All language subtitles for Through the Wormhole s03e08 Mysteries of the Subconscious.eng

Freeman: Inside your head
is an unexplored world.

It holds all that you know,
everything you feel,

and thoughts
you aren't even aware of.

Now science is searching
the hidden reaches of our minds,

decoding its inner language

to discover
our true mental power

and to understand the mysteries
of the subconscious.

Space, time, life itself.

The secrets of the cosmos
lie through the wormhole.

== sync, corrected by elderman ==

The subconscious --

it's the source of our
primal fears and desires,

the wellspring of our dreams,

the place where
our alter egos lurk.

But as modern neuroscience

explores the frontiers
of our minds,

we're discovering

the subconscious controls
our every waking moment.

If we can truly understand
our unthinking minds,

we could all become
smarter, healthier,

and more creative
than we ever dreamed possible.

I was eight years old when I got
on stage for the first time.

I had to re-enact
"Little Boy Blue."

Even though
the poem was only 12 lines long,

I was certain
I was going to mess it up.

But the moment I began to speak,

some hidden part of me
seemed to take over.

The lines flowed out of me
without a hitch.

And I felt like
I wasn't even there.

[ Applause ]

How is it we are able
to do something so complex

without even thinking?

Marcus Raichle
is a neuroscientist

at Washington University
School of Medicine

in St. Louis, Missouri.

He is constantly amazed
at what our brains can do.

Raichle: We have memories

that have to do with
how I move my hands and legs

and all this kind of thing,

for which we have
no conscious sense

of how this is all implemented.

We kind of forget how
complicated these things are.

Freeman: As an amateur musician,

Marcus likes to compare
our brain's separate functions,

like vision, hearing, memory,
and muscle control,

to the individual players
in a musical ensemble.

And for him,

the miracle of the brain is how
it gets these complex systems

to perform in perfect harmony...

[ Orchestra playing ]

Subtitles downloaded from www.OpenSubtitles.org

...rather than like this...

[ Instruments playing off-key ]

After years spent
imaging brains,

Marcus eventually discovered
an entire mental network

that coordinates our movements
with our senses,

and it turns on
the moment you stop thinking.

Raichle: Nobody was even
looking for this.

It was almost by accident.

It came to our attention

that if you just
were laying in a scanner

and we were looking
at your brain

and then we asked you
to do something,

not only did things go up,
but certain things went down.

Freeman: Certain parts
of the brain seem to turn off

whenever we begin a task.

Those same regions
become highly active

whenever we are quiet
and relaxed.

Marcus calls these
linked sections of the brain

the Default Mode Network,

because the brain defaults
to this activity

whenever we are not
doing anything else.

In fact, the brain is just
as active in this default mode

as when we're
consciously doing something.

After careful analysis, Marcus
thinks he understands why.

Raichle: The default mode
is deeply important

in creating an ability

to predict
what's gonna happen next.

I think it's really critical.

Freeman: In the same way that
an ensemble's musical director

organizes the group's music,

the Default Mode Network

organizes
all the functions of the brain

so that mind and body
are always on the same page.

But is our subconscious
always the servant

of our conscious mind?

Or can it also take charge?

Henrik Ehrsson, a neuroscientist
in Stockholm, Sweden,

is obsessed with his body.

In fact,
he thinks about bodies nonstop

because he wants to know

exactly how our minds
control our bodies.

Ehrsson: Well, here I stand,

like a sculpture
of skin and bone and joints.

But I feel alive.

I feel my conscious experience
in my entire body.

My body feels like part of me.

And what I'm interested in is to
understand how can that can be.

How can we have
this experience

of our own body
as part of ourselves,

distinct from
the rest of the world?

Freeman:
Welcome to the Dollhouse.

These limbs, cameras, and knives

are actually part
of a scientific experiment

designed by Henrik

to play with
our subconscious mind's sense

of who and where we are.

Well, we knew that there's
lots of processes in the brain

that we are not aware of that
happens at a subconscious level.

What we try to understand
is what makes those signals

become part of
our conscious experience.

