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- [Voiceover] There's
always a strong temptation

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to think of the brain or
to call a brain a machine

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or talk about it as a computer.

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- [Voiceover] When I
was in medical school,

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we were taught that the
brain is what it is,

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and nothing really can change it.

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- [Voiceover] I learned that the brain

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was pretty much hard-wired,

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and that what you've got by the age of 18,

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you're left with.

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- [Voiceover] All of this work suggests

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that we need to radically change
this old view of the brain.

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- [Voiceover] I think we're now learning

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that, in fact, the brain
is changing all the time,

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that the brain is changing
with everything we think,

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with everything we experience.

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- My name is Dr. Norman Doidge.

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I wrote a book called The
Brain That Changes Itself.

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(audience applauds)

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- I'm here today to describe
what I've come to believe

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is the most important
change in our understanding

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of the human brain in 400 years.

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This idea is revolutionary,
because for four centuries,

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mainstream medicine and science

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have seen the brain as fixed

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and described it as though
it were a complex machine

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with parts, each of which
perform one mental function

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in a single location in the brain.

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This machine metaphor gave
rise to what I have called

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the doctrine of the unchanging brain.

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A sense that treatment
for many brain conditions

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was impossible or unwarranted took hold,

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and it spread through the culture,

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even stunting our overall
view of human nature.

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But what if the idea of the
brain as machine or mechanism

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is not only wrong, but
spectacularly wrong?

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When I first heard reports
that the human brain

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might not be hard-wired,
I had to investigate

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and began a series of
travels, and in the process,

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met a band of brilliant scientists

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at the frontiers of brain science,

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who'd made a series of
unexpected discoveries.

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These scientific heretics began

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to call this new brain
property "neuroplasticity".

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Neuroplasticity changes everything.

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The brain is not a machine.

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It has to be understood on its own terms.

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And this is the remarkable story

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of the brain that changes itself.

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I went to Madison, Wisconsin

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to meet with Mitch Tyler and Yuri Danilov,

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two people who had worked
with Paul Bach-y-Rita,

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perhaps the most important
pioneer of his generation,

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the great visionary of neuroplasticity,

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who, after some very personal experiences

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with the death of his father,

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figured out that the
human brain is plastic

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and then began to invent

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all these extraordinarily
ingenious devices

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to help people rewire their brains.

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- Given that Paul is a
visual neuroscientist,

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and that's what his training was,

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he was looking for a way to demonstrate

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this idea of this neuroplasticity,

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or the brain's ability
to rehabilitate itself.

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And the logical extension of that

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would have been in the blind population,

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developing a blind prosthesis if you will,

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or a sensory substitution device.

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- Ok, now let's try something
a little different now.

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- Ok, it's a telephone.

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And the receiver is to the right.

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- In sensory substitution, he claimed that

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brain is flexible,
plastic, and smart enough

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to analyze any information
that you can deliver

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accurately to the brain.

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- Or you could actually take
signals from a video camera

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and presenting this stimulus on the back

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of the patient who was blind

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and have them be able to
pick up that information

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as though it was coming from their retina,

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and treat that information the same way.

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It's vision.

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It doesn't matter where
the signal's coming from.

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- [Voiceover] How a
sensation entered the brain

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was not important to Bach-y-Rita.

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What was important

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was what the brain did
with that sensation.

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- The source of the signal
really is almost immaterial,

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as long as you provide
that signal to the brain

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and give it a context
that it's being used in,

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the brain will figure out how to use it

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and use it to its own ends,

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to both rehabilitate and
also to perform the task

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that it's trying to accomplish.

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- Yea, I'm 54.

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And I've been blind for
38 years, totally blind.

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- Let's stay inside the lines, Roger.

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- I see black, but I
have no eyes whatsoever.

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- [Voiceover] Over the years,

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that big dentist's chair and
massive computer behind it,

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have all shrunk down so
that it pretty well fits

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into a pair of glasses
with a mini-camera in it.

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- The simplest way I've
described it is when you're kids,

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and you're laying in bed,

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and one of your brothers or
sisters are drawing on your back

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with your finger, and you're
trying to guess what it is.

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It's kind of the same
principle in a sense.

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This device is drawing it on
your tongue in vibrations.

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- Roger, that turn was incredible.

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- Yea, it was a sharp one.

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I went, "Wait a minute."

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It was foolin' me.

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- You didn't cut it at all.

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- It's drawing images onto your tongue,

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and I try to get the whole
image as much as I can

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on this little
one-inch-by-one-inch sensor.

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It's tracing it like you do
on your back when you're kids,

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but it's now tracing it on
your tongue electronically.

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- And see if you can try and put your hand

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on the top of the arrow.

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Little higher.

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- I mean definitely people think,

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"Well, it's touch."

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Well, not for me.

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I mean, as soon as I put that on,

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within a matter of
seconds, I am seeing it.

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I mean, I talk about seeing, because I am.

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It's drawing pictures in my head.

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- Perfect.

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- I mean this was very emotional for me,

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and I told my wife the same thing.

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I said, "Maybe someday, I'll
be able to see your face

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"for the first time ever in my life."

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- [Voiceover] We have senses
that we don't know we have

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until we lose them, and
balance is one of them.

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- In this helmet, we have a
little two-axis accelerometer.

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And what it does is converts
your head-position information

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into a little signal that's presented

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on the tongue display here.

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- [Voiceover] Once Bach-y-Rita realized

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that you could get sensory modules

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that seem to process one
sensation to process another,

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he turned to a very important problem,

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the problem of balance.

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- Now what I'm gonna have you do

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is go ahead and just put it in.

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And your job is to actually
keep that little, red square

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in the middle of the box.

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So, it actually moves in response

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to the position of the helmet.

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- [Voiceover] Today, you
can see Cheryl Schiltz

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riding a bike, which seems
like a very ordinary event.

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But actually it's most extraordinary,

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because Cheryl Schiltz is a woman

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who had her balance apparatus
almost completely obliterated

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as a side effect from a
medication she received.

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- One morning when I
tried to get out of bed,

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I literally fell to the floor.

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I tried to get up, tried to
get on my hands and knees,

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and I was just wobbling around,

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and I just would fall again,

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and I'd fall again,

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and I remember looking,

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and it was more of like a
never-ending sense of tumbling.

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And the doctor told me that
it is a permanent condition,

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but you'll learn to get used to it.

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And actually the worst word
of it all was "permanent".

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"Permanent" made things stop.

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It made it stop that

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this is just the only way it will ever be.

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- So how is Cheryl able to ride a bike?

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- When we first met
Cheryl, she was a wobbler,

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a self-described person
with a balance problem

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and on disability.

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But she was wobbling profoundly.

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What I also realized is
that this is her world.

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This is something that
she lives with every day.

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- I always had this
constant noise in my head,

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and not a noise that,
like, you hear noise,

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but this feeling of noise.

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If you could hear confusion,
that's what it sounds like.

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And my brain was really, really confused,

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because it didn't know what to do.

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It was so consumed with
just trying stand up

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and stay straight.

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When I put that device in,

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it was just like "Ohhhh."

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It was like I stepped out of that room,

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and I'm standing on the side
of the ocean or something.

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It was just like, "Oh my gosh. It's quiet.

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"It's still, and it feels so good."

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It's like I came back.

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- [Voiceover] Bach-y-Rita thought

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that the brain could rewire itself

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by unmasking alternate pathways

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or sprouting new ones.

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What Cheryl's brain is doing,

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is receiving the signals from her tongue

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and sending them to the
part of her brain stem

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that normally processes touch.

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It's then that her brain
redirects this information

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to the area that deals with balance

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by unmasking dormant pathways.

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- So the analogy, that I
think I inherited from Paul,

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is that, in the normal nervous system,

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you have your major pathways.

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They're sort of like the
freeways in your brain

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that handle large volumes of information

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and do it very efficiently.

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But if there's an accident on the highway,

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you can either sit in
traffic and not do anything,

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or you can get off on the secondary road.

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- [Voiceover] Over time,
what the brain does

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is it takes those back roads

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and turns them into the superhighways

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and reroutes the information

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so that we're taking the existing pathways

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and making them more efficient.

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- By having that sensation on my tongue,

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I had to reroute my
patterns and my thoughts

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and how my brain was functioning

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to focus on that input, if you will.

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- Cheryl was able to pick up that signal

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within a couple of minutes

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and learn how to move head
left, right, front, back,

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and pick up the signal and
maintain upright posture.

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Perfect posture.

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She stood with military precision almost.

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And we were amazed by that.

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- And when we realized that
she's stabilizing her body,

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we decided to try to remove
the device from the mouth

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and see how long she can stay

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and keep the balance afterwards.

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- And what we found was,

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when we took the strip from my mouth,

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that there was a residual.

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It would follow a little bit, you know.

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The longer we did it,
the longer the residual.

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- So then when we
continued the exploration

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of this residual effect,

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we figure out that the effect
have ability to accumulate.

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With each training session,
it's getting longer.

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- Suddenly, there was
a profound realization

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that these people don't have to use

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this device all the time,

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that there's something more
than just sensory substitution.

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It's a neuro-rehabilitation.

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The brain is learning how to change itself

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by use of this device.

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That's the big breakthrough.

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- The greatest thing
is, is I'm not dependent

255
00:12:27,528 --> 00:12:29,261
on the device anymore.

256
00:12:29,261 --> 00:12:33,532
It truly, indeed, without
a doubt, rewired my brain

257
00:12:33,532 --> 00:12:38,532
in some fashion, how
I honestly don't know,

258
00:12:38,546 --> 00:12:39,882
but it did.

259
00:12:42,992 --> 00:12:43,761
Hi!

260
00:12:43,761 --> 00:12:44,692
- Hey, Cheryl.

261
00:12:45,722 --> 00:12:46,689
- Good to see you.

262
00:12:46,689 --> 00:12:48,238
- It's good to see you.

263
00:12:48,238 --> 00:12:50,884
- The idea that the brain
could change its function,

264
00:12:50,884 --> 00:12:52,978
that it could morph, it could adapt

265
00:12:52,978 --> 00:12:55,843
to new tasks was really radical.

266
00:12:55,843 --> 00:12:58,659
And it took Paul some forty years

267
00:12:58,659 --> 00:13:00,591
to demonstrate that that was possible.

