0:07

Welcome to the Talks at Google Podcast,

0:09

where great minds meet. I'm

0:11

Natalie, bringing you this week's episode

0:14

with neuroscientist Gary Small. Talks

0:17

at Google brings the world's most influential

0:19

thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to

0:21

one place. Every episode

0:23

is taken from a video that

0:25

can be seen at youtube.com/talks at

0:27

Google. Gary

0:29

Small, a leading medical expert on

0:31

memory and brain fitness, visits Google

0:34

to discuss his book, iBrain,

0:36

Surviving the Technological Alteration of

0:39

the Modern Mind. Never

0:42

before has one generation experienced

0:44

such rapid change in the

0:46

brain's underlying wiring system, and

0:49

the full consequences of this evolution

0:51

has yet to be fully explored

0:53

until now. Gary

0:56

explores the remarkable evolution of the human

0:58

brain caused by today's constant

1:00

technological presence. The

1:03

book separates the digital natives from

1:05

the digital immigrants, and

1:07

suggests that the internet, with its

1:09

virtually limitless wealth of news and

1:11

information, is radically altering

1:13

the way young minds are developing

1:16

and functioning. In

1:18

this era of social media, Gary

1:20

Small's iBrain is an important guide

1:22

to understanding the astonishing impact of

1:24

this new brain evolution on our

1:26

society and our future, as

1:29

well as a warning of its potential dangers,

1:32

increased mental illness, social isolation,

1:35

internet addiction, and more. As

1:37

well as a warning of its potential dangers,

1:39

increased mental illness, social

1:42

isolation, internet addiction, and

1:44

more. Originally

1:46

published in November of 2008, here is Gary Small. iBrain.

1:56

It's great that Google has, it's kind of

1:58

a generic term now. And

2:00

one of the things I'm going to talk to you about

2:02

is a new study that we just did at UCLA that

2:05

is entitled Your Brain on Google. So

2:08

I'm going to show you for the first time in

2:10

history what your brain looks like

2:12

when you search on Google. And

2:14

I think you'll be interested to hear that. I

2:20

have a background in neuroscience, and I'm also

2:22

a psychiatrist. So if anything I say makes

2:24

you particularly anxious, I can help you with

2:26

that as well. And

2:29

I've been studying how the brain ages over

2:31

the years, but in my own life, I've

2:33

been struck by the

2:36

technology's effect on the brain. And

2:38

this is really what led to writing

2:40

this book that we'll be talking about

2:42

and Google has made available for you.

2:46

And the first point

2:48

is, we know it's changing our lives, but

2:50

is it changing our brains? Well, I think it is. And

2:53

a young person's brain is the

2:55

most sensitive, spends the most time

2:57

with it. And so what we have are a

3:00

young group of digital natives who

3:02

grow up with this technology, and then we

3:04

have another group of digital immigrants that come

3:07

to it later in life. And

3:09

I think instead of a, I think

3:11

we just lost our, what's it? Is

3:14

it coming back? So

3:18

instead of the,

3:20

see this is something a

3:23

middle-aged brain can't do, is multitask. And

3:25

I've got some data to prove it. You have

3:27

to shift tasks. It's a real problem. Instead

3:30

of a

3:32

generation gap, we have what's called a brain gap. And what

3:34

we're trying to do is bridge the brain gap, update

3:38

the tech skills of the digital immigrants, and

3:40

help the younger people with their face-to-face skills.

3:42

Now, so this is a big topic. We

3:46

have a much. Can you ask you to list through

3:48

enough of the messages you've had

3:50

to discuss your experience? What's

3:53

that? Well, they're having network issues on the conference. Oh,

3:55

they are? So Do they want me to stop, Or

3:57

am I just hearing voices? But

4:03

there are people in the room right? so

4:05

I should stop talking until they get connected.

4:10

Are just as it was. So

4:12

it's so our relationship with technology his personals

4:14

I wanna do. I don't have informed consent

4:16

forms of all you've I like to do

4:18

more experimental now I'm I trusted All of

4:21

you have a P D A or cellphone

4:23

right? Have. You turned it off. Justice.

4:27

Robert I'd like you to do is

4:29

on the first part of the stair.