Freeman: A blindfolded subject
is led into a room

with two beds,

one for himself
and the other for a small doll.

Ehrsson: It's important that you try not
to move during the experiment.

Okay?

We use head-mounted displays
that we connect to cameras.

So, there's two screens in front
of the participant eyes.

And each screen is connected
to one video camera,

which we can mount on the head
of a mannequin or a doll.

So when you look down, you don't
see your own body anymore.

You see the doll

from the natural,
first-person perspective.

Freeman: The subject feels
the stroking on his leg

but sees the stroking
on the doll's leg,

so his brain is fooled
into thinking

that the doll's legs
are actually his own.

Ehrsson: And what happens then

is the brain just fuses
what you see and what you feel,

and boom, you feel like
the doll or the mannequin.

We think the brain creates

like an internal model
of your own body,

and we think the brain does that

by integrating all available
information from all the senses

and be part
of making that decision

that "this is me"
or "this is not me."

Freeman: Having tricked
the brain into a false reality,

Henrik can now
tweak that reality

and reveal how powerful
the subconscious actually is.

The researcher threatens
the doll with the knife.

The subject flinches
with horror.

His brain can't help
but expect excruciating pain.

Even after the subject realizes
it was a trick,

he continues
to have the same reaction

when the illusion is repeated.

His conscious experience

cannot override
his subconscious reaction.

Ehrsson:
You can't think it away.

You know it's just,
you know, an experiment.

But you can't help
that bodily feeling of "ugh"

because you feel
that this doll is you,

so your brain just reacts
in a very sort of basic way,

and that signal, this reaction,
is what we're measuring

to really prove
that the illusion is real.

Freeman: One of Henrik's goals

in performing
these unnerving visual illusions

is to locate the precise part
of the subconscious brain

that keeps track
of where your body is.

Brain scans he's performed
during a body swap

point to increased activity
in the ventral premotor cortex,

the sensory neurons involved in
the visual guidance of movement.

Well, the ventral premotor
cortex

is one of those key nodes
in the brain

that integrate what you feel
and what you see

for controlling the body,
for defending the body.

[ Bell dings,
cheers and applause ]

Because if you're in a fight,

you need to know, you know,
where is your body

and where is your opponent,
and you need to be able to act.

So those circuits of the brain

are built to defend the body
from threat,

for interacting with objects
in the world,

and always keep track

of the boundary
between you and the world.

Ohh!

Freeman: Knowing the difference
between what is us and not us

is so vital

that our subconscious reactions

will overrule
our conscious thoughts.

And sometimes that can mean

the difference
between life and death.

Have you ever had a hunch,

a feeling
that something was wrong?

Most of us have.

But where does that feeling
come from?

It could be a message
from your subconscious mind,

telling you it knows something
that you don't.

[ Horn honks ]

Joshua Brown is always on the go

and always anticipating
the unexpected.

Brown: When I go out cycling,

there are dangers
potentially everywhere.

Is that pedestrian gonna jump
in front of me?

Is that car door gonna open
in front of me?

Is that car gonna cut me off?

And I'm constantly evaluating,

"is there some danger
that I need to look out for,

that I need to be careful
to avoid?"

Freeman: But Joshua's research
at Indiana University

in Bloomington

has shown him
that this conscious evaluation

is only the first layer

of our brain's
danger-sensing mechanism.

What really keeps us out of
harm's way is our subconscious.

Joshua has found a way

of studying how our subconscious
mind triggers a gut feeling

when something
is about to go wrong.

And it's a lot safer

than riding your bike
through rush-hour traffic.

Basically, on each trial,

there's gonna be
an arrow that appears

in the middle of the screen,

and the arrow points
left or right.

And it's really simple.

Press the left button
if the arrow points left

and press the right button
if the arrow points right.

Freeman: But there is a catch.

Sometimes, within a half second,
an opposing arrow appears.

And he must press
that arrow's direction instead.

Each trial only lasts
one second,

so if he decides too quickly,
he might miss the second arrow.

Too slowly
and he could run out of time.