268
00:13:00,591 --> 00:13:02,018
And we're just at the front edge

269
00:13:02,018 --> 00:13:04,423
of finally realizing Paul's vision

270
00:13:04,423 --> 00:13:07,714
of being able to take
this idea and run with it.

271
00:13:08,959 --> 00:13:10,962
- So she'll do that for
a while, and I'd like,

272
00:13:10,962 --> 00:13:12,903
I think she'd like to do
this as long as possible

273
00:13:12,903 --> 00:13:14,809
so that she gets the long record.

274
00:13:17,539 --> 00:13:19,145
- [Voiceover] Paul
Bach-y-Rita's importance

275
00:13:19,145 --> 00:13:22,574
lies in being a visionary,
the first of his generation

276
00:13:22,574 --> 00:13:25,932
to really understand the
full potential of plasticity,

277
00:13:25,932 --> 00:13:29,634
and to begin to apply it so
that it could help people,

278
00:13:29,634 --> 00:13:32,285
and to describe a new brain,

279
00:13:32,285 --> 00:13:36,419
a brain that evolves in a
changing world to change itself.

280
00:13:38,647 --> 00:13:42,244
Sadly, Paul Bach-y-Rita
is no longer with us.

281
00:13:42,244 --> 00:13:45,004
A couple of years ago, he
developed a brain tumor

282
00:13:45,004 --> 00:13:46,381
and passed away.

283
00:13:48,642 --> 00:13:50,793
- The first thing he
said when he learned was,

284
00:13:50,793 --> 00:13:51,962
"But oh, I have to hurry.

285
00:13:51,962 --> 00:13:54,981
"I still have many things
that I want to do."

286
00:13:55,938 --> 00:13:59,309
He was a man with a mission,

287
00:13:59,309 --> 00:14:02,895
and, I mean, he dedicated
all his life to that.

288
00:14:02,895 --> 00:14:06,138
- Did he have a sense that the
wave was starting to break,

289
00:14:06,138 --> 00:14:10,862
and suddenly plasticity
was just on the brink

290
00:14:10,862 --> 00:14:13,530
of becoming accepted for the first time?

291
00:14:13,530 --> 00:14:14,553
- He said, "Well, you know,

292
00:14:14,553 --> 00:14:18,668
"I just planted some seeds,

293
00:14:18,668 --> 00:14:22,474
"and hopefully others will continue."

294
00:14:24,707 --> 00:14:26,010
- So what we're realizing is,

295
00:14:26,010 --> 00:14:27,369
we're still proving Paul right.

296
00:14:27,369 --> 00:14:30,135
And Paul's visionary
concepts from forty years ago

297
00:14:30,135 --> 00:14:31,969
are just now being realized.

298
00:14:31,969 --> 00:14:35,051
I think he got a glimpse
of that realization.

299
00:14:35,051 --> 00:14:39,585
And when you see the film clip
of Cheryl dancing with Paul,

300
00:14:39,585 --> 00:14:43,309
I think Paul finally got a
glimpse of the realization,

301
00:14:43,309 --> 00:14:45,936
the first instance of really seeing

302
00:14:45,936 --> 00:14:48,294
his idea coming to fruition.

303
00:15:02,181 --> 00:15:04,189
- [Voiceover] I already knew
enough about the science

304
00:15:04,189 --> 00:15:06,773
of the brain to know that
brain plasticity was possible.

305
00:15:08,243 --> 00:15:10,740
But then I had the extraordinary good luck

306
00:15:10,740 --> 00:15:12,866
to meet an amazing neuroplastician,

307
00:15:12,866 --> 00:15:14,480
Barbara Arrowsmith Young,

308
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,897
who, as it happened, was living
in our backyard as it were,

309
00:15:17,897 --> 00:15:19,228
in Toronto.

310
00:15:23,762 --> 00:15:26,047
- What I'm doing here at Arrowsmith School

311
00:15:26,047 --> 00:15:30,988
and in this program is actually
changing cognitive capacity.

312
00:15:37,208 --> 00:15:38,897
The students that I work with

313
00:15:38,897 --> 00:15:41,741
are predominantly students
with learning disabilities.

314
00:15:41,741 --> 00:15:43,217
- Would that be 10 minutes before,

315
00:15:43,217 --> 00:15:45,309
or would that be now?

316
00:15:45,309 --> 00:15:46,135
- We're really walking

317
00:15:46,135 --> 00:15:49,268
into the territory of their weaknesses.

318
00:15:49,268 --> 00:15:53,721
We're going in and targeting
the area of difficulty.

319
00:15:53,721 --> 00:15:55,700
And do you know why you use the eye patch?

320
00:15:55,700 --> 00:15:56,355
- No.

321
00:15:56,355 --> 00:15:58,270
- 'Cause this eye right here

322
00:15:58,270 --> 00:16:01,192
talks to this brain area over here.

323
00:16:03,983 --> 00:16:05,291
- Barbara Arrowsmith Young

324
00:16:05,291 --> 00:16:08,194
was one of the first
neuroplasticians I met.

325
00:16:08,194 --> 00:16:09,462
And she was a person who was born

326
00:16:09,462 --> 00:16:13,355
with a devastating array
of learning disabilities.

327
00:16:13,355 --> 00:16:15,367
Many of her cognitive areas

328
00:16:15,367 --> 00:16:18,413
were quite retarded, in
fact, in development.

329
00:16:18,413 --> 00:16:20,474
She had trouble speaking clearly.

330
00:16:20,474 --> 00:16:23,219
She didn't know where
her limbs were in space.

331
00:16:23,219 --> 00:16:25,711
But her most devastating
difficulties had to do

332
00:16:25,711 --> 00:16:28,674
with a difficulty in understanding
how to relate symbols.

333
00:16:29,785 --> 00:16:31,780
This problem was so devastating for her

334
00:16:31,780 --> 00:16:33,936
that she really couldn't
understand conversations

335
00:16:33,936 --> 00:16:36,074
as they were happening in real time.

336
00:16:41,812 --> 00:16:44,223
- Growing up, I felt very stupid.

337
00:16:46,631 --> 00:16:49,296
My teacher told my parents
that I had a mental block

338
00:16:49,296 --> 00:16:52,431
and that I wouldn't learn
the way other children do,

339
00:16:52,431 --> 00:16:55,990
and that I would have a struggle in school

340
00:16:55,990 --> 00:16:57,595
throughout my schooling.

341
00:16:57,595 --> 00:16:59,737
And being very, very
literal, I actually thought

342
00:16:59,737 --> 00:17:02,008
that I had a wooden cube in my head

343
00:17:02,008 --> 00:17:04,247
that was making learning difficult.

344
00:17:07,829 --> 00:17:10,313
I developed all sorts of coping strategies

345
00:17:10,313 --> 00:17:12,653
to try to cover up.

346
00:17:12,653 --> 00:17:14,982
Ok, fabulous. You were good.

347
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:17,771
- One day, one of her very close friends,

348
00:17:17,771 --> 00:17:18,794
and a fellow student,

349
00:17:18,794 --> 00:17:21,147
gave her a book by Alexander Luria,

350
00:17:21,147 --> 00:17:23,455
called A Man with a Shattered World.

351
00:17:23,455 --> 00:17:26,150
And it described a person who had deficits

352
00:17:26,150 --> 00:17:29,891
that were very much like
what Barbara suffered from.

353
00:17:29,891 --> 00:17:31,440
It was the story of a Russian soldier

354
00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:33,166
who had shrapnel in his head.

355
00:17:33,166 --> 00:17:36,363
And he too had trouble
with grammar and logic,

356
00:17:36,363 --> 00:17:39,320
and cause and effect, and
couldn't read a wristwatch.

357
00:17:40,230 --> 00:17:43,069
- He talked about the person
that couldn't tell time,

358
00:17:43,069 --> 00:17:46,863
couldn't understand concepts,

359
00:17:46,863 --> 00:17:50,800
the person that really felt
that they were not able

360
00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:53,430
to process or understand
information in real time.

361
00:17:53,430 --> 00:17:56,878
And it was an incredible ah-ha moment.

362
00:17:58,922 --> 00:18:01,053
- [Voiceover] That
soldier's lesion was caused

363
00:18:01,053 --> 00:18:02,634
by the shrapnel that had been lodged

364
00:18:02,634 --> 00:18:05,117
in the part of the brain
that integrates signals

365
00:18:05,117 --> 00:18:08,444
from the occipital lobe,
which processes vision,

366
00:18:08,444 --> 00:18:12,071
the temporal lobe, which
processes sound and language,

367
00:18:12,071 --> 00:18:14,869
and the parietal lobe,
which processes touch.

368
00:18:16,924 --> 00:18:19,678
So now she knew the junction,
or area of her brain,

369
00:18:19,678 --> 00:18:21,416
that was underperforming.

370
00:18:23,793 --> 00:18:27,169
The problem was, Luria was never
able to provide a treatment

371
00:18:27,169 --> 00:18:29,373
for the poor soldier he was treating.

372
00:18:29,373 --> 00:18:31,155
- Then I also came across a paper

373
00:18:31,155 --> 00:18:35,313
by a neuroscientist, Mark
Rosenzweig, out of Berkeley,

374
00:18:35,313 --> 00:18:37,587
and he was looking at neuroplasticity

375
00:18:37,587 --> 00:18:39,219
and that the brain wasn't fixed,

376
00:18:39,219 --> 00:18:41,581
that the brain actually could change,

377
00:18:41,581 --> 00:18:46,039
that through very specific
stimulation and exercise,

378
00:18:46,039 --> 00:18:48,969
you could change the brain
at a physiological level,

379
00:18:48,969 --> 00:18:52,156
which then allowed effective
learning to go forward.

380
00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:57,002
It made me realize,

381
00:18:57,002 --> 00:18:57,531
"You know what?

382
00:18:57,531 --> 00:18:59,460
"I don't need to be stuck
with this learning disability.

383
00:18:59,460 --> 00:19:01,778
"I don't need to live the
rest of my life with it.

384
00:19:01,778 --> 00:19:04,897
"There's a possibility here
that I may actually be able

385
00:19:04,897 --> 00:19:08,723
"to do something about it
and rewire my own brain."

