<v Speaker 1>of the brain by turning the picture upside down so

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<v Speaker 1>it can't recognize anything, what you're left with is the

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<v Speaker 1>right side of the brain being able to see the

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<v Speaker 1>actual line segments they are sitting there on the paper

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<v Speaker 1>and being able to copy them, and suddenly you can draw.

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<v Speaker 1>You can actually trace that picture, drawing it without actually

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<v Speaker 1>tracing it, You're you're seeing what's really there and drawing

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<v Speaker 1>what's really there without interruption from the left side of

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<v Speaker 1>the brain. It turns out that there's now a more

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<v Speaker 1>recent technique that's turning off the left side of the

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<v Speaker 1>brain using something called transcranial magnetic stimulation. What that translates

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<v Speaker 1>into is high intensity magnetic pulses directed into the left

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<v Speaker 1>hemisphere that essentially this able it for a period of

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<v Speaker 1>time a few minutes. And when they do that, it

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<v Speaker 1>appears that we all do have savant capabilities that are

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<v Speaker 1>being overshadowed by the left side of the brain that

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<v Speaker 1>go beyond drawing. So, for example, they stimulate someone's brain

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<v Speaker 1>with magnetic pulses and this person can now suddenly count

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<v Speaker 1>things in the way that an autistic person might be

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<v Speaker 1>able to. You might have seen the movie rain Man,

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<v Speaker 1>where a box of matches drops on the floor or

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<v Speaker 1>something like that, and an autistic person, some with savant capabilities,

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<v Speaker 1>can look at it and immediately count how many matches

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<v Speaker 1>are there, a hundred or a hundred, fifty whatever. They

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<v Speaker 1>see the actual image of what's there and can count it.

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<v Speaker 1>So with transcranial magnetic stimulation, a normal person can start

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<v Speaker 1>to do something very similar to that in the same

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<v Speaker 1>way a normal person can go from memory and draw

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<v Speaker 1>a much more accurate picture of a horse, say, then

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<v Speaker 1>could be possible with the left side of the brain active.

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<v Speaker 1>If you think about it, this is really exciting research

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<v Speaker 1>because it means that the idea of a savant is

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<v Speaker 1>not unusual. Apparently we all have that stuff sitting inside

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<v Speaker 1>our brains, but it's being overshadowed by the symbolic processing

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<v Speaker 1>capabilities of the left hemisphere. If scientists can figure out

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<v Speaker 1>how to disable the left hemisphere for periods of time,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, transcarential magnetic stimulation, does that as just very

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<v Speaker 1>short acting. If they could come up with a pill

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<v Speaker 1>or a therapy of some kind that could turn off

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<v Speaker 1>the left side of the brain and allow you to

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<v Speaker 1>turn it back on later on, obviously, then it could

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<v Speaker 1>be that we could all tap into these savant capabilities

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<v Speaker 1>whenever we want to be sure to check out our

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<v Speaker 1>new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuppwork

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<v Speaker 1>Staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities

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<v Speaker 1>of tomorrow. The House stafforks iPhone app has arrived. Download

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