[ Buzzer sounds ]

Brown:
And so the longer we wait,

the more likely it is
it's too late

and they've already
pressed the wrong button.

[ Computer beeps,
buzzer sounds ]

Freeman: Joshua has programmed
a pattern into the test,

but it's too subtle for the
subject to pick up consciously.

Instead, he must rely
on his gut feelings.

Brown: What we really want to do is to
isolate mechanisms in the brain

that might be able to signal

when you think you're
more likely to make a mistake.

Freeman: Joshua now conducts
the same experiment

while the subject
is an MRI machine.

He sees that one brain area in
particular buzzes with activity

when the subject feels like he
might be about to make an error.

It's the
anterior cingulate cortex.

Brown: And so,
here you can see, in red,

the anterior cingulate cortex

is showing a strong effect
of error likelihood.

That is, even when subjects
don't actually make a mistake,

they're still showing effects
in this region

that seem to anticipate

the greater likelihood
of making a mistake.

Freeman: Joshua believes this activity
in the anterior cingulate cortex

is the source
of our gut feelings.

But it's not just protecting us
as we bike down busy streets.

Sometimes it can be responsible

for the fate
of hundreds of lives.

[ Explosions ]

In 1991, in the opening days
of the Persian Gulf War,

a fleet of British battleships

is stationed 20 miles
off the shores of Kuwait.

A lone naval officer
is Manning the radar station

of one of the ships
looking for incoming threats.

All is quiet

until a blip suddenly appears
on the radar screen.

That radar blip could've been
one of two things.

It could've been
a friendly aircraft

returning from a bombing run,

or it could've been
a Silkworm missile

fired by the Iraqis.

The radar officer
had a decision to make.

He could order
the firing of countermeasures,

but if he did that,
and it was a friendly aircraft,

he would down
a friendly aircraft.

Now, if that incoming object
was an enemy missile,

several hundred people,
along with the ship,

could lose their lives.

And he had less than a minute
to decide.

Freeman: Time is running out.

But all the officer has to go on
is a gut feeling.

[ Computer beeps ]

So he orders
the launch of countermeasures.

He sees the still
unidentified object

fall off the radar screen.

The countermeasures
destroy the target

less than half a mile
from the fleet of ships.

Brown: He went back to his room
and just --

he was just tormented
over what had happened.

Freeman:
His torment is short-lived.

Radio calls confirm

that the target
was indeed a Silkworm missile,

not a friendly aircraft.

In the final review
of the incident,

investigators discovered
that a friendly aircraft

would have appeared on the radar
screen during the first sweep,

whereas the Silkworm missile
would initially be masked

by ground interference.

So, it would only appear
on the screen

during the third radar sweep,
as it got closer to the ships.

The officer's brain

had somehow picked up
on this different pattern,

even though it was not written
in any manual

and he was not consciously aware
of the difference.

The anterior cingulate cortex
registered the danger

based on the experience
of cumulative encounters --

what looks like a friendly
aircraft and what doesn't.

And so, by his action,
in a matter of seconds,

he saved the ship
and hundreds of lives.

The brain
is constantly processing

these kinds of signals.

People may think that
they've just now become aware

or they've just now decided,

but in reality, most likely,

their brain was processing
that information well before.

Freeman: Our subconscious mind
is always two steps ahead of us,

signaling what to do
before we are even aware of it.

Could other people's brains
pick up these signals, too?

Body language --

it's the native tongue
of the subconscious.

The way we move,
the tone of our voice --

we are constantly giving off
these subtle signals,

and they can have a profound
effect on those around us.

What if you could decode
this language?

What are we really saying
to one another?

Humans are always
communicating --

chatting, talking on the phone,

sending e-mails,
tweeting, and texting.

"Sandy" Pentland of
M.I.T.'s Human Dynamics Lab

tries to rise above
all this hubbub.

He prefers a different
perspective on how we connect.

For him,
words are not important.

He cares about a more primal
form of communication.

He calls it honest signaling.

Groups,
before we had much language,

had to still pool language
and make decisions.