4:31

usually watches return it Off like google

4:33

Google the different culture and so the

4:35

first part of the experiment have people

4:37

turn it on and then they feel

4:40

good they smile right? The list of

4:42

hard to the experiment xom adjusted for

4:44

the Google environment when it wants to

4:46

do is take your cellphone or handed

4:48

to somebody near you or guess this

4:50

usually makes civil, anxious and jittery right?

4:52

So we they are. you know I

4:54

just gotta really cool device. Of it

4:56

is So now do you feel. right?

5:00

You. Feel kind of had acted uncomfortable. many many

5:02

of us and all. device you don't care.

5:04

Hurricane out not give it back. I don't

5:06

want anybody to. I get into a panic

5:08

attack. And now what I like

5:10

it a try to do this may be hard to

5:13

do in your environment. Tried turn it off. Or

5:16

see some anxiety on people's faces are

5:18

you should feel relaxed and mean there

5:20

should be a point where we turn

5:23

off the technology and I think that's

5:25

very important for us in this world.

5:27

We we have so much of it

5:29

because what's happening? Our. Brains

5:31

are very sensitive every moment. We.

5:34

Simulate our brains with looking

5:36

at a computer screen, looking

5:38

at a book. hopefully this

5:40

one for looking at a

5:42

facial expressions. Each of those

5:44

experiences trigger a different cascade

5:46

of neural events. The light

5:48

comes endure. I goes back

5:50

to your retina into the

5:52

optic nerve. There are chemical

5:54

reactions. Neurotransmitters transports the information

5:56

across neural networks as of

5:58

the basic building blocks. The

6:00

neuron with long wires

6:02

are axons. The connectors

6:04

synopses was a transmitters.

6:07

Communicate and it's all going on in

6:09

the in the brain, which is very

6:11

specialized in each series of raids, specialized

6:13

for different kinds of functions. Temporal Lobe

6:16

is the result. Memory.

6:18

And emotions the back of the brain,

6:20

his vision. the frontal cortex is very

6:22

important for conflicts reasoning and only weighs

6:25

three pounds on average or a man's

6:27

brain of a little bit heavier than

6:29

a woman's brain. So.

6:31

You know, when my wife asked me to my brain

6:34

look fat I said no. it looks great. It's nice

6:36

and thin. And

6:38

there's lots of information in there. There's

6:40

a hundred times a villian. Synopses:

6:43

In the average brings us a very

6:46

complex organ. If

6:48

you see a word. if you say

6:50

a word. if you. Generate

6:52

a words. Different

6:55

areas of the brain is very

6:57

specialized depending on how that word

6:59

is process. So you receive an

7:01

image or sensation you may experience

7:03

of feeling you made. Have

7:05

a memory from Woodstock, the went

7:07

there somewhere else or could even

7:09

trigger an automatic response. a muscle

7:11

response like a knee jerk response.

7:13

And it's all conveyed through these

7:15

complex neural circuits and we can

7:17

measure what's going on with our

7:19

new technology. I spent twenty years,

7:21

twenty five years doing this using

7:24

Functional M R. I had Imogene

7:26

to look at what happens in

7:28

the brain as it ages and

7:30

what happens from moment to moment

7:32

when we have these different experiences.

7:36

And. The brain as plastic. This if

7:39

you could use the analogy of

7:41

a computer that you have basic

7:43

programs bill Dance A have visual

7:45

cortex and the parietal lobes, but

7:47

then there's plenty of room for

7:49

expansion on that so called hard

7:51

drive. And one basic principle is

7:53

if we were seat a mental

7:55

tasks often those specific neural circuits

7:57

are strengthened and a maybe it's

7:59

the. Cost of other mental tasks that

8:01

we neglect. Our.

8:03

Brains are merely a bowl or changeable

8:06

throughout life, especially The young brain is

8:08

very quick to learn language and musical

8:10

instruments, but it's not fully developed. The

8:13

frontal lobe of the brain where complex

8:15

reasoning and decision making has made is

8:17

not yet fully developed, and adolescence do

8:20

not have the kind of empathy skills

8:22

that a middle age brain might have.

8:24

They can't really perceive another person's emotional

8:27

point of view as well as an

8:29

older person's The other thing that happens

8:31

during adolescence is a sixty percent. Of

8:34

their synopses, our prompt. Or. Least

8:36

during early development adolescence. So there's a

8:38

lot of neural circuitry sit never developed

8:40

a never use and actually. Pruned.