386
00:19:13,909 --> 00:19:15,874
- Because she couldn't read clocks,

387
00:19:15,874 --> 00:19:17,364
what she did for her first exercise

388
00:19:17,364 --> 00:19:19,286
was very simple and elegant.

389
00:19:19,286 --> 00:19:21,279
- [Barbara] I took a number of flashcards.

390
00:19:21,279 --> 00:19:23,318
I made up a number of times,

391
00:19:23,318 --> 00:19:26,326
and I drew the clock faces.

392
00:19:27,596 --> 00:19:30,165
- Then she would add a
minute-hand and a second-hand

393
00:19:30,165 --> 00:19:32,504
and a hand for the week
and the month and the year.

394
00:19:32,504 --> 00:19:33,820
And a number of weeks into it,

395
00:19:33,820 --> 00:19:36,918
she started to notice some
extraordinary changes.

396
00:19:36,918 --> 00:19:37,907
- It was incredible.

397
00:19:37,907 --> 00:19:39,818
It was like blinders came off.

398
00:19:42,788 --> 00:19:45,291
- Just by these incremental exercises,

399
00:19:45,291 --> 00:19:47,436
she was building up new connections

400
00:19:47,436 --> 00:19:49,315
in those processing areas

401
00:19:49,315 --> 00:19:51,274
so that they could start to function,

402
00:19:51,274 --> 00:19:52,965
eventually at an average level,

403
00:19:52,965 --> 00:19:54,946
and then at an above-average level.

404
00:19:56,184 --> 00:19:57,965
- What I believe this work does

405
00:19:57,965 --> 00:20:00,865
through specific cognitive exercises,

406
00:20:00,865 --> 00:20:03,022
is actually stimulate the function

407
00:20:03,022 --> 00:20:07,182
of the underlying brain area to change it,

408
00:20:07,182 --> 00:20:10,206
to rewire it, to strengthen
it, to improve it,

409
00:20:10,206 --> 00:20:12,969
and they can walk out of this program

410
00:20:12,969 --> 00:20:15,022
and never have to look back.

411
00:20:35,575 --> 00:20:38,910
- I was diagnosed with
Stage 3 breast cancer

412
00:20:38,910 --> 00:20:41,293
two days before my 35th birthday.

413
00:20:41,293 --> 00:20:44,418
Happy birthday, you have cancer.

414
00:20:44,418 --> 00:20:47,728
And I was told that I was
gonna have to do chemotherapy.

415
00:20:50,056 --> 00:20:53,166
I knew about the nausea, the
fatigue, things like that.

416
00:20:53,166 --> 00:20:55,421
And I certainly got those in spades.

417
00:20:55,421 --> 00:21:00,392
But I also found that there's
thing called chemo-brain.

418
00:21:00,392 --> 00:21:03,497
So chemo-brain is almost like a fog

419
00:21:03,497 --> 00:21:05,896
that just sort of descends on you.

420
00:21:05,896 --> 00:21:07,619
And it makes it really difficult

421
00:21:07,619 --> 00:21:10,082
to kind of process information.

422
00:21:11,498 --> 00:21:14,135
I would struggle for a
word in conversation,

423
00:21:14,135 --> 00:21:16,181
so I didn't have that sort of word recall

424
00:21:16,181 --> 00:21:17,943
that most people have.

425
00:21:19,129 --> 00:21:22,027
It's major memory problems.

426
00:21:22,027 --> 00:21:25,447
We take for granted that we
know where we put our keys.

427
00:21:25,447 --> 00:21:27,343
I mean, everyone's lost their keys, right?

428
00:21:27,343 --> 00:21:30,588
But it's a much more
profound thing than that.

429
00:21:30,588 --> 00:21:34,226
It's this fog that descends on you,

430
00:21:34,226 --> 00:21:36,817
and you can't make out the details.

431
00:21:42,948 --> 00:21:45,675
- Well, in any case in which
there's diffuse brain injury,

432
00:21:45,675 --> 00:21:48,549
as a consequence of something
like intensive chemotherapy,

433
00:21:48,549 --> 00:21:52,083
basically the brain is
operating with increasing noise.

434
00:21:52,083 --> 00:21:54,262
Basically it's struggling
to represent information

435
00:21:54,262 --> 00:21:56,472
in detail with high accuracy.

436
00:22:01,544 --> 00:22:03,502
- Mike Merzenich is the driving force

437
00:22:03,502 --> 00:22:05,711
behind scores of innovations

438
00:22:05,711 --> 00:22:09,034
of practical applications
for brain plasticity.

439
00:22:09,034 --> 00:22:12,368
Merzenich's special
ability is training people

440
00:22:12,368 --> 00:22:14,802
to think and perceive better

441
00:22:14,802 --> 00:22:16,783
by working on brain processing areas

442
00:22:16,783 --> 00:22:18,362
called brain maps.

443
00:22:20,390 --> 00:22:23,804
Our brains represent the external
world through these maps.

444
00:22:26,126 --> 00:22:28,654
And their borders were
believed to be fixed,

445
00:22:28,654 --> 00:22:30,592
but Merzenich discovered that these maps

446
00:22:30,592 --> 00:22:34,051
can actually grow and
strengthen with exercise.

447
00:22:40,392 --> 00:22:41,073
- Good morning.

448
00:22:41,073 --> 00:22:42,654
Thank you for calling Scientific Learning.

449
00:22:42,654 --> 00:22:43,789
How can I help you?

450
00:22:43,789 --> 00:22:47,065
- Well, Scientific Learning
focuses on problems in children,

451
00:22:47,065 --> 00:22:48,188
and we're basically trying

452
00:22:48,188 --> 00:22:50,494
to improve the capacities of children

453
00:22:50,494 --> 00:22:52,766
through driving their brain plastically

454
00:22:52,766 --> 00:22:54,470
in positive or corrective directions

455
00:22:54,470 --> 00:22:57,224
and in ways that would improve
their academic performance.

456
00:22:58,611 --> 00:23:00,065
- One of the systems that he co-developed

457
00:23:00,065 --> 00:23:02,810
is called Fast ForWord, and it's basically

458
00:23:02,810 --> 00:23:05,927
a way of treating auditory
learning disabilities,

459
00:23:05,927 --> 00:23:08,737
disguised as a computer game.

460
00:23:08,737 --> 00:23:10,631
- These exercises are game-like.

461
00:23:10,631 --> 00:23:12,656
From the kid's perspective, they're fun.

462
00:23:12,656 --> 00:23:14,024
(computer beeps twice)

463
00:23:14,024 --> 00:23:16,612
But in fact, they're
intensive, serious exercises,

464
00:23:16,612 --> 00:23:19,248
and they're actually
optimized to drive the child

465
00:23:19,248 --> 00:23:20,980
as far as possible in a corrective,

466
00:23:20,980 --> 00:23:23,089
or a more normal or
more powerful, direction

467
00:23:23,089 --> 00:23:24,916
as fast as possible.

468
00:23:25,759 --> 00:23:27,912
- One of the things that's so
powerful about Fast ForWord

469
00:23:27,912 --> 00:23:30,759
is that, before the program,
kids with reading difficulties

470
00:23:30,759 --> 00:23:35,015
have very unusual scans, very,
very different from normal.

471
00:23:35,015 --> 00:23:38,546
But as they start to
improve on the exercises,

472
00:23:38,546 --> 00:23:41,824
and as they start to
get better at reading,

473
00:23:41,824 --> 00:23:43,492
Merzenich was able to show

474
00:23:43,492 --> 00:23:46,245
that their brain scans also normalized.

475
00:23:46,245 --> 00:23:49,253
- [Computer Voice] The fish are swimming.

476
00:23:49,253 --> 00:23:50,819
- [Voiceover] But
Merzenich's scientific work

477
00:23:50,819 --> 00:23:52,944
is not just for children.

478
00:23:53,787 --> 00:23:56,462
- Ready? So this exercise
is called Bird Safari.

479
00:23:56,462 --> 00:23:57,749
- [Voiceover] He has been able to prove

480
00:23:57,749 --> 00:24:01,305
that plasticity exists
from cradle to grave.

481
00:24:01,305 --> 00:24:03,460
And studies show that the elderly can use

482
00:24:03,460 --> 00:24:06,919
his brain fitness program
to sharpen their memories

483
00:24:06,919 --> 00:24:08,793
and function as well as they did

484
00:24:08,793 --> 00:24:12,225
when they were from 10
to 25 years younger.

485
00:24:13,128 --> 00:24:14,624
- Well, old brains slow down.

486
00:24:14,624 --> 00:24:17,946
And old brains, again,
represent information

487
00:24:19,006 --> 00:24:20,775
in lower fidelity,

488
00:24:20,775 --> 00:24:22,505
You can think of it as a
little bit like a radio station

489
00:24:22,505 --> 00:24:25,141
that's no longer quite
tuned to the station.

490
00:24:29,645 --> 00:24:32,489
Older brains forget
most of what they hear.

491
00:24:32,489 --> 00:24:35,676
Older brains forget most of what they see.

492
00:24:35,676 --> 00:24:38,248
A younger brain remembers
most of what it hears,

493
00:24:38,248 --> 00:24:41,087
remembers most of what it sees.

494
00:24:41,087 --> 00:24:43,207
This is machinery that
also contributes greatly

495
00:24:43,207 --> 00:24:45,690
to controlling how we feel about life,

496
00:24:45,690 --> 00:24:46,861
how we operate in life,

497
00:24:46,861 --> 00:24:48,496
how closely we can attend to the things

498
00:24:48,496 --> 00:24:51,687
and enjoy the things of the world in life.

499
00:24:51,687 --> 00:24:54,686
And it's really important that
the average older individual

500
00:24:54,686 --> 00:24:56,497
keep this machinery in good shape.

501
00:24:56,497 --> 00:24:58,913
- [Computer Voice] Click the
matching arrows in order.

502
00:24:58,913 --> 00:24:59,679
If you hear,

503
00:24:59,679 --> 00:25:00,807
(computer beeps twice)

504
00:25:00,807 --> 00:25:03,302
click the Up arrow twice.

505
00:25:03,302 --> 00:25:04,564
- [Voiceover] The brain fitness program

506
00:25:04,564 --> 00:25:06,624
is this great computer program.