You see this in apes today.

And people have the same
sort of behaviors and signals.

It's our social sense
of each other,

things like dominance,
attraction,

interest, excitement, fear.

Those can be examples
of honest signals.

They're not very conscious
to us,

but yet they have big impacts on
how we behave with each other.

Freeman: Sandy wanted to study

how involuntary signals
are transmitted

within groups of people,

so he developed a special tool.

They are called
sociometric badges.

Pentland: So, the sociometric
badges that we have,

they measure
your tone of voice --

so how you say it,
not what you say.

They also measure
a certain of body language

using an accelerometer.

Freeman: Today, Sandy has asked
eight M.I.T. graduate students

to perform a group task.

So, this is
a team-building exercise

to look at how you guys actually
work together to do this task.

And the task is
take pages from a comic book

and put them in the right order

but without showing them
to each other.

So, you have to
talk to each other,

you have to, you know,
figure out ways to describe it

in order to
get it in the right order.

And what we're also gonna do is,
while you do that,

we're gonna have these badges
that we put on you.

There is a weird, like,
spaceship in mine.

I have the explosion.

I can tell you that
the flamethrowers did not work,

whoever had [laughs]
that other section.

Freeman: While the students try
to solve the task,

the smart badges are busily
recording intimate details

of their subconscious behavior.

So, a lot of these patterns
are, indeed, unconscious.

They're things you can focus on
consciously,

but, normally, you don't.

It turns out
they have enormous impact

on the productivity of a group.

Robots and monsters,
there's two different things.

Oh. I'm robots.
I'm robots.

Maybe we should
clear that out.

Does anyone actually have
a monster,

or are we all robots
here?

Freeman: And though the task
has a clear goal,

it's not the outcome
that primarily interests Sandy.

Pentland: In watching things,

we always get distracted
by the ideas.

But what seems to really count,
in terms of performance,

is the flow of information.

Woman: I'm not sure
whether that is the first page

or whether it's after.

Like, I could see either
yours as background story,

and then we have, "Here is
your current adventure."

Pentland: This is showing
who's talking to who.

And you see that everybody's
talking pretty much to everybody

except for maybe this one
person, who isn't that involved.

These little yellow balls --

this is how much "in the loop"
people are.

So, are they part
of a loop of conversation?

And that's important
because it has to do with

whether people are on
the same page or not.

Yeah. Boom, boom.

...resulted
from someone else's bomb.

And then, down here,

this is maybe
the most interesting thing.

So, this is looking
at dominance.

So this is how much people
are pushing the conversation

and driving it.

And the size
of the yellow ball there

shows their dominance score,

and you can see
everybody's about the same.

Their yellow circles
are about the same size,

which is what you want for
this sort of brainstorming task.

You don't want anybody
to be really dominant.

You want everybody contributing.

You want everybody holding
the flow about the same time,

and that seems to be
what we got.

I think
I'm actually here.

Good.
Pentland: Okay.

Oh, now we're getting rid
of the end.

Freeman: Sandy has also
found a connection

between a person's tone of voice

and how effective they are
in a group.

Do you have a blond person
and a dark-haired person?

Is that the "scientist,"

or are they a different type
of scientist?

Sandy's studies show
that people who speak

in a direct and consistently
strong tone of voice

are perceived
as having expertise.

Pentland: There's a sort of
practical type of charisma,

which is being able to get
your point across convincingly.

Then you want a lot of energy,

people putting in
lots of contributions,

so the balance of contributions
and having lots of contributions

are two characteristics
of really good teams

in this type of situation.

Everyone's got to
tell their story --

real short --
lay down their piece.

And then, at the end,

we'll turn them over
and see what happened, okay?

Freeman: The moment has arrived.

Does their assembled comic strip

match the correct one
lying facedown on the floor?

Okay. Let's do it here.

First ones.

There we go.

100% right. Yay!

Freeman: Sandy claims the device
has up to 90% accuracy

identifying productive workers
and problem cases.

Pentland: Individuals want to come across
in a way that's effective.

