1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:25,560 PASSIONENT MUSIC 2 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:30,560 It controls our thoughts, our feelings, our instincts, and our dreams. 3 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:36,560 It is the most complex organ in the body without a doubt. 4 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:42,560 It has helped us to solve a great many mysteries, yet it jealously guards its own secrets. 5 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,560 To some degree the brain is still a bit of a black box. 6 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:52,560 Its abilities seem infinite, but many remain untapped. 7 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:54,560 They are the powers of the mind. 8 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:10,560 What beyond was known was an unextured world of shadows and phantoms. 9 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:18,560 A land that knows no limits of time or space. 10 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,560 From the dawn of discovery to the nightfall of catastrophe, 11 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:34,560 journey through a universe of the unexplained, the unforeseen, the unbelievable. 12 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:40,560 A place beyond reality where no question will go unanswered. 13 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,560 A place where myth and legend are law, superstition, and science. 14 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:56,560 The End 15 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:11,560 It's time for our journey to begin. 16 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,560 The enchanted loom, the human brain. 17 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,560 So much has been said about it, so little explained. 18 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:38,560 Knowledge surrounds these lateral revals, and with these instruments, that knowledge can be ours. 19 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,560 To the naked eye, the brain is unimpressive. 20 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:58,560 It weighs less than three pounds, a soft, grey-pink organ. 21 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,560 It has been compared to a sponge, a walnut. 22 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:05,560 And yet, science stands in awe of it. 23 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:13,560 From what brain scientists are learning today, by the 22nd century, these products may be available. 24 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:20,560 EJNC proudly announces three new mind alteration devices. 25 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:25,560 Moodom, an emotional modifier that can change your mood from mad to glad. 26 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:28,560 Infodet, an easy-to-use learning enhancer. 27 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,560 And Memerall, a memory tickler that comes in a handy spray can. 28 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,560 These three new brain boosters will be available on test markets soon, so have multi-card ready. 29 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:40,560 EJNC, we do the thinking for you. 30 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:47,560 Since prehistoric times, the brain has been explored, tested, even surgically examined. 31 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,560 For example, this ancient skull exhibits a hole punched out in a crude operation called trefining, 32 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:56,560 designed to release pressure, trapped by the unyielding bone. 33 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:05,560 These simple tools were the last word in Peruvian medicine in 2000 BC. 34 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,560 But it was in 600 BC that Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, 35 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:17,560 came to the then-starking conclusion that thought and emotion originated in the brain, not in the heart. 36 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:24,560 During the Renaissance of the 1400s, Leonardo da Vinci poured melted wax into the brain ventricles of an ox, 37 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,560 then peeled off the tissue to uncover the real shape. 38 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,560 In the 1790s, a pseudo-science called phrenology swept the courts of Europe. 39 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:40,560 A doctor named Franz Josef believed that the skull's shape had everything to do with personality traits and aberrations. 40 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:47,560 He was sadly mistaken. But inside the brain, various areas do control different parts of our behavior. 41 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:58,560 Typically speaking, the left hemisphere of the brain processes the information in a linear, sequential, rational mechanism. 42 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:02,560 And that certainly is one that goes along with the dominant part of our culture. 43 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:09,560 The right side of the brain often has been devalued because it tends to look at the whole of things. 44 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:17,560 It's a more holistic or simultaneous, a more spatial functioning in terms of perceiving and organizing information. 45 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:25,560 So more in music and dance and art, some of those capabilities seem to arise more from the right hemisphere of the brain. 46 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:36,560 Now neither one can really work along, but together actually comes the most creative types of achievement and synthesis that represents the true functioning of the human brain. 