507
00:25:06,624 --> 00:25:08,450
It's got several different, sort of games

508
00:25:08,450 --> 00:25:11,519
that really press you
to expand your memory.

509
00:25:13,141 --> 00:25:14,221
- [Voiceover] What were the first changes

510
00:25:14,221 --> 00:25:15,390
you actually noticed?

511
00:25:15,390 --> 00:25:17,683
- I noticed my attention span lengthening.

512
00:25:17,683 --> 00:25:19,504
That was the first thing that I noticed.

513
00:25:19,504 --> 00:25:23,364
But after a couple weeks,
and I started seeing changes,

514
00:25:23,364 --> 00:25:25,499
then I thought there really
is something to this.

515
00:25:25,499 --> 00:25:27,293
This is really worth my time.

516
00:25:29,807 --> 00:25:32,386
It meant that I was
gonna be able to function

517
00:25:32,386 --> 00:25:33,644
the way I used to.

518
00:25:33,644 --> 00:25:37,650
It meant that I wasn't gonna
be limited by chemo-brain.

519
00:25:50,721 --> 00:25:53,248
- Well, it was a typical Friday morning.

520
00:25:53,248 --> 00:25:57,435
I proceeded to go out to
play tennis with a local pro

521
00:25:57,435 --> 00:26:00,838
that I've played with for about 25 years.

522
00:26:00,838 --> 00:26:03,453
And he says to me, "Mike,

523
00:26:03,453 --> 00:26:06,078
"your game is not what it usually is."

524
00:26:06,078 --> 00:26:09,041
And I said, "My balance is slightly off."

525
00:26:09,041 --> 00:26:11,862
But I continued to play.

526
00:26:11,862 --> 00:26:14,485
- Michael Bernstein was an eye surgeon,

527
00:26:14,485 --> 00:26:17,472
who would work with
very small instruments,

528
00:26:17,472 --> 00:26:19,238
operating inside an eye.

529
00:26:19,238 --> 00:26:22,720
And he was a classically trained
pianist and a tennis buff,

530
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,081
who, in the prime of
life, at the age of 54,

531
00:26:26,081 --> 00:26:28,515
suffered an incapacitating stroke

532
00:26:28,515 --> 00:26:31,580
that made it impossible for
him to move half of his body.

533
00:26:33,810 --> 00:26:35,737
- [Michael] The left hand, the left arm,

534
00:26:35,737 --> 00:26:38,607
and left leg were paralyzed.

535
00:26:38,607 --> 00:26:42,318
The speech therapist and
the occupational therapist

536
00:26:42,318 --> 00:26:46,587
said it would be very slow
and not to expect too much.

537
00:26:48,693 --> 00:26:50,480
- Michael Bernstein was
one of the first people

538
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,817
to go to the newly-opened
Taub Therapy Clinic

539
00:26:52,817 --> 00:26:55,810
in Birmingham, Alabama,
to try a new treatment

540
00:26:55,810 --> 00:26:58,280
called constraint-induced therapy.

541
00:27:00,173 --> 00:27:01,922
Dr. Edward Taub developed the therapy

542
00:27:01,922 --> 00:27:03,403
for stroke victims.

543
00:27:03,403 --> 00:27:05,018
It can even work on people

544
00:27:05,018 --> 00:27:07,451
who have been paralyzed for years.

545
00:27:07,451 --> 00:27:09,366
- Alright, go Molly, go.

546
00:27:09,366 --> 00:27:11,187
Really let go of it.

547
00:27:11,187 --> 00:27:13,421
- [Voiceover] The patient's
good arm is constrained

548
00:27:13,421 --> 00:27:15,481
in a mitt, so it can't be used,

549
00:27:15,481 --> 00:27:17,504
forcing their paralyzed arm

550
00:27:17,504 --> 00:27:19,843
to try rudimentary tasks.

551
00:27:19,843 --> 00:27:21,833
- Keep going.

552
00:27:21,833 --> 00:27:24,623
- The axiom in rehabilitation was

553
00:27:24,623 --> 00:27:27,663
that there was nothing you
could do with these people

554
00:27:27,663 --> 00:27:30,069
that would make them improve,

555
00:27:30,069 --> 00:27:33,433
that would enable them to use
their affected extremities

556
00:27:33,433 --> 00:27:35,557
any better than they could.

557
00:27:36,521 --> 00:27:38,066
- Judy had trouble communicating.

558
00:27:38,066 --> 00:27:42,374
She had a very serious
stroke October 24th.

559
00:27:42,374 --> 00:27:46,807
- One of the techniques that
we use is called shaping.

560
00:27:46,807 --> 00:27:51,726
It's a kind of training technique
in which you get a person

561
00:27:51,726 --> 00:27:55,953
to improve their motor response,

562
00:27:55,953 --> 00:28:00,379
their motor function, in very small steps.

563
00:28:00,379 --> 00:28:03,869
- The essence of the cure is
this incremental training.

564
00:28:03,869 --> 00:28:07,077
Concentrated practice
helps rewire the brain

565
00:28:07,077 --> 00:28:09,515
by triggering plastic changes.

566
00:28:09,515 --> 00:28:11,731
After there has been massive brain death,

567
00:28:11,731 --> 00:28:15,139
new neurons are recruited
to take over lost functions.

568
00:28:17,399 --> 00:28:19,684
- Pick that up, and back up.

569
00:28:19,684 --> 00:28:22,262
- [Voiceover] You don't
try and get a person

570
00:28:22,262 --> 00:28:25,074
to perform a perfect movement

571
00:28:25,074 --> 00:28:28,219
if they have just the rudimentary ability.

572
00:28:28,219 --> 00:28:33,219
You just try to get them to
improve just a little bit.

573
00:28:33,261 --> 00:28:35,627
- Good, good. Stretch it out.

574
00:28:35,627 --> 00:28:37,064
Stretch, stretch, stretch.

575
00:28:37,064 --> 00:28:39,980
- They're children's games to us,

576
00:28:39,980 --> 00:28:42,950
but to the patients,

577
00:28:42,950 --> 00:28:45,440
they're major life challenges.

578
00:28:47,561 --> 00:28:49,200
- Hello Mr. Taylor, how are you?

579
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:50,384
- Fine, thanks.

580
00:28:50,384 --> 00:28:51,764
- Good effort, that's great.

581
00:28:51,764 --> 00:28:53,672
Alright, show us what's
on your other hand.

582
00:28:53,672 --> 00:28:54,451
- This one?

583
00:28:54,451 --> 00:28:55,390
- That's the mitt.

584
00:28:55,390 --> 00:28:57,458
- He wears it all day here,
and then when he goes home,

585
00:28:57,458 --> 00:29:00,258
he wears it for as many of
his waking hours as he can.

586
00:29:00,258 --> 00:29:01,776
- So that he can't use his good hand?

587
00:29:01,776 --> 00:29:03,176
- Right.

588
00:29:03,176 --> 00:29:04,838
Alright, ready, set, go.

589
00:29:06,743 --> 00:29:09,709
Really control it, really control it.

590
00:29:09,709 --> 00:29:13,171
- People who've had stroke
or traumatic brain injury

591
00:29:13,171 --> 00:29:16,882
frequently don't use
the more affected arm,

592
00:29:16,882 --> 00:29:19,234
not because they can't use it.

593
00:29:20,295 --> 00:29:22,391
They don't use it, because they've learned

594
00:29:22,391 --> 00:29:24,130
not to try to use it.

595
00:29:25,423 --> 00:29:26,454
- Nice.

596
00:29:26,454 --> 00:29:28,159
Take it back.

597
00:29:28,159 --> 00:29:29,785
31.74, that's better.

598
00:29:29,785 --> 00:29:31,733
That's seven seconds faster.

599
00:29:31,733 --> 00:29:35,616
- What we find after CI therapy

600
00:29:35,616 --> 00:29:39,947
is that the healthy part of the brain

601
00:29:39,947 --> 00:29:44,947
is recruited to produce
movements of the affected arm,

602
00:29:47,417 --> 00:29:51,857
and that is what we call neuroplasticity.

603
00:29:55,852 --> 00:29:57,105
- Taub's technique developed

604
00:29:57,105 --> 00:30:00,703
because he had spent years
doing a form of research

605
00:30:00,703 --> 00:30:04,027
that involved something
called deafferentation.

606
00:30:04,027 --> 00:30:06,742
Afferent nerves are
basically like sensory nerves

607
00:30:06,742 --> 00:30:09,801
that feed information from
the limbs to the spine.

608
00:30:11,552 --> 00:30:13,909
Ed Taub deafferented some monkeys

609
00:30:13,909 --> 00:30:15,785
so that they couldn't use their arms.

610
00:30:15,785 --> 00:30:19,060
Then he decided to take
their deafferented arms

611
00:30:19,060 --> 00:30:20,735
and put them in slings.

612
00:30:22,818 --> 00:30:25,944
- This is a unilaterally
deafferented animal.

613
00:30:25,944 --> 00:30:30,008
The right hand is the
afferented, the right arm.

614
00:30:30,008 --> 00:30:32,394
And the left arm is normal.

615
00:30:33,333 --> 00:30:36,387
- You deafferent one limb in a monkey,

616
00:30:36,387 --> 00:30:39,960
and the monkey doesn't
use that limb again.

617
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:40,961
However, on the basis

618
00:30:40,961 --> 00:30:43,868
of this really rather short intervention,

619
00:30:43,868 --> 00:30:47,798
one week of placing the
animal in a restraining device

620
00:30:47,798 --> 00:30:51,735
that prevented him from
using the intact arm,

621
00:30:51,735 --> 00:30:53,806
he began using the deafferented arm.

622
00:30:53,806 --> 00:30:56,934
And then, when you removed him
from the restraining device,

623
00:30:56,934 --> 00:31:00,793
he would use the limb again
for the rest of his life.

624
00:31:01,917 --> 00:31:04,008
- When the animal is very hungry,

625
00:31:04,008 --> 00:31:07,284
we can increase his
motivation sufficiently

626
00:31:07,284 --> 00:31:11,263
to try and force him to
use the deafferented limb.

627
00:31:12,606 --> 00:31:15,361
With adequate training,
the afferented animals

628
00:31:15,361 --> 00:31:17,257
were capable of carrying out

629
00:31:17,257 --> 00:31:20,275
virtually every major
category of movement.