You want to
have people trust you.

You want to
have your ideas heard.

You don't want to be doing
things that put people off.

The science that we've been able
to do with this says

that it's not
sort of how smart you are,

it's how smart you are
about other people.

I think of it as
improving social intelligence.

The subconscious is constantly
at work behind the scenes.

Without it, we'd never make it
through the day.

But could that hidden
brain power do even more?

Some scientists believe we can
tap into our subconscious

to heal our bodies
and expand our minds.

Stress.

It's all around us --

traffic, deadlines,
financial pressures.

And over time, it can
take a toll on our bodies,

leading to sickness
and sometimes death.

But what if there was a way
to reverse the effects of stress

without the need for any drugs?

What if our minds could heal us?

Dr. Herbert Benson,

of the Benson-Henry Institute
For Mind Body Medicine

in Boston,

is a scientist
of a different mind-set.

He's on a crusade

to show that sickness is as much
mental as it is physical.

Well, it's not all in your mind,

but a lot is in your mind
that we can tap into.

Freeman: In the 1980s,
Herbert trekked to the Himalayas

to observe
how Tibetan monks chill out.

At an altitude of 15,000 feet,

in a monastery as cold
as a refrigerator,

the monks wrap themselves
in frozen sheets

to practice an extraordinary
form of meditation called Tummo.

Through meditation,

Herbert observed
that the monks were able

to raise the temperature
of their skin

by 17 degrees Fahrenheit

while keeping their
core body temperature normal.

Benson: Tummo is a form
of meditation they practice

to do away
with negative thoughts.

And as a by-product of that,

the body is able
to generate enough heat

to dry icy, wet sheets
on their naked bodies

and get them steaming.

Freeman: It's still unknown

exactly how the monks achieve
this inner fire.

But scientists suspect

the meditation
directly taps into

the part of the nervous system
that regulates body temperature.

Benson: We were fascinated

on how far such
a mind-body effect could go.

[ Horns honk ]

[ Baby cries ]

Freeman: If meditation could
control our body's thermostat,

Herbert wondered if the brain
also had the capacity

to cure our modern-day epidemic
of stress.

Herbert believes
that stress stems

from our instinctive
fight-or-flight response,

which begins

when the brain's limbic system
releases a flood of hormones.

A secondary effect
of these stress hormones

is to cause inflammation
in cells.

If cells become inflamed
for prolonged periods,

they can trigger
a host of ailments

like heart disease,
arthritis, and Crohn's disease.

[ Groans ]

So Herbert developed
an eight-week therapy

designed to combat stress,

involving 15 minutes
of meditation every day.

He calls it
the Relaxation Response.

To bring that
relaxation response about,

there has to be
a repetition of a word.

Close your eyes.

And you're gonna find

all sorts of other thoughts
coming to mind.

They're normal,
and they're natural,

and they should be
expected.

And when they occur,
don't be upset,

but simply say,
"Oh, well. Peace."

[ Horn honks, birds chirp ]

[ Man screams ]

[ Thunder rumbles ]

There's a quietude in the brain

that occurs when you evoke
the relaxation response.

Less static,
less noise on brain imaging

measure the very activity
of brain cells themselves.

Very slowly, slowly
open your eyes.

Did you notice any changes
in your body

while you were doing --

repeating the word "peace"
and disregarding other thoughts?

I did.
I just felt like a lightness.

I just don't feel like
anything's bothering me.

I don't have anything
on my mind.

Welcome back.

Yeah. [ Chuckles ]

Freeman: Before and after the eight weeks
of relaxation therapy,

Herbert drew blood samples
from his patients

and looked for any changes

in the activity of genes
that control inflammation.

Benson: Say a certain gene
is being turned on,

that gene will be red.

These are the genes

that control the inflammatory
immune processes of the body.

Then you'll see,
looking at it afterwards,

that gene will be turned off --

red on, green off,
so red to green.

You'll see that change.

Evoking the relaxation response

can actually change
your gene's activity.