8:43

Away. We. Have

8:45

this other concept of evolution

8:47

and brain evolution and as

8:49

we have evolved as a

8:51

species our brains have gotten

8:53

larger and so we have

8:55

milestones in this evolutionary process.

8:58

Years ago when we developed

9:00

a hand held saw that

9:02

was a major milestone we

9:04

figured out as you could

9:06

use this rock as a

9:08

tool and complex reasoning and

9:10

planning skills developed grammatical language

9:12

developed social networking became more

9:15

complex. And elaborate sand the frontal

9:17

lobe of the brain grew during that

9:19

time period. The question is with new

9:21

handheld schools, what will the brain look

9:24

like? So.

9:26

If you think about Darwinians principle

9:29

of natural selection, the genetic variations

9:31

that adapt to the environment best

9:33

will most likely survive. So you

9:35

have. Some animals can reach for

9:37

the leaves and they adapt. Other

9:40

animals have shields package germs on

9:42

their skin. Some blend in with

9:44

their surroundings and adapt to their

9:46

environment. So this was the environment

9:49

that our brain adapted to. Hundreds.

9:51

Of thousands of years ago. What?

9:53

will our brain look like in this environment

9:55

and that's the big question that i brain

9:58

is asking And

10:00

this is what is happening with evolution.

10:02

It's turning upside down. This may be the

10:05

modern species in the future. Now

10:08

let's ask a question. How

10:11

much time does the average young person spend

10:13

with technology? How many of you think it's

10:15

two hours a day? How

10:17

about 3 and 1,000 hours? What

10:20

about 5 and 1,000 hours? A few more. How

10:23

about 7 hours? How

10:25

about 8 and 1,000 hours? Well,

10:27

8 and 1,000 hours is the right

10:30

answer. So there's a tremendous amount of

10:32

time. Our environment is changing with young

10:34

people. And they're spending more and more

10:36

time with technology. The breakdown of daily

10:38

technology is seen here, whether it's passive

10:40

or interactive. 97% of children 12 to

10:42

17 play games on computers, consoles, or

10:48

handheld devices. So it's completely penetrated

10:50

to these young people, what we

10:52

call digital natives, who grow into

10:54

this technology. Don't have as much

10:57

time with face-to-face communication. The

10:59

digital immigrants have more time when they're growing

11:01

up. How will this affect brain development? This

11:03

is a big question. Are

11:06

those members internationally valid? Those

11:08

are US numbers. So it

11:10

probably differs from country

11:13

to country. Talk about international. One

11:15

country where there's a big concern

11:17

is China with video game addiction. They

11:19

actually have specific treatment centers for teens

11:22

who are hooked on video games. We

11:24

don't have it in this country. Usually,

11:26

those kids are going to other

11:28

rehab addiction centers for other kinds

11:31

of habits. And they deal

11:33

with the technology there. Now,

11:36

how many of you would define yourself as digital

11:39

natives? Anybody here? No? OK.

11:41

So how many times a day do

11:43

you check your Facebook or MySpace? Once

11:46

a day? Three

11:48

to five times a day? More

11:51

than 10 times a day? So now

11:53

we have kind of a small group here. But often, young

11:56

digital natives spend a lot of time

11:58

all day checking. with their

12:00

social network. It's a very powerful

12:02

force in their lives. A

12:04

New York Times article, Slow Down Brave

12:07

Multitasker, and Don't Read This in Traffic.

12:10

Another article in the Wall Street Journal was about

12:12

the generation text. And one

12:14

person talked about how you can avoid

12:16

an accident when you text while

12:19

walking if you keep

12:21

your chin at a 45 degree angle, you're

12:24

less likely to walk into a tree or a post.

12:27

Now, with all this technology around,

12:29

people are getting addicted to it.

12:31

And the same brain circuitry involved

12:33

in any addiction, the dopamine

12:35

circuits get charged up, and

12:37

you have your anterior cingulate, the frontal

12:39

circuits, the voice of reason trying to

12:42

balance that. But it becomes a problem.