630
00:31:21,821 --> 00:31:23,875
- Taub was now very
excited, because he wondered

631
00:31:23,875 --> 00:31:25,681
if this thinking could now be applied

632
00:31:25,681 --> 00:31:27,900
to human beings who suffered strokes.

633
00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:30,201
- If you could get the same result

634
00:31:30,201 --> 00:31:32,915
in human beings after stroke,

635
00:31:32,915 --> 00:31:37,333
you would then have an enormously powerful

636
00:31:37,333 --> 00:31:40,776
and effective way of treating stroke,

637
00:31:40,776 --> 00:31:43,959
and traumatic brain injury,
and other types of damage

638
00:31:43,959 --> 00:31:47,671
to the central nervous
system in human beings.

639
00:31:47,671 --> 00:31:49,027
- Keep going.

640
00:31:49,970 --> 00:31:52,171
- It turns out that
Taub's technique is good

641
00:31:52,171 --> 00:31:55,256
for many conditions beyond stroke victims.

642
00:31:55,256 --> 00:31:58,115
He's used it with people with
all kinds of brain damage,

643
00:31:58,115 --> 00:32:00,983
including soldiers returning from Iraq,

644
00:32:00,983 --> 00:32:03,200
people who have had their brains damaged

645
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,777
by chemotherapy and radiation.

646
00:32:05,777 --> 00:32:09,097
It's even been used with
children with cerebral palsy

647
00:32:09,097 --> 00:32:11,077
and proven to be effective.

648
00:32:11,914 --> 00:32:14,652
- Squeeze my finger, and let him out.

649
00:32:15,565 --> 00:32:17,614
- Oh, get it, get it, get it.

650
00:32:17,614 --> 00:32:19,681
- Good girl. We're almost done.

651
00:32:19,681 --> 00:32:23,431
- Sometimes, the process goes slowly,

652
00:32:23,431 --> 00:32:27,947
and sometimes it goes remarkably rapidly.

653
00:32:27,947 --> 00:32:32,120
When it goes rapidly, it's
almost like a miracle.

654
00:32:35,531 --> 00:32:37,687
- [Voiceover] Michael
Bernstein is now back at work,

655
00:32:37,687 --> 00:32:40,670
using his hands in very
fine motor activities.

656
00:32:42,535 --> 00:32:46,503
- I only spent 10 days
of therapy with Dr. Taub,

657
00:32:46,503 --> 00:32:48,738
and the result was amazing.

658
00:32:48,738 --> 00:32:50,303
Ok, sit back.

659
00:32:50,303 --> 00:32:51,635
I could almost sense

660
00:32:51,635 --> 00:32:56,388
that each hour of doing a different task,

661
00:32:56,388 --> 00:32:58,406
I improved.

662
00:32:58,406 --> 00:33:01,993
I couldn't make that
movement, or that movement,

663
00:33:01,993 --> 00:33:04,192
or that movement, or that.

664
00:33:05,314 --> 00:33:09,250
Simple movements that are
required in daily life

665
00:33:09,250 --> 00:33:11,724
that you couldn't do
because of the stroke.

666
00:33:11,724 --> 00:33:12,808
Ok, sit back.

667
00:33:13,918 --> 00:33:18,069
(classical music plays on piano)

668
00:33:18,069 --> 00:33:21,423
I hadn't touched a piano in 41 years,

669
00:33:21,423 --> 00:33:24,239
and I decided to get this
performance together.

670
00:33:24,239 --> 00:33:26,234
And I sent out invitations

671
00:33:26,234 --> 00:33:28,702
and invited Dr. Taub and his wife.

672
00:33:32,147 --> 00:33:36,792
- The bottom line is that you can teach

673
00:33:36,792 --> 00:33:39,997
an old dog new tricks.

674
00:33:39,997 --> 00:33:42,745
That principle is at the heart

675
00:33:42,745 --> 00:33:46,301
of a revolution in rehabilitation.

676
00:33:46,301 --> 00:33:50,152
(classical piano music plays)

677
00:33:50,152 --> 00:33:52,863
(audience applauds)

678
00:33:52,863 --> 00:33:54,320
- [Voiceover] Encore, encore!

679
00:34:00,639 --> 00:34:03,101
- One of the most
important lessons I learned

680
00:34:03,101 --> 00:34:05,970
on this quest to
understand neuroplasticity

681
00:34:05,970 --> 00:34:08,801
is something I call the plastic paradox.

682
00:34:08,801 --> 00:34:12,073
The paradox is this,
that the same plasticity

683
00:34:12,073 --> 00:34:13,901
that allows us to change our brains

684
00:34:13,901 --> 00:34:16,186
and produce more flexible behaviors

685
00:34:16,186 --> 00:34:19,300
is also the source of many
of our most rigid ones.

686
00:34:20,399 --> 00:34:23,407
All people start out
with plastic potential.

687
00:34:23,407 --> 00:34:25,385
Some of us, as we grow and develop,

688
00:34:25,385 --> 00:34:27,694
enhance that flexibility.

689
00:34:27,694 --> 00:34:30,107
For others, the spontaneity, creativity,

690
00:34:30,107 --> 00:34:33,009
and unpredictability
of childhood gives way

691
00:34:33,009 --> 00:34:36,779
to a routinized existence
that repeats the same behavior

692
00:34:36,779 --> 00:34:40,614
and turns us into rigid
caricatures of ourselves.

693
00:34:40,614 --> 00:34:44,118
Anything that involves unvaried
repetition, our careers,

694
00:34:44,118 --> 00:34:47,894
cultural activities, skills
repeated, and neuroses,

695
00:34:47,894 --> 00:34:49,733
can lead to rigidity.

696
00:34:52,678 --> 00:34:54,510
- For a while, people had this notion

697
00:34:54,510 --> 00:34:56,718
that plasticity must be a good thing.

698
00:34:56,718 --> 00:34:58,534
It's a good thing that
the brain can change,

699
00:34:58,534 --> 00:35:00,447
because we can learn new things.

700
00:35:00,447 --> 00:35:02,053
And that's true.

701
00:35:02,053 --> 00:35:05,992
But if plasticity is an
intrinsic property of the brain,

702
00:35:05,992 --> 00:35:09,204
it's neither good nor bad,
it's just the way it is.

703
00:35:12,945 --> 00:35:17,082
- Alvaro Pascual-Leone is
elegant, charismatic, warm,

704
00:35:17,082 --> 00:35:20,737
mellifluous, expressive, and
whenever he does something,

705
00:35:20,737 --> 00:35:23,928
he radiates a very serious
sense of playfulness.

706
00:35:29,066 --> 00:35:32,259
- I'm just going to start with
a relatively low intensity

707
00:35:32,259 --> 00:35:34,398
so you have a sense of what it feels like.

708
00:35:34,398 --> 00:35:36,611
I've done this enough that I have a sense

709
00:35:36,611 --> 00:35:38,967
of where your motor cortex is going to be.

710
00:35:38,967 --> 00:35:43,062
TMS stands for transcranial
magnetic stimulation,

711
00:35:43,062 --> 00:35:46,616
and it is a way to
stimulate, to apply currents

712
00:35:46,616 --> 00:35:48,383
to specific parts of the brain,

713
00:35:48,383 --> 00:35:50,793
but without having to cut open the skin,

714
00:35:50,793 --> 00:35:54,595
crack open the bone, and expose the brain.

715
00:35:54,595 --> 00:35:55,576
(machine pops loudly)

716
00:35:55,576 --> 00:35:57,265
- Oh wow, that was my bicep.

717
00:35:58,712 --> 00:35:59,838
(machine pops loudly)

718
00:35:59,838 --> 00:36:02,563
- That's sort of more your little finger.

719
00:36:02,563 --> 00:36:05,099
- You know, one of the things
that we've learned from TMS

720
00:36:05,099 --> 00:36:07,820
is that we can use it to map the brain.

721
00:36:07,820 --> 00:36:09,747
We can use it to understand

722
00:36:09,747 --> 00:36:12,370
how brain activity relates to behavior.

723
00:36:13,709 --> 00:36:17,105
We can also use it to modify the brain.

724
00:36:17,105 --> 00:36:20,494
We can use it, depending on
the parameters of stimulation,

725
00:36:20,494 --> 00:36:23,248
to actually increase activity
in a part of the brain,

726
00:36:23,248 --> 00:36:25,800
or to suppress activity
in a part of the brain.

727
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,019
So I'm just going to
target your language area.

728
00:36:29,019 --> 00:36:31,503
Then, we'll give you a little
feel of what it is like

729
00:36:31,503 --> 00:36:34,252
when people are trying to speak and can't

730
00:36:34,252 --> 00:36:35,982
because of a stroke in that area.

731
00:36:35,982 --> 00:36:36,886
- Go ahead.

732
00:36:36,886 --> 00:36:41,004
One, two, three, four, five,

733
00:36:41,004 --> 00:36:41,985
(machine clicks rapidly)

734
00:36:41,985 --> 00:36:46,565
six, seven, eight, nine. (voice shakes)

735
00:36:46,565 --> 00:36:47,664
It's getting tough.

736
00:36:48,763 --> 00:36:50,245
I was so slurring my speech.

737
00:36:50,245 --> 00:36:50,798
- Mmm-hmmm.

738
00:36:53,658 --> 00:36:55,909
- Pascual-Leone is now expanding his work

739
00:36:55,909 --> 00:36:58,424
to look at the autistic
spectrum, which includes

740
00:36:58,424 --> 00:37:02,158
the childhood disorder
of autism and Asperger's.

741
00:37:02,158 --> 00:37:03,849
And his working hypothesis is

742
00:37:03,849 --> 00:37:07,732
that they're both a product of
hyperplasticity in the brain.

743
00:37:07,732 --> 00:37:10,855
If the brain is plastic,
and we believe it is,

744
00:37:12,485 --> 00:37:14,301
can plasticity itself,

745
00:37:14,301 --> 00:37:16,706
can the mechanisms of
plasticity themselves

746
00:37:16,706 --> 00:37:20,432
be abnormal in certain conditions?

747
00:37:24,461 --> 00:37:27,858
Could it be that one
has too much plasticity?

748
00:37:27,858 --> 00:37:31,838
And we think that autism,
autism spectrum disorders,

749
00:37:31,838 --> 00:37:33,381
are exactly that.