Freeman: Herbert's study proves

we can harness the power
of the subconscious brain

to produce
concrete medical benefits.

Benson: We now have
a scientifically proven approach

right down to the genomic level.

This will be more incorporated

because,
not so much of the science,

but also it's cheaper.

This is cheaper than drugs,

and it's obviously cheaper
than surgeries.

Freeman: If our inner mind
can be our medicine,

in what other ways could we
use it to improve our lives?

One scientist has found out,

thanks to
an electrifying discovery.

Have you tried to solve what
seems like a simple problem,

only to find yourself
hopelessly stuck?

You know the answer
is somewhere inside your mind,

but you can't find it.

Perhaps all you need
is a jolt of inspiration.

Allan Snyder is the director
of the Centre for the Mind

at the University of Sydney
in Australia.

And he always has
his thinking cap on.

I was about to get on a train,
and this girl gave me her cap,

and she said, "hey,
you look so good in that.

Keep it."

And that's why I've worn it.

In fact,
I've worn it ever since.

Freeman:
Part comedian, part wizard,

Allan spends much of his time

thinking about the limits of
our problem-solving abilities.

Imagine if you were asked

to count the number of marbles
in this jar.

Could you do it?

Snyder: Our minds categorize
things into concepts,

and we're not so good at detail.

We see the whole
and not the parts.

We see the forest,
not the individual trees.

But what would happen
if you weren't like that?

Suppose you did have access
to all the literal details

in the world.

Freeman: Allan thinks we can
access this cognitive power

because some people already do.

Autism is
a neurodevelopmental disorder

that affects social
and communication skills.

But 10% of autistics
are savants.

They exhibit exceptional skills

involving math, memory,
music, and art.

Snyder: An autistic savant
is someone who has the ability

to see the parts
and not the whole.

They have privileged access
to unconscious details,

unconscious processes
that all of us have,

but they're beyond
our conscious awareness.

Maybe genius requires
a dash of autism.

Freeman: Allan has discovered
that autistic savants' brains

share a pattern
of unusual activity --

impairment
of the left temporal lobe,

a region he believes

is associated
with pre-existing concepts,

and an overcompensation
in the right temporal lobe,

which Allan suggests
deals with new ideas.

Allan wanted to find
the inner savant in all of us,

so he came up with the idea
of a creativity cap,

a device that would mimic

a savant's patterns
of brain activity.

Imagine a device
that allows us to do, perhaps,

problems that other people
have had great difficulty.

We're going to show you

a number of equations
made from matchsticks --

Roman numeral type
of matchstick equations.

And something's wrong
with the equation,

and you're supposed to
move one matchstick

to make the equation
correct.

One plus three equals four, yep.
That's it. That's the solution.

Now let's do another.

Freeman: Carl sees a pattern.

By changing a Roman numeral X,
or 10, to a V, or 5,

he can correct the equation.

Applying the same pattern,
he solves several more puzzles.

But when presented with
a different type of equation,

one that is not corrected
by changing a 10 to a 5,

Carl is stumped.

No idea.

Okay.

Freeman:
Now Allan prepares to give him

a jolt of inspiration.

This cap sends a small
positive electric current

to the right side of the brain,

while a negative current
runs to the left hemisphere.

The technique is called

transcranial direct current
stimulation, or TDCS.

And it's designed to mimic
the pattern of brain activity

found in savants.

Okay.
How do you feel now?

There's a little bit tingling.

Freeman:
After stimulating with TDCS,

Carl tries
the matchstick problem again.

Very good.
Congratulations.

Snyder: This is a case
of mental fixation.

We can't help
but look at the world

through the frames
of what we already know.

We see a filtered view of the
world, not all the details.

But Carl, after transcranial
direct current stimulation,

was able to see the solution.

Freeman: Allan's creativity cap

temporarily changed
the way Carl's brain worked.

It appeared to give him
savant-like abilities.

I can imagine a day
when we have creativity caps

that can allow us
to look at the world anew,

free of our mind-sets.

Freeman: But Allan's research
is only scratching the surface

of the mind's true potential.