47 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:44,560 So it's the interrelation of the right and left sides of the brain that allows to perform the simplest and most complex tasks. 48 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:54,560 What we see and hear and feel, what we remember, how we recall it, all these things vary depending on our brains. 49 00:05:55,560 --> 00:06:01,560 If we could perceive the world from another brain's perspective, it would be a very different place indeed. 50 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:10,560 The world has been a difficult place for the mentally ill, and for centuries the same made little effort to understand that insane perspective. 51 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:21,560 It was not uncommon to warehouse the mentally ill in grim asylums like England's infamous bedlam, where the inmates were put on display as if in a nightmarish zoo. 52 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:33,560 Torture was occasionally inflicted upon these misunderstood souls, an ironic treatment, considering that some believe contemporary historical figures suffered from milder forms of mental illness. 53 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:41,560 Abraham Lincoln might have been a manic depressive, adult Hitler a paranoic, and Van Gogh a psychotic. 54 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:59,560 What we are finding out is looking at their lives, they had severe disturbances and mood, unremitting depression sometimes, self-destructive behavior like Van Gogh cutting off his ear, and it seems very clear that they may have had psychotic symptoms like paranoia and hallucinations and things like that. 55 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:17,560 The so-called psycho-history is a very chancey sort of endeavor, because you're taking our own contemporary ideas of psychological explanation and we're applying them to a time when people thought differently, had different values, lived under different moral and different ethical and different political and different religious ideas, 56 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:23,560 and then we're trying to imply that we can understand them, that we know why they acted the way they did. 57 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,560 And today, has our perception of mental illness changed? 58 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:44,560 With recent scientific studies of the brain, we're beginning to see that many of the symptoms of mental illness are actually expressions of a biochemical dysfunction in the brain. 59 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:53,560 And that's one of the reasons why one of the exciting frontiers is the development of specific drugs which can correct biochemical abnormalities. 60 00:07:54,560 --> 00:08:11,560 EJNC now announces Moodom. Are you sad, glad, or just plain mad? With a touch of a switch, we can change your mind permanently. Programming now available so you can take this product wherever and whenever the mood strikes. EJNC, we do the thinking for you. 61 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:27,560 Scientists have discovered millions of astonishing facts about the brain. Yet overall, these facts are only pieces of a larger puzzle. Small areas of the picture have been fitted together, but the puzzle is far from complete. 62 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:30,560 What are some of these facts? 63 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:50,560 The human brain consists of microscopic cells called neurons which use electricity and chemicals to signal to each other in ways that still remain mysterious. 64 00:08:51,560 --> 00:09:00,560 In the adult brain, there are between 10 and 100 billion of these neurons, no one knows for sure. It might be easier to count the grains of sand at the beach. 65 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:11,560 As each neuron connects with at least a thousand others, it almost seems as if every brain contains more connections that the universe has stars. 66 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:23,560 Our science can use technology to cure, not condemn people who have suffered damage to their minds, is illustrated by the following story. 67 00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:42,560 I was working as a police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. I was in a black and white police car. My partner was driving the car and he was driving at a high rate of speed, lost control of the vehicle and struck a power pole. 68 00:09:43,560 --> 00:10:02,560 As a result of the accident, I sustained numerous injuries, mostly internal. I also sustained an injury to my head. I started doing strange things. If something went wrong at home, I would get angry. 69 00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:12,560 One night it was dark outside, maybe 9, 10 o'clock at night. I got very angry for no real apparent reason. 70 00:10:13,560 --> 00:10:31,560 I just took my gun and I started walking down the street just hoping that somebody would bother me so that I could take out my aggression on whoever it was. 71 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:42,560 I felt strongly that she had suffered some kind of brain injury and in getting the beam done, it allowed me to identify that there were multiple areas of dysfunction. 72 00:10:43,560 --> 00:10:56,560 The beam is the acronym for brain electrical activity mapping and this essentially suggests a machine that allows us to see the electrophysiologic workings of the living brain. 73 00:10:56,560 --> 00:11:05,560 After we have the patient hooked up to the electrode, we flash the lights and we do the visual response, seeing how the brain responds to the flashes of light. 