12:44

Some people are shopping online, other people

12:46

are gambling online. And

12:48

there are people very involved in virtual

12:50

games, second life. There are people who spend 12, 14

12:52

hours a day with

12:56

their avatar, and they're neglecting their

12:58

real life experience, and it's becoming

13:00

problematic. If you don't

13:02

have a full blown tech addiction, many

13:05

of us are very much drawn

13:07

to the lure of email. It's

13:09

there all the time. And it

13:11

follows these basic principles of operant

13:13

conditioning. This is what psychologists call

13:15

it, that the behavior is reinforced

13:17

by the consequence. So if this

13:19

represents an email, most emails it's

13:21

boring or some work task you

13:23

don't wanna do, or it's spam

13:26

and you get this and this, and then all of a sudden you

13:28

get this. And it's a great

13:30

message. Somebody finally responded to that question you

13:32

had, or you won some money or something

13:34

like that, or you gotta raise. Well

13:37

that one email keeps reinforcing

13:39

it, and you go on and on and on, you

13:41

keep looking for that great experience.

13:43

It's much more powerful than if every

13:46

single email were a happy face or

13:48

good experience. So this is the kind

13:50

of thing that really compels us to

13:53

get hooked on various technologies.

13:56

And it's always there. It's a bit like a food addiction. We need

13:58

to have food in this day and age. age, we need

14:00

to use the technology and somehow we need

14:02

to find a way to manage it. One

14:06

of the ideas in

14:08

iBrain is that with so much

14:10

time on technology, we're neglecting the

14:12

human contact skills. And a recent

14:14

study supported that where they had

14:17

volunteers play violent

14:19

video games before they did this

14:22

task where they looked at a

14:24

face and they watched this face

14:26

morph from a

14:28

neutral expression to either an angry expression

14:31

or from a neutral expression to

14:33

a happy expression. What they found

14:36

is when they played the video

14:38

games, there was a reduction in

14:40

their ability to quickly recognize the

14:43

happy expression, suggesting that indeed we're

14:45

neglecting those neural circuits that train

14:47

us in recognizing human emotional expression.

14:51

Yes? Which video games are there?

14:53

That, you know, I'd have to look at the

14:56

article through, you're testing my hippocampus and I don't

14:58

have that, you know. That's

15:00

an exhibit now. Well, in my memory.

15:02

I think that there would be perhaps

15:04

a difference between playing, say,

15:08

play free rules. That's an excellent point and because

15:11

what people tend to do, they tend to overgeneralize.

15:13

They think, what, okay, give me the

15:15

bottom line. What are video games doing to the brain?

15:17

And it's not so simple. It depends on the type

15:19

of game. It depends on the duration of use. It

15:22

depends on how it's being used. You know,

15:24

for example, I've seen my son engage in

15:26

these video games and he's got a microphone

15:29

on and he's got his friends there and

15:31

it's a very interactive social experience. So I

15:33

think we've got, we really have to look

15:35

at that. In addition, there are now computer

15:37

technologies that actually train the brain to

15:40

perform better different types of skills. Yeah?

15:43

So, I'm curious as to what

15:45

children are run up like when

15:48

they're surrounded by health technology.

15:51

Maybe the most important thing is when it's not,

15:53

how are they grown up differently because it's run

15:56

by technology, but because the technology evolves

15:59

at this Level. right? Now

16:12

in. The

16:17

I think that that's another excellent point. It's

16:19

you get your what did These young digital

16:21

natives are adapting to this changing environment and

16:23

the and they're very comfortable with it. I

16:25

mean they will get the new device in

16:28

a moment of pick it up very quickly

16:30

in their brains have wired for that an

16:32

adapted to it's I think with the traditional

16:34

generation gap now the brand out there tends

16:37

to be value judgments again and ball Seen

16:39

I talked to schools and the parents are

16:41

concerns. how can my kids be doing their

16:43

homework when their multi tasking a listen or

16:45

I pods video conferencing. And I

16:47

say well, how are the grades in

16:50

school? Maybe they're doing just fine. Look

16:52

at the outcome as something that to

16:54

measure whether they're succeeding are not so

16:56

I think he was. It is a

16:58

rapidly changing environment. The question is what

17:00

will happen? Yes, Well.