750
00:37:35,893 --> 00:37:38,141
- There are certain things
in autism and Asperger's

751
00:37:38,141 --> 00:37:40,947
that involve a hypersensitivity,
and he's wondering

752
00:37:40,947 --> 00:37:43,770
whether these
hypersensitivities are related

753
00:37:43,770 --> 00:37:45,875
to a very over-connected brain

754
00:37:45,875 --> 00:37:48,563
that's formed many, many
plastic connections.

755
00:37:49,664 --> 00:37:54,065
- So that autism can generate
an abnormal plasticity,

756
00:37:54,065 --> 00:37:56,564
an excessive plasticity in fact.

757
00:38:00,054 --> 00:38:03,396
When the brain is excessively connected,

758
00:38:03,396 --> 00:38:04,940
it doesn't function well.

759
00:38:04,940 --> 00:38:06,481
There is recurrent thoughts,

760
00:38:06,481 --> 00:38:08,212
there is intrusions of thoughts,

761
00:38:08,212 --> 00:38:12,523
there is repetitive behaviors,
ritualistic behaviors.

762
00:38:15,896 --> 00:38:18,777
If we are right, if the
hypothesis is correct,

763
00:38:18,777 --> 00:38:21,119
then we would be able to use

764
00:38:21,119 --> 00:38:25,065
the capacity of brain
stimulation to modulate activity

765
00:38:25,065 --> 00:38:30,065
to suppress that plasticity
tendency, and therefore,

766
00:38:30,257 --> 00:38:33,916
hopefully, to help with the
symptoms of disease themselves.

767
00:38:38,791 --> 00:38:41,364
Pascual-Leone's remarkable
experiments have shown

768
00:38:41,364 --> 00:38:44,205
that we can change and
restructure our brain anatomy

769
00:38:44,205 --> 00:38:46,902
simply by using our imaginations.

770
00:38:46,902 --> 00:38:48,739
- One of the things I became interested in

771
00:38:48,739 --> 00:38:51,163
is the question of how do the maps change

772
00:38:51,163 --> 00:38:53,589
when you simply think of things,

773
00:38:53,589 --> 00:38:57,082
when you don't do anything
other than thinking.

774
00:38:59,369 --> 00:39:01,896
We took normal subjects,

775
00:39:01,896 --> 00:39:04,851
and we sat them in front
of a piano and asked them

776
00:39:04,851 --> 00:39:08,201
to learn to do a five-finger
movement exercise.

777
00:39:08,201 --> 00:39:11,346
They just had to go from
thumb to little finger,

778
00:39:11,346 --> 00:39:14,566
back to thumb, back to little
finger at a given rate.

779
00:39:14,566 --> 00:39:18,697
And we found that over
these five days of practice,

780
00:39:18,697 --> 00:39:22,202
the part of the brain that
controls finger flexions,

781
00:39:22,202 --> 00:39:25,130
got larger and larger and larger.

782
00:39:26,365 --> 00:39:28,408
But we had another group of subjects

783
00:39:28,408 --> 00:39:30,590
who simply sat in front of the piano

784
00:39:30,590 --> 00:39:33,097
and imagined themselves moving.

785
00:39:33,097 --> 00:39:35,949
And we made sure that they did not move,

786
00:39:35,949 --> 00:39:38,625
but simply mentally rehearsed the actions.

787
00:39:39,683 --> 00:39:42,874
What we found in them is
that the brain changed

788
00:39:42,874 --> 00:39:46,000
in exactly the same way as in those

789
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,157
that actually physically practiced.

790
00:39:48,157 --> 00:39:50,094
So the idea is that

791
00:39:50,094 --> 00:39:53,768
just thinking will change your brain.

792
00:39:54,968 --> 00:39:57,105
And what that ultimately means is

793
00:39:57,105 --> 00:40:00,766
that one needs to be careful
with what one thinks.

794
00:40:01,654 --> 00:40:04,391
- This beautiful experiment
complements the work

795
00:40:04,391 --> 00:40:07,857
of Nobel Prize-winning
psychiatrist Eric Kandel,

796
00:40:07,857 --> 00:40:10,630
who showed that thinking
actually turns on genes

797
00:40:10,630 --> 00:40:15,220
inside neurons to form new
connections between brain cells.

798
00:40:15,220 --> 00:40:17,902
And this idea is further
complemented by brain scans

799
00:40:17,902 --> 00:40:20,474
which show that psychoanalytic, cognitive,

800
00:40:20,474 --> 00:40:23,984
and other psychotherapies also
change the brain's structure

801
00:40:23,984 --> 00:40:26,435
through the use of thought alone.

802
00:40:28,935 --> 00:40:31,335
- I think we're now
learning that, in fact,

803
00:40:31,335 --> 00:40:34,093
the brain is changing all the time,

804
00:40:34,093 --> 00:40:37,229
that the brain is changing
with everything we think,

805
00:40:37,229 --> 00:40:40,090
with everything we experience,

806
00:40:40,090 --> 00:40:44,609
that plasticity is an intrinsic
property of the brain.

807
00:40:44,609 --> 00:40:47,810
And it's not something you
can switch on and switch off.

808
00:40:47,810 --> 00:40:49,223
It's simply there.

809
00:40:49,223 --> 00:40:52,879
And so the challenge is
to learn enough about it

810
00:40:52,879 --> 00:40:55,488
so that you can guide the changes.

811
00:41:04,881 --> 00:41:06,036
- My name's Derek Steen.

812
00:41:06,036 --> 00:41:07,412
I'm 41 years old.

813
00:41:07,412 --> 00:41:08,838
Grew up here in San Diego.

814
00:41:09,968 --> 00:41:12,268
And was involved in a pretty traumatic

815
00:41:12,268 --> 00:41:14,482
motorcycle accident in 1985.

816
00:41:19,150 --> 00:41:20,965
- When we wish to perfect our senses,

817
00:41:20,965 --> 00:41:23,032
neuroplasticity can be a blessing.

818
00:41:23,032 --> 00:41:25,003
But when it works in the service of pain,

819
00:41:25,003 --> 00:41:26,463
it can be a curse.

820
00:41:28,834 --> 00:41:31,644
- There's days where I just
feel phantom pain in the hand,

821
00:41:31,644 --> 00:41:34,925
and it feels like my hand's
being crushed in a vice.

822
00:41:34,925 --> 00:41:37,963
- Plasticity can also
result in phantom pain

823
00:41:37,963 --> 00:41:39,871
because of the reorganization
that's taking place

824
00:41:39,871 --> 00:41:41,423
after the amputation.

825
00:41:41,423 --> 00:41:42,924
There is a mis-wiring.

826
00:41:42,924 --> 00:41:44,861
Maybe some of the touch input

827
00:41:44,861 --> 00:41:47,398
is going and activating
pain areas in the brain.

828
00:41:50,163 --> 00:41:52,175
- Our guide to neuroplasticity and pain

829
00:41:52,175 --> 00:41:55,166
is one of the most intriguing
of the neuroplasticians,

830
00:41:55,166 --> 00:41:56,995
V.S. Ramachandran.

831
00:41:59,076 --> 00:42:02,864
Ramachandran is the magical
wizard of modern neuroscience.

832
00:42:02,864 --> 00:42:06,431
He is the man who uses
illusions to combat illusions

833
00:42:06,431 --> 00:42:10,695
and imagination to change
the brain and its contents.

834
00:42:10,695 --> 00:42:14,667
- Many patients with phantom
limbs can move their phantom.

835
00:42:14,667 --> 00:42:16,539
But I found that in some patients,

836
00:42:16,539 --> 00:42:18,216
maybe as many as a third,

837
00:42:18,216 --> 00:42:19,750
the phantom is immobilized.

838
00:42:19,750 --> 00:42:20,850
The patient will say things like,

839
00:42:20,850 --> 00:42:22,480
"It's frozen in stone."

840
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:26,107
- After the amputation, my body actually,

841
00:42:26,107 --> 00:42:27,740
I could still feel the left arm

842
00:42:27,740 --> 00:42:29,850
in the sling sitting on my stomach.

843
00:42:32,202 --> 00:42:35,134
When I would try to make
that phantom hand move,

844
00:42:36,085 --> 00:42:37,412
it created pain.

845
00:42:37,412 --> 00:42:38,366
- Hey Derek, how are you doing?

846
00:42:38,366 --> 00:42:39,004
- Good.

847
00:42:39,004 --> 00:42:40,666
- Good to see you back here again.

848
00:42:40,666 --> 00:42:41,257
- Thank you.

849
00:42:41,257 --> 00:42:42,967
- No one really knew what triggered

850
00:42:42,967 --> 00:42:45,507
the movement or pain in a phantom.

851
00:42:45,507 --> 00:42:48,110
Ramachandran wondered, was it possible

852
00:42:48,110 --> 00:42:51,422
that the face maps in
people with amputated limbs

853
00:42:51,422 --> 00:42:54,148
had somehow invaded the
maps for their arms.

854
00:42:55,909 --> 00:42:56,661
- What do you feel?

855
00:42:56,661 --> 00:42:58,910
- I can feel a stroking
across the phantom hand.

856
00:42:58,910 --> 00:43:00,070
- Stroking right across the phantom hand?

857
00:43:00,070 --> 00:43:01,322
- And my face.

858
00:43:01,322 --> 00:43:04,276
- First of all, in normal
people, the entire skin surface

859
00:43:04,276 --> 00:43:06,644
is mapped onto the
opposite side of the brain.

860
00:43:06,644 --> 00:43:09,171
Now it turns out,
there's a systematic map,

861
00:43:09,171 --> 00:43:11,229
but the hand region on the map

862
00:43:11,229 --> 00:43:16,009
is right next to the face
region in that brain map.

863
00:43:16,009 --> 00:43:17,905
- How about, let's go back there.

864
00:43:17,905 --> 00:43:19,232
- It's towards the little finger.

865
00:43:19,232 --> 00:43:20,547
- Towards the little pinkie, you said?

866
00:43:21,657 --> 00:43:23,297
- After the arm has been amputated,

867
00:43:23,297 --> 00:43:24,756
there's a massive sensory loss.

