Kind: captions
Language: en
Let's play a little game.
>> Okay.
>> And the game we're gonna play is What's
My Brain Doing?
>> Okay.
>> All right.
>> Yes.
>> I'm having deja vu.
>> Oh, THAT'S A HARD ONE.
>> OH,
>> DAMN IT. Deja Vu. Okay.
>> Is my brain quantum entangled with my
future self?
>> No.
>> Okay.
>> That I wouldn't go that far. I mean, you
never know. I don't know. You never
know, right? You never know. the you
know at a distance whatever entanglement
but what I think is going on is that um
>> we have a sense we have a part of our
brain that gives a sense of familiarity
>> something feels familiar to us
>> oh
>> and I think it's a little sometimes our
brain does these little like missteps or
misfires to things so you might walk
into a room
>> and you suddenly get this sense of this
feels familiar to me it feels like I've
been here before you know and So your
brain then reconstructs the reality.
It's trying to make sense of it.
>> Yeah.
>> And then you sort of get this feeling of
deja vu. Oh, I've been here before. I've
seen this before.
>> You know, and even we can mess around
with people's time perception and I did
a lot of research on during my PhD about
our what's the neural basis of time
perception? How do we perceive time? And
there's a neuro different we can link it
to certain you know and people have
certain brain damage. They perceive time
differently or certain psychiatric
illnesses. So we can link it to neural
coralates and we can also play around
with
a person perceives that something
happened in time. So I can have
something happened to you and then we do
something TMS, transranial magnetic
stimulation, put a little magnet here,
zap you a little and suddenly you're
like, "Oh no, it happened over here."
You can
>> you can stimulate my brain to change the
place in time
>> where you feel things happen and also
your sense of agency. How much control
did I have over that movement? And so
our brains are tricky because we're also
constructing our sense of time. So I
think there's like sort of these little
trip wires in the brain where things,
you know, there are little flaws in the
matrix like that's what illusions are,
right? When we discovered the little
holes in the brain is constructing
things, but it's not perfect.
>> And when things don't make sense like we
I say, you know, brain is a meaning
maker machine. It wants to make meaning
out of things. So you walk into a room,
suddenly things feel familiar. You're
like, then it starts to construct a new
reality. Oh, I must have been here
before.
>> Is there a novelty center as well? Like
you said, there's a familiarity center.
There's
>> I mean, I wouldn't I hesitate to call
things centers. I'd say circuit circuit.
Yeah. But yeah, of of course um novelty.
I mean, our dopamine,
>> yes,
>> is released with novelty. Our brain
loves novelty because it's important for
us to attend to things that are novel
because that could be something
dangerous. It could be, you know, it
says like, "Hey, pay attention to this
thing,"
>> right? So um it's more related to
attending to things but novelty
sometimes when it's associated with
pleasure as well and you get nuclear
circumbent activation we tend to like
novelty
>> because it evolutionarily it makes sense
to attend to things that are novel for
better chances to survive. Right.
>> Right. Right. Right. Okay. So back to
what's my brain doing?
>> Okay.
>> Suppose I'm watching something or I
listen to something particularly moving
and I get goosebumps.
>> Yeah.
>> What's happening? So that that is an
interesting thing and I I think um it
has to do with this feeling of sometimes
with awe, this sense of awe. Yeah.
>> Right. Where you hear a piece of music,
you see a vista, you have some emotional
something emotional that triggers you.
It's very
>> much related to like a brain stem. Um
it's lower in the brain. And it's a very
physiologic reaction that we something
triggers us maybe emotionally and then
it triggers this this
>> nervous system response.
>> Yeah.
>> It's an automatic response just like
crying is you know this auto automatic
nervous autonomic nervous system
response where
>> oh really
>> it's almost like you don't have you
don't have control over it
>> but it can be triggered by different
emotional experiences.
>> Interesting. You know sometimes we have
questions of what do other animals think
or feel.