17:12

In this particular study it was a

17:14

violent video games that they tested. They

17:16

didn't look at different types of video

17:18

games and this is one of the

17:21

problems in the literature is that there's

17:23

an emphasis on violent video games and

17:25

most of the literature looks at his

17:27

heart association with aggressive behavior rather would

17:29

rather than what's going on the brink

17:31

For have been a few studies looking

17:34

at brain functional changes with video games

17:36

and you have mixed results. Some results:

17:38

Some findings are that the frontal lobe

17:40

has less activities. Some findings. Show

17:42

there's more activity is. Why

17:48

say it is? You have to be very

17:50

careful in how you're generalizing because it's are

17:52

a new. Area of researchers Not

17:55

a lot of. oz not a

17:57

lot of studies has been done and one of

17:59

the problem with a small sample is that

18:01

there may be bias in who you're choosing. Now

18:03

I'm going to show you a study in a

18:06

moment where it is a small sample but we

18:08

did have controls and we did see some interesting

18:10

results. Let me get to that in a moment.

18:13

Another concern is attention deficit

18:15

problems. There have been many

18:17

studies showing an association between

18:19

worse symptoms of ADHD and

18:21

watching television or playing video

18:23

games and it's concerned the

18:25

American Academy of Pediatrics enough

18:27

so that they now recommend

18:30

no television and video games for children

18:32

under two. Now people

18:34

will argue that there's not an

18:36

absolute cause of relationship that's been

18:38

established. In fact people with ADHD

18:40

may be drawn to those technologies

18:43

and it might not be the other way around. So

18:46

we have what's been termed the text generation.

18:49

So I just a test to see how good

18:51

you are at this. Let's see do you know

18:53

what does this stand for? Okay.

18:56

You didn't

18:59

get that one. Great minds think alike. Get

19:03

a life. That's something my daughter would send

19:05

to me. How many

19:07

of you have teenagers? Anybody? No.

19:11

Okay well that's a good thing. This

19:13

is parent when you are when you have a teenager you may

19:15

see this message message parents are

19:17

watching and I love you. And then

19:20

we have emoticons you know the

19:22

happy face. This is the startled

19:24

face. This is Elvis Presley and

19:27

this is John Lennon. And

19:30

you know if you look at if you get a

19:32

message if you read something in a book and it

19:34

conveys some information or if you read

19:37

in a modicon and get the same message

19:39

there's a completely different part of your brain

19:41

that is triggered. So our brains are sensitive

19:43

to these messages. There's

19:45

evidence that we're spending less time

19:47

reading books. Literary reading has gone

19:49

down. More time with the technology.

19:52

Less time outdoors. Less time with nature.

19:55

So there is a shift

19:57

in how we're spending our time what

19:59

we're exposing. closing our brains to. Some

20:01

people have talked about the fractured family.

20:03

Here you see a family where the

20:05

kids are online and the parents are

20:07

reading more traditional types

20:09

of information. And the

20:11

digital immigrants who come to technology

20:14

more reluctantly, their brains are older,

20:16

they're slower to learn, reaction time

20:18

is slower. They are

20:20

showing memory problems, even in middle

20:23

age. And their sensory motor

20:25

function may be a little worse than someone

20:27

who's younger. So they have trouble with the

20:29

small technologies in responding to that. So

20:33

now some of you may not remember

20:35

these technologies, but this was

20:37

a real revolution when I was a kid,

20:39

a color television or an

20:41

IBM Selectric II typewriter. Or

20:45

the term dial a number comes from

20:47

the old dial phones. This

20:50

is the first cell phone. These

20:52

were good. And then you had the first

20:54

video game Pong. And then

20:56

Betamax was the format we were

20:58

all supposed to adopt. We know

21:00

from various studies that as people

21:02

get older, they're less likely to

21:04

use technology. And also

21:07

their brains age. This is a study that

21:09

we did with our new PET brain imaging

21:12

technique, where we can actually see the

21:15

physical evidence of Alzheimer's disease building up

21:17

in the brain. And this is

21:19

the temporal lobe, the frontal

21:21

lobe, where there's a lot of memory centers.

21:24

And as the memory score gets worse, you

21:26

see a buildup of these problems

21:28

or abnormal plaques and tangles.