868
00:43:24,756 --> 00:43:27,347
There's no sensory input to
the hand region of the brain.

869
00:43:27,347 --> 00:43:29,499
If you now touch the patient's face,

870
00:43:29,499 --> 00:43:33,947
the message goes not only to
the face area, as it should,

871
00:43:33,947 --> 00:43:36,492
but also invades the vacated territory

872
00:43:36,492 --> 00:43:38,262
corresponding to the missing hand.

873
00:43:38,262 --> 00:43:39,375
- Here?

874
00:43:39,375 --> 00:43:40,964
- Index finger.

875
00:43:40,964 --> 00:43:41,990
- Here?

876
00:43:41,990 --> 00:43:42,844
- Thumb.

877
00:43:42,844 --> 00:43:44,563
- If I,

878
00:43:44,563 --> 00:43:46,162
- I can feel the tapping on the hand.

879
00:43:46,162 --> 00:43:47,193
- You feel the tapping on the hand.

880
00:43:47,193 --> 00:43:48,092
- Mm-hmm.

881
00:43:48,092 --> 00:43:50,718
- Here was striking
evidence for plasticity

882
00:43:50,718 --> 00:43:52,355
in the adult human brain.

883
00:43:52,355 --> 00:43:55,493
In three weeks after
amputation, the face input

884
00:43:55,493 --> 00:43:59,108
now activates the original
hand area of the brain.

885
00:43:59,108 --> 00:44:01,624
- Ramachandran wondered
if it would be possible

886
00:44:01,624 --> 00:44:04,759
to fight one illusion, a
phantom limb, with another.

887
00:44:04,759 --> 00:44:06,253
What if he could trick the brain

888
00:44:06,253 --> 00:44:08,163
to think that the limb was moving

889
00:44:08,163 --> 00:44:11,259
by giving it some kind of false input?

890
00:44:11,259 --> 00:44:13,121
- So I want you to look in the mirror.

891
00:44:13,121 --> 00:44:14,861
Put your right hand there.

892
00:44:14,861 --> 00:44:17,854
And look at the reflection
of the right hand.

893
00:44:17,854 --> 00:44:19,822
Position the phantom sort of, roughly,

894
00:44:19,822 --> 00:44:22,549
so that it's kind of superimposed.

895
00:44:22,549 --> 00:44:24,121
- He asked me to come
down to his office one day

896
00:44:24,121 --> 00:44:26,888
and said he had something
new he wanted me to look at.

897
00:44:26,888 --> 00:44:29,267
And he explained to me
that he had a student

898
00:44:29,267 --> 00:44:31,281
that had built a mirror-box.

899
00:44:31,281 --> 00:44:33,636
- Do you feel anything in your phantom?

900
00:44:33,636 --> 00:44:35,038
- I can feel my phantom.

901
00:44:35,038 --> 00:44:40,038
And I sat down, I put my hand
in the box, and I'm hurting.

902
00:44:40,232 --> 00:44:42,105
The phantom pain's flaring up.

903
00:44:42,105 --> 00:44:43,698
And I look in the box.

904
00:44:48,508 --> 00:44:50,606
And he said, "Look at your right hand,

905
00:44:50,606 --> 00:44:52,482
"and start moving your fingers,

906
00:44:52,482 --> 00:44:55,681
"and imagine your phantom
left-hand fingers moving."

907
00:44:58,420 --> 00:45:01,030
- What you're doing here
is using one illusion,

908
00:45:01,030 --> 00:45:04,381
namely vision, to negate, quote-unquote,

909
00:45:04,381 --> 00:45:05,361
the illusion of pain.

910
00:45:05,361 --> 00:45:08,104
Because pain, too, is
an illusion of sorts.

911
00:45:08,104 --> 00:45:09,012
- Now I want you to tell me,

912
00:45:09,012 --> 00:45:10,497
what do you feel when you do that?

913
00:45:10,497 --> 00:45:14,019
- I can feel slow movement

914
00:45:14,019 --> 00:45:16,452
and resistance in the phantom hand.

915
00:45:16,452 --> 00:45:18,059
It was very shocking.

916
00:45:19,166 --> 00:45:21,984
Imagine moving your fingers and having

917
00:45:21,984 --> 00:45:23,106
(laughs)

918
00:45:23,106 --> 00:45:26,087
a spirit go through and not touch.

919
00:45:29,714 --> 00:45:31,980
- So what we saw in
Derek was quite amazing.

920
00:45:31,980 --> 00:45:33,956
Initially, he said the
phantom was moving again

921
00:45:33,956 --> 00:45:35,375
when he looked in the mirror.

922
00:45:35,375 --> 00:45:36,796
When he closed his eyes,

923
00:45:36,796 --> 00:45:38,743
of course the phantom was
immobilized and didn't move.

924
00:45:38,743 --> 00:45:41,707
When he opened his eyes
again, it started moving.

925
00:45:41,707 --> 00:45:44,742
So we immediately knew that
vision provides a critical role.

926
00:45:44,742 --> 00:45:48,187
You need to restore that
whole visual-motor congruence.

927
00:45:48,187 --> 00:45:49,978
And that's what seems to relieve the pain.

928
00:45:54,100 --> 00:45:55,310
- So Derek, we want to try something

929
00:45:55,310 --> 00:45:57,198
a little bit different, ok?

930
00:45:57,198 --> 00:45:59,502
So, where's your phantom now?

931
00:45:59,502 --> 00:46:00,684
- I can,

932
00:46:00,684 --> 00:46:01,797
- Sort of roughly in that region?

933
00:46:01,797 --> 00:46:02,369
- Yeah.

934
00:46:02,369 --> 00:46:02,932
- Ok.

935
00:46:02,932 --> 00:46:04,555
Another thing we have recently observed,

936
00:46:04,555 --> 00:46:07,227
this is very striking, and
it's absolutely amazing.

937
00:46:07,227 --> 00:46:09,473
It blew my mind when I first saw it.

938
00:46:09,473 --> 00:46:11,240
I'm gonna put my hand here.

939
00:46:11,240 --> 00:46:12,130
- Ok.

940
00:46:12,130 --> 00:46:14,345
- And I'm just gonna either
stroke it, or tap it,

941
00:46:14,345 --> 00:46:15,650
or do something with
it, and I want to know

942
00:46:15,650 --> 00:46:17,897
if you feel anything on
your face, on your shoulder.

943
00:46:17,897 --> 00:46:20,237
You have a patient with a phantom limb.

944
00:46:20,237 --> 00:46:22,969
And the patient simply
watching the normal person

945
00:46:22,969 --> 00:46:25,072
being poked, and stroked, and touched,

946
00:46:25,072 --> 00:46:28,073
he starts feeling the
pokes, touches, and strokes

947
00:46:28,073 --> 00:46:29,957
in his missing phantom hand.

948
00:46:36,069 --> 00:46:38,150
- I can feel a vague tapping.

949
00:46:38,150 --> 00:46:39,118
- And this blew my mind.

950
00:46:39,118 --> 00:46:40,910
It's almost like X Files.

951
00:46:40,910 --> 00:46:42,598
It's empathy carried to the extreme.

952
00:46:42,598 --> 00:46:43,763
Now, why does it happen?

953
00:46:43,763 --> 00:46:44,986
Again, it turns out,

954
00:46:44,986 --> 00:46:47,464
there's a perfectly logical explanation

955
00:46:47,464 --> 00:46:49,749
based on what we know of
the anatomy of the brain.

956
00:46:51,164 --> 00:46:54,405
If I am a normal person
and somebody touches me,

957
00:46:54,405 --> 00:46:56,345
sensory neurons in my brain fire.

958
00:46:56,345 --> 00:46:57,214
- I feel tapping.

959
00:46:57,214 --> 00:46:58,188
- You feel tapping on your phantom?

960
00:46:58,188 --> 00:46:58,854
- Yes.

961
00:47:00,354 --> 00:47:02,086
- Astonishingly, some of these neurons,

962
00:47:02,086 --> 00:47:04,090
touch-neurons in my brain,

963
00:47:04,090 --> 00:47:07,894
will fire when somebody touches you.

964
00:47:07,894 --> 00:47:11,639
And these are called mirror
neurons, for obvious reasons.

965
00:47:11,639 --> 00:47:14,868
This neuron, which I call a Gandhi neuron,

966
00:47:14,868 --> 00:47:17,106
is actually dissolving the barrier

967
00:47:17,106 --> 00:47:18,723
between you and another human being.

968
00:47:18,723 --> 00:47:20,391
That neuron doesn't know the difference

969
00:47:20,391 --> 00:47:22,414
between whether he's being
touched or you're being touched.

970
00:47:22,414 --> 00:47:24,252
How 'bout if I do that?

971
00:47:24,252 --> 00:47:25,987
Clinically they may be important,

972
00:47:25,987 --> 00:47:29,794
because these neurons may be
revived using visual input,

973
00:47:29,794 --> 00:47:31,045
and it may be one reason

974
00:47:31,045 --> 00:47:33,931
there's recovery from paralysis
using visual feedback.

975
00:47:36,470 --> 00:47:41,381
The idea of neural plasticity
is quite beyond any doubt now.

976
00:47:41,381 --> 00:47:43,446
There is a tremendous
amount of malleability,

977
00:47:43,446 --> 00:47:44,657
and we can tap into this,

978
00:47:44,657 --> 00:47:46,552
maybe even to enhance brain function,

979
00:47:46,552 --> 00:47:49,311
certainly to accelerate
recovery of brain function.

980
00:47:50,188 --> 00:47:52,566
It's essentially a new era of research

981
00:47:52,566 --> 00:47:54,924
in brain plasticity and
clinical applications.

982
00:48:04,063 --> 00:48:05,969
- And this is a double letter.

983
00:48:05,969 --> 00:48:07,576
Two, three, four,

984
00:48:07,576 --> 00:48:09,640
eight, sixteen, twenty-four.

985
00:48:10,798 --> 00:48:14,001
- [Voiceover] When Michelle
was just a few weeks old,

986
00:48:14,001 --> 00:48:17,798
I noticed that she didn't
have all the normal movements

987
00:48:17,798 --> 00:48:19,972
that the other babies had had.

988
00:48:19,972 --> 00:48:22,714
And I remember telling Wally,

989
00:48:22,714 --> 00:48:25,560
"Something's wrong with Michelle."