>> So is it the case that those fundamental
basal feelings like awe
>> what leads us to cry
manifest similarly in other mammals or
you know does it have to be other
primates or
>> I do think that other animals have basic
sensations like this but we interpret
them differently. So and that for
example you know you can have a certain
physiologic sensation in you like you
feel butterflies in your stomach or
something and then once we get that
sensation then our higher cortices
prefrontal cortex starts to interpret
that as either oh I'm really anxious
about something or I'm really nervous or
I'm really excited about this thing and
we could reinterpret the same
physiologic sensation in different ways
>> and so other animals might just have
sensations and not interpret them so
they they don't sort of elevate them to
these other to to you know you might
start feeling some sensation of crying
then you start thinking of oh my god I'm
thinking of my grandmother or whatever
and then it becomes more and more and
more and it kind of
>> you know elevates it so I think other
animals have different feelings but they
don't have these more complex feelings
that we have like like envy and you know
jealousy or lust and because they don't
also can't think that far into the
future they don't have as involved
prefrontal cortex which thinks about the
future right So anxiety is really a very
human emotion because it's about fear of
something bad happening in the future.
Animals have fear other animals,
>> but not so much anxiety here in the now.
>> Yes. It's the things that are happening
right now, but not like, oh my god, in
two days I'm going to have this exam or
I'm going to have so they don't have
these more complex emotions that we
have. But there's these beautiful images
like, you know, with with um Jane
Goodall, you know, and there's these
apes looking out at the vista and it
looks as if they're, you know,
>> oh, really? They're experiencing the
beauty and
>> the beauty or animals like like Yak
Pangep um was someone you know a
colleague I knew for a long time. He
unfortunately passed away but he was
talked about these
>> rats that would like tickle you can
tickle the rats and they would laugh. He
recorded their like laughter and they
would play and they would, you know, so
they're they're experiencing things, you
know, like joy. Um, but it's just very
much in the moment,
>> right? Right. Wow, that is something.
What about when, for example, I leave my
keys in the refrigerator?
>> What has my brain done?
>> I think you need to come to my office.
>> Oh, you ain't heard nothing yet. We Oh,
boy. I
>> Do I need treatment?
Um,
>> so misplacing objects.
>> Misplacing objects. I walk into a room,
I forget what my thought was. You know,
these forgetful or I'm looking for my
keys and they're in my hand the whole
time,
>> right? Yes.
>> Yeah.
>> So various reasons, not one answer for
everything, but the the sort of elements
that seem to be involved are are
attention. So you might have had an
intent to go into a room,
>> right? And then your first of all your
mind is wandering. You know, you're
think then you start thinking about
what's my grocery list? Oh, what's the
thing I got to do later? Whatever. So
now you that memory of why you went in
the room slipped away. You knew there
was a purpose of going in there, but you
had moved on to other things.
>> Yeah. My brain started thinking about
something else that's why. Yeah.
>> And then suddenly you're like why am I
why am I here? Or you know so a lot of
it to do with with attention and memory.
And there's different parts of the brain
that do like like the dorsal prefrontal
cortex has to do with working memory. So
that's like
>> um you know when you're trying to
remember like four four digits, seven
digits, a number or something, you got
to keep it on saying it over and over
again.
>> But then when you have something in more
long-term memory, it get moves over to
the hippocampus.
>> Oh,
>> but usually these things like your keys,
where you're putting them, whatever,
that's the kind of working short-term
memory. And if you don't stay attending
to like what you're doing or focus on
where your keys are, it's going to slip
away because your mind starts attending
internally to other things. Yeah.
>> Especially people with ADHD, it becomes
even harder.
>> Um and then yeah, of course with age,
there's normal aging brain that where
you know, memory starts to get not as
sharp and
>> Right. Exactly.
>> But but so if you really want to
remember where your keys are or
whatever, you have to stay focused on
that. So if you're like, I know I'm
going in this room and keep remembering
why you're going in the room. I'm going
to get my keys. I'm going to get my
keys. Cuz the second you go off that,
you're it's
>> done. You're done.
>> I know that. I tell I tell people that
when I work with them. I was like,
listen, if we say if we come up with a
task for me, make sure you see me, put
it in my calendar,
>> right
>> before.
>> And I always say this like do it now.
Write it down. You think you're going to
remember, you're not going to remember.
You're not. Yeah. I know I'm not. Yeah.
So, I always tell my students, never
take work out of the room. If you if you
can avoid it, don't take work out of the
room. Get it done.
>> Do it now. And And if not, just write
it. Write it down. Write it down.