74 00:11:06,560 --> 00:11:14,560 And then we do the auditory work response where we have the patient hear some sounds and see how the brain responds to that and take a recording of that. 75 00:11:15,560 --> 00:11:24,560 We take all this information together. We don't have to combine the information but each of these individual tests give us an idea of brain functioning. 76 00:11:24,560 --> 00:11:33,560 He read the results and he says Anita there's something wrong with you and I was happy with the fact that there was something wrong and it wasn't all in my mind. 77 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:39,560 I wasn't losing my mind. I'm not crazy. I'm just having a problem. I'm sick. 78 00:11:40,560 --> 00:11:47,560 Accurate diagnosis is only the beginning for the injured brain demands constant attention and even then recovery can be slow. 79 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:53,560 But in Anita's case that recovery has been steady and mind becoming her own again. 80 00:11:54,560 --> 00:12:03,560 Of all the marvels the human brain performs, the most wondrous is the most common, accomplished by children ages 7 and younger. 81 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:05,560 The learning of language. 82 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:11,560 There's something quite wonderful occurring in this quiet classroom, something almost miraculous. 83 00:12:11,560 --> 00:12:19,560 These children are expanding their minds, learning how to communicate with each other to express their developing thoughts. 84 00:12:20,560 --> 00:12:22,560 But they may be able to learn faster. 85 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:28,560 For breakthroughs are being made in understanding just how it is that we absorb and express information. 86 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:34,560 The school system of course is set up to teach the three R's, reading, writing and arithmetic. 87 00:12:34,560 --> 00:12:41,560 And to teach things that are taught in sequences, French one, French two and so on. 88 00:12:42,560 --> 00:12:52,560 The school system is not very well organized to teach the visual perceptual way of thinking. 89 00:12:53,560 --> 00:13:02,560 Beni Edwards believes that it may be possible to trick the brain's different hemispheres into perfecting skills that seem impossible at first. 90 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:09,560 Like drawing. This is accomplished by misdirection, by turning the subject upside down. 91 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:15,560 When the person is presented with an unusual situation, here's something upside down. 92 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:21,560 The normal response is thrown off base. 93 00:13:22,560 --> 00:13:28,560 In normal life we simply are naming things. We name our friends, that's a chair, that's a table, that's a pencil and so on. 94 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:35,560 To draw those things, one has to make a shift in style of thinking. 95 00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:42,560 So what we teach is how to use one's own brain differently, to see differently. 96 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:52,560 And then we find that the person can draw. There's a saying in the art business, if you can teach a person how to see, that person will be able to draw. 97 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:58,560 We do not teach drawing at all, we teach seeing. 98 00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:00,560 Very nice drawing. 99 00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:08,560 If the conclusion that Dr Edwards is drawing from this research is true, it could have an enormous impact upon the learning process. 100 00:14:09,560 --> 00:14:14,560 We may be able to absorb and utilize more information than we dreamed possible. 101 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:18,560 And this paints an exciting picture for our future. 102 00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:25,560 Using recent scientific discoveries, we may one day be able to alter our lives in ways that now seem impossible. 103 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:50,560 EJNC, we do the thinking for you. 104 00:14:52,560 --> 00:15:01,560 EJNC now announces Memoral, a memory booster that stops that brain drain on its tracks, giving you all the recall you'll ever want, improving both short and long term memory. 105 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:05,560 Not recommended for using combat regions or data banks as brain cram may result. 106 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:11,560 Memoral now comes in a handy aerosol format, perfect for getting at those pesky tip of the tongue facts. 107 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:14,560 Just remember, EJNC does the thinking for you. 108 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:21,560 Much of what we do depends on memory. Another great mystery of the brain. 109 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:32,560 Why is it that we suddenly recall a trivial event or a familiar face from long ago, and yet cannot remember the name of someone we met only yesterday? 110 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:42,560 Every single day in work or in play, the human brain is called upon to interpret a galaxy of information, some conscious, some unconscious. 111 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:52,560 In order to cope with this complicated world, the brain selectively stores data which it can recall it will, a function called memory. 112 00:15:53,560 --> 00:16:01,560 There are different kinds of memory. One which we call short term memory is the ability to learn new information. 