This man believes the hidden
power of the subconscious

can take us all to new heights.

The subconscious mind
is more than just a storehouse

for primal thoughts
and emotions.

It's vital to our daily function
and survival.

We know that we can harness it
to reveal temporary genius.

But could we permanently modify
our brains,

custom stimulate them
to be smarter and more powerful?

Michael Weisend
is a neuroscientist

at the Mind Research Network
in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He has been drafted
by the U.S. Air Force

to improve its most powerful
image processes -- human brains.

Military technicians,
not computers,

analyze the images
from unmanned aerial drones,

looking for enemy targets
suitable for aerial bombardment.

It's a high-stakes task

where one mistake could mean
destroying an allied aid vehicle

instead of
an enemy artillery truck.

Only humans interpret the data
that comes off of the drones.

So there's a need for a greater
number of image analysts

to look at that data,

and we wanted to enhance
the ability of the brain

to experience
and record information

from the environment.

Freeman: Computers
are not yet smart enough

to pick out enemy targets on the
grainy imagery from the drones.

Only humans have enough skill

in recognizing
their distinctive shapes

when distorted
by sunlight and grainy pixels.

It typically takes
many months of training

to become proficient
at this task.

The trouble is we cannot create
enough experts quickly enough

to deal with the demand from
the remotely piloted aircraft,

or the drones.

Freeman:
But Michael had an idea.

He would locate the region
of the brain that is most active

while the experts
were looking for targets,

then he would use transcranial
direct current stimulation

to amplify the activity in that
region of the trainees' brains

and see whether
it made them faster learners.

One of the things that's
quite obvious in the scans

is that, when you are a novice,

there's low-level activation
in the medial temporal lobes.

But in experts, there's
very high-level activation.

And so we targeted TDCS
at these areas

that increase activity
in order to accelerate training.

Freeman: Once the TDCS headgear
is in place

but not yet turned on,

the novice goes through
a half hour training session

studying aerial photos.

In the center is a red circle
that he needs to click and drag

to any object
that looks threatening --

in this case,
an enemy rocket launcher.

This is definitely a pattern
recognition type of experiment.

Here, where there are
yellow circles,

those show the real targets
in the image.

Where there are red circles
with no yellow,

those are incorrect choices,
and so, in this case,

there was one correct choice
and two incorrect choices.

Freeman:
Next, Michael applies TDCS

to the novice's brain.

After 30 minutes
of electrical stimulation,

he tries again.

He now quickly identifies
five enemy targets

in one image
without making a single mistake.

In the people
who got brain stimulation,

every individual
was performing at expert level

after an hour of training.

Freeman: On average,
novices who've had TDCS

identify twice as many targets
compared with those who haven't.

When he put subjects
back in the scanner,

Michael discovered

that the patterns of activity
in their brains

are permanently changed.

Their newly acquired skills
stay with them

even after
the stimulation wears off.

It's not hard to imagine where
this technology could end up.

College kids could use it
for calculus,

tiger moms for
pitch-perfect piano recitals.

Just isolate
the part of the brain

you need to learn a skill,

and a TDCS cap could
make you a master in minutes.

Whee!

I've stimulated my brain
with TDCS many, many times.

I've noticed this intense focus

and the ability to concentrate
very carefully

on material that I'm looking at.

And I think it would be
a great benefit

to be able to use
the tools of neuroscience

to benefit people,

to make sure that they
could perform at a high level.

Benson:
As we learn more and more

about which structures in
the brain are being activated,

we can show
it's part of you going on,

whether you're thinking about it
or not.

Snyder: Much of what we do
is unconscious --

our preferences, our prejudices.

Someone back there
is guiding the show.

Who's in charge?

And I think it's the unconscious
that's in charge.

Science has proven that
we really do have two minds.

One drives
our conscious thoughts.

The other is a shadow brain
that never stops working.

It protects us from harm,
heals our bodies,

allows us to think faster
and more creatively.

We've unlocked some secrets
of the subconscious.

When we finally tap into
its hidden powers,

who knows what we will achieve?

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