990
00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:27,138
- I went to visit Michelle Mack,

991
00:48:27,138 --> 00:48:29,590
because I wanted to test the upper limits

992
00:48:29,590 --> 00:48:32,301
of human neuroplasticity.

993
00:48:32,301 --> 00:48:35,252
Something catastrophic
happened in Michelle's brain

994
00:48:35,252 --> 00:48:36,892
when she was in the womb.

995
00:48:36,892 --> 00:48:38,275
We don't know what it was,

996
00:48:38,275 --> 00:48:41,800
but for some reason one of her
hemispheres never developed.

997
00:48:48,546 --> 00:48:50,693
Michelle Mack is a woman who was born

998
00:48:50,693 --> 00:48:52,315
with just half a brain.

999
00:48:53,895 --> 00:48:58,047
- I was born missing the
left hemisphere of my brain.

1000
00:48:58,047 --> 00:49:02,550
My parents weren't given
enough information,

1001
00:49:02,550 --> 00:49:07,294
because at that time,
there were no MRI machines,

1002
00:49:07,294 --> 00:49:10,163
and that my brain would only progress

1003
00:49:10,163 --> 00:49:12,895
until I was about 11 and then stop.

1004
00:49:16,043 --> 00:49:16,902
- Carol brought Michelle

1005
00:49:16,902 --> 00:49:19,150
to the National Institutes
of Health in Maryland,

1006
00:49:19,150 --> 00:49:22,114
because she'd read an
article by Dr. Jordan Grafman

1007
00:49:22,114 --> 00:49:24,732
that contradicted everything
she had learned about the brain

1008
00:49:24,732 --> 00:49:27,400
and been told about Michelle's prognosis.

1009
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:28,661
- It's dramatic.

1010
00:49:28,661 --> 00:49:32,903
It includes not only the
cortex, but her left thalamus,

1011
00:49:32,903 --> 00:49:34,266
it's all missing.

1012
00:49:34,266 --> 00:49:36,292
- Dr. Grafman had worked with people

1013
00:49:36,292 --> 00:49:38,124
who had severe brain damage,

1014
00:49:38,124 --> 00:49:39,977
including a lot of Vietnam vets,

1015
00:49:39,977 --> 00:49:42,516
and was able to show
that brain development

1016
00:49:42,516 --> 00:49:44,935
could take place after a trauma.

1017
00:49:44,935 --> 00:49:47,479
- And it's important to merge

1018
00:49:47,479 --> 00:49:49,774
the sort of brain anatomy picture

1019
00:49:49,774 --> 00:49:51,713
with the person as a whole.

1020
00:49:54,030 --> 00:49:57,359
Michelle's brain works
much in the same way

1021
00:49:57,359 --> 00:49:59,011
that our brains might work,

1022
00:49:59,011 --> 00:50:02,099
but the functions that
are available to her

1023
00:50:02,099 --> 00:50:04,136
are somewhat more restricted.

1024
00:50:04,136 --> 00:50:06,756
- Some of the things she has trouble with

1025
00:50:06,756 --> 00:50:09,972
are when something is very vague.

1026
00:50:12,662 --> 00:50:15,661
- Anything that's not concrete.

1027
00:50:17,403 --> 00:50:20,487
- Grafman's theory provides
a compelling explanation

1028
00:50:20,487 --> 00:50:22,704
as to how Michelle's right hemisphere

1029
00:50:22,704 --> 00:50:24,668
took over so many of the functions

1030
00:50:24,668 --> 00:50:26,593
that are normally governed by the left.

1031
00:50:29,107 --> 00:50:32,343
- We know that now that she
can perform certain skills

1032
00:50:32,343 --> 00:50:35,660
that the left hemisphere
ordinarily subserves,

1033
00:50:35,660 --> 00:50:37,973
they must now be located
in the right hemisphere.

1034
00:50:37,973 --> 00:50:41,390
So we know she's had
some dramatic plasticity

1035
00:50:41,390 --> 00:50:44,558
to enable her to have
normal verbal skills,

1036
00:50:44,558 --> 00:50:46,193
normal verbal memory.

1037
00:50:46,193 --> 00:50:49,203
- You also have a number
of special skills.

1038
00:50:49,203 --> 00:50:50,828
What are some of those?

1039
00:50:50,828 --> 00:50:52,698
- Memorizing dates.

1040
00:50:52,698 --> 00:50:55,092
- Do you remember when I came here last?

1041
00:50:55,092 --> 00:50:55,922
- Yes.

1042
00:50:55,922 --> 00:50:56,523
- When was that?

1043
00:50:56,523 --> 00:50:59,069
- That was in June of 2003.

1044
00:50:59,069 --> 00:51:00,117
- Do you remember what day that was?

1045
00:51:00,117 --> 00:51:03,162
- Yes, that was Thursday,

1046
00:51:03,162 --> 00:51:05,998
June 5th.

1047
00:51:05,998 --> 00:51:09,924
- Let's say we had a
family reunion in Colorado.

1048
00:51:09,924 --> 00:51:14,924
- Sunday, July 9th to Sunday, July 16th,

1049
00:51:15,232 --> 00:51:16,730
2000.

1050
00:51:16,730 --> 00:51:20,996
- How about July 17th, 1989?

1051
00:51:21,956 --> 00:51:24,120
- That was a Monday.

1052
00:51:25,100 --> 00:51:26,925
- And how did you do that?

1053
00:51:26,925 --> 00:51:27,854
- I don't know.

1054
00:51:29,502 --> 00:51:31,747
- Hi. Hello.

1055
00:51:31,747 --> 00:51:32,795
- Hello, how are you doing?

1056
00:51:32,795 --> 00:51:33,399
- I'm fine.

1057
00:51:33,399 --> 00:51:34,805
- Well, we've learned from her

1058
00:51:34,805 --> 00:51:38,120
these general concepts about plasticity.

1059
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:41,289
And I think now what
we're going to try to do

1060
00:51:41,289 --> 00:51:43,717
is to study them in more detail.

1061
00:51:43,717 --> 00:51:46,359
You have part of your brain
missing from that area,

1062
00:51:46,359 --> 00:51:48,080
but you talk pretty much
- [Michelle] Normally.

1063
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:48,628
- like I do.

1064
00:51:48,628 --> 00:51:49,658
Right, exactly.

1065
00:51:49,658 --> 00:51:53,490
So we want to see what the
limits are of this plasticity

1066
00:51:53,490 --> 00:51:56,234
and whether, under some restrictions,

1067
00:51:56,234 --> 00:51:58,404
we can influence the
plasticity in some way

1068
00:51:58,404 --> 00:52:00,480
to promote certain functions

1069
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:04,020
that the family and the
child would benefit from.

1070
00:52:06,844 --> 00:52:11,614
- I want people to see that
I function on a normal level,

1071
00:52:11,614 --> 00:52:13,098
even though there's some things

1072
00:52:13,098 --> 00:52:15,443
that I'll never be able to do.

1073
00:52:17,017 --> 00:52:19,402
- When I think of Michelle,
it's hard to imagine

1074
00:52:19,402 --> 00:52:22,692
a better test or illustration
of the resilience

1075
00:52:22,692 --> 00:52:24,494
of human neuroplasticity.

1076
00:52:29,573 --> 00:52:31,726
It may be easy for some people to dismiss

1077
00:52:31,726 --> 00:52:34,239
these fantastic case studies

1078
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:36,362
as anomalies that have little bearing

1079
00:52:36,362 --> 00:52:38,106
on the lives of the rest of us.

1080
00:52:39,491 --> 00:52:40,541
- Many people react by saying,

1081
00:52:40,541 --> 00:52:41,897
"But that's just one patient.

1082
00:52:41,897 --> 00:52:42,884
"It's an N of 1."

1083
00:52:42,884 --> 00:52:46,517
But my usual rhetorical
response to this is to say:

1084
00:52:46,517 --> 00:52:49,032
Well, look. Supposing I
bring a pig to this podium,

1085
00:52:49,032 --> 00:52:51,326
and I say, "This pig can talk."

1086
00:52:51,326 --> 00:52:52,513
You'll say, "Really?"

1087
00:52:52,513 --> 00:52:54,552
And I wave my wand and it starts talking.

1088
00:52:54,552 --> 00:52:56,237
What would your reaction be?

1089
00:52:56,237 --> 00:52:58,812
You're not gonna say, "Well,
that's just an N of 1.

1090
00:52:58,812 --> 00:52:59,935
"Show me another pig."

1091
00:52:59,935 --> 00:53:02,321
You'd say, "My God, that pig is talking!"

1092
00:53:02,321 --> 00:53:06,134
And yet, the reaction of some
of my colleagues is to say,

1093
00:53:06,134 --> 00:53:08,397
"Show me another talking pig."

1094
00:53:08,397 --> 00:53:10,792
- To understand that we
have within our hands

1095
00:53:10,792 --> 00:53:14,962
this incredible power to
drive changes in the brain

1096
00:53:14,962 --> 00:53:16,333
that accounts for our behavior,

1097
00:53:16,333 --> 00:53:18,797
that is in fact the very
basis of what we are,

1098
00:53:18,797 --> 00:53:20,918
of the person that we are,

1099
00:53:20,918 --> 00:53:22,283
you know, what a gift.

1100
00:53:26,241 --> 00:53:28,395
- The brain that I met in my travels

1101
00:53:28,395 --> 00:53:30,588
turns out to be both a more resilient,

1102
00:53:30,588 --> 00:53:33,583
and a more vulnerable,
brain that we had imagined.

1103
00:53:34,774 --> 00:53:35,831
By being more resilient,

1104
00:53:35,831 --> 00:53:38,576
it stirs up an incredible
amount of hope for people

1105
00:53:38,576 --> 00:53:41,374
with all sorts of brain
and psychological problems.

1106
00:53:43,261 --> 00:53:46,032
What we have been introduced to here

1107
00:53:46,032 --> 00:53:48,904
is the first generation
of neuroplasticians.

1108
00:53:49,866 --> 00:53:54,598
They're just beginning to
elaborate and elucidate the limits

1109
00:53:54,598 --> 00:53:57,235
and what neuroplasticity can do.

1110
00:53:58,845 --> 00:54:01,457
Much awaits us down the road.