113 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:10,560 Long term memory is really something of a different sort. It's the ability to remember information which was learned in the distant past. 114 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:15,560 As we age, our memory seems to fade. Why is this so? 115 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:31,560 The memory of the older person starts to become less efficient. For one reason, the process breaks down. The neurons have been there in place for 60 or 70 years, and like any mechanical device, it begins to wear out. 116 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:37,560 But when the brain begins to malfunction, there are very few tools that we have to help us understand that. 117 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:50,560 That is the kind of work that we're trying to do here in the electrophysiology laboratory, trying to develop new kinds of diagnostic tests which can help us get a window into the brain and see what might be going wrong with these illnesses. 118 00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:56,560 The electroencephalogram or EEG is a test that has really been around for more than five decades. 119 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:08,560 Even back then, we recognized that in certain disease states, there were abnormalities that became apparent in the EEG tracing with the advent of the modern microcomputer. 120 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:18,560 We have a real advantage though in the potential for real breakthroughs because we can analyze the brain waves by computer if slowing the scene diffusely over the entire brain. 121 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:28,560 It can indicate the presence of a global process, something like Alzheimer's disease, multiple strokes, or even a viral infection of the brain. 122 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:40,560 The brain can cure itself either by directing a surgeon's hand or by guiding scientists as they explore the secrets of memory, secrets that are beginning to be uncovered. 123 00:17:49,560 --> 00:18:00,560 This is how some scientists think memory works. Our senses convert outside stimuli into signals sent to a holding area until the brain decides how they should be dealt with. 124 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:06,560 Now, some impressions go straight from temporary storage to short and long-term memory. 125 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:16,560 Most information, however, has to go through a complicated process by which it is categorized and then filed with previously remembered material. 126 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:25,560 By the time a human brain is seven years old, it has done something no computer can match. 127 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:30,560 It has started to ask questions about its purpose and has begun to search for their answer. 128 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:41,560 When the human brain reaches the age of seven, it is capable of higher thought of being able to understand not only the world around it, but itself. 129 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:50,560 There is an element of the mystical in this. And past the frontier where scientific thought ends, there is a land where the infinite begins. 130 00:18:51,560 --> 00:19:00,560 So much of our study of the brain, unfortunately, has focused on the diseases and symptoms that result when the brain doesn't function properly. 131 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:09,560 What I find most amazing is given the billions of things that can go wrong how few actually go wrong. 132 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:19,560 The British scientist, Sherrington, gave a beautiful image of the brain, which he called the enchanted loom. 133 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:27,560 And there is some notion that perhaps the human brain is really studying itself and trying to understand itself. 134 00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:32,560 We really don't know what the human brain and mind are capable of. 135 00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:42,560 Computers are something of a help in understanding the brain, but the brain is far more complex than any computer that we have currently. 136 00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:50,560 I think that we have made tremendous strides in the last decade and we are going to continue throughout the rest of this century to gain more and more understanding. 137 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:59,560 But I think that to really understand how thought actually happens is going to take us decades would be optimistic. 138 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:08,560 What makes us unique is the organization and functioning of our brain. It has to because this is what separates us from other beings, other animals. 139 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:21,560 So how the brain is organized and the way it functions somehow or other is the mystery by which we understand what it is to be a human being, to be who we are. 140 00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:28,560 No doubt most of us would like to change our brains in some way. 141 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:34,560 Science assures us that this will be possible, but the most important discovery was made long ago. 142 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:41,560 Inside each of us is the most complicated, mysterious system in the universe. 143 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:46,560 The human brain. 144 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:52,560 The more we learn about it, the more in awe we should be. 145 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:11,560 Secrets and mysteries presents information based in part on theories and opinions, some of which are controversial. 146 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:22,560 The producer's purpose is not to validate any side of an issue, but through the use of actualities and dramatic recreation relate a possible answer, but not the only answer to this material. 147 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:46,560 Thank you for watching.