21:31

So an older brain is less likely to be

21:34

able to adapt to these technologies. Yet, probably

21:37

if you're a digital immigrant, you're

21:39

going to be checking your email quite

21:41

a bit. And many of the concerns

21:43

that digital natives have in terms of

21:45

too much technology, digital immigrants are experiencing

21:48

as well. So

21:50

they're multitasking. Studies show that

21:52

they cannot multitask as efficiently as

21:54

a younger person. There

21:57

are more errors when we multitask, even though there is

21:59

a problem. perception that we're

22:01

performing better. People

22:03

complain of digital fog and there's

22:05

a memory decline in old age. Now this

22:09

is a study I was teasing you a

22:11

moment ago, Your Brain on Google, and

22:13

what we did, a group of us got

22:16

some money from a local foundation and

22:18

this is in press in one of

22:21

the academic journals. We

22:23

looked for people who had minimal,

22:25

if any, prior computer experience, middle-aged

22:28

and older people. They were

22:30

hard to find. Congratulations, you're the

22:32

last person on earth to get an email

22:34

account. They're out there. We

22:36

found them and we matched them up with

22:39

what we called an internet or net

22:41

savvy group and we wanted

22:43

to find out what the brain looked like when

22:46

it searched on the internet. So

22:49

this is a small sample

22:51

as we discussed earlier but there are

22:53

very well matched groups in terms of

22:55

age, educational achievement,

22:58

mostly female. They only differed in

23:00

terms of their prior computer use,

23:03

internet use, and their self rating

23:05

of internet experience. And

23:08

we used functional MRI to find

23:10

out what was going on in

23:13

their brain while they searched online,

23:15

at least in a simulated environment.

23:17

Functional MRI allows us to see

23:19

where the brain is working from

23:21

moment to moment and

23:24

this is what the machine looks like

23:26

if you've never seen or been inside

23:28

an MRI scanner. You can see it's

23:30

a very narrow tube. You can't get

23:32

a computer in there. So what we

23:34

did was we used these specialized goggles

23:36

that allow us to present different images

23:38

and we had a control image to

23:41

control for paying attention. We said just

23:43

look at this bar. Then we had

23:45

a reading text page and we

23:47

had the volunteers, we gave

23:49

them tests after the experiment

23:51

so they were motivated to

23:53

gather the information. They could get it

23:56

from a text page or from a

23:58

searching test where they had to make

24:00

a choice of which site looked

24:02

like the best site to get the

24:05

information. And they had a little keypad

24:07

next to their hand where they could

24:09

operate the cursor to do the internet

24:12

search task. And

24:14

basically, this is what we found. We found

24:16

the net naive people, when they were reading

24:18

the book, they activated

24:20

this back part of the brain,

24:22

the visual cortex, in areas that

24:24

control memory and reading and language.

24:28

When we had them searching on

24:30

the internet, there was

24:32

a similar constellation of activations.

24:35

When the net savvy people looked

24:38

at the book page, again, a

24:40

similar pattern, but the big difference

24:42

was when the net savvy people

24:44

were searching for the information. You

24:46

could see a much greater extent

24:48

of activity throughout the brain, and

24:50

particularly in the frontal lobe, which

24:52

is the area that is involved

24:54

in complex reasoning and decision making.

24:57

So this is your brain on a book, and

25:01

this is your brain on Google, much different

25:04

picture. So what

25:06

does that mean? Well, you

25:08

can interpret this in many different ways, and

25:11

the headlines are Google

25:13

is making you smart. Now,

25:16

maybe it is. I don't know.

25:18

I mean, it's certainly activating neural

25:21

circuits. And we're

25:23

trying to understand this better. It's the second part

25:25

of the experiment, and you can read about it

25:28

in iBrain. And we haven't

25:30

yet published this part. We took these

25:32

two groups of people, the savvies and

25:34

the naives, and we gave them five

25:36

days of practice. So we had the control

25:39

of the savvies

25:41

continuing, and

25:43

then we wanted to see if we could

25:45

train the brains of the naives. And we

25:48

found that the savvies, baseline and

25:50

follow-up, there was not much difference. But

25:53

the naives, after just five days, we started

25:55

triggering these neural circuits in the frontal part

25:57

of the brain, suggesting that we could train

25:59

the naives. that the brain can train itself

26:01

very quickly to learn this task. So

26:05

what I think is going on is

26:07

when we are presented with a

26:09

novel mental task, our brains

26:11

don't quite know what to do, and

26:14

so there is not a lot of brain activation. Once

26:17

we figure out the strategy, the

26:19

neural circuits fire up and we engage

26:21

those neural circuits. And it may be

26:23

that searching is a task that continuously

26:27

we can pace ourselves to make it

26:29

interesting enough and exciting enough so that

26:31

we keep activating those circuits. When

26:34

it becomes repetitive, we generally

26:36

see less activity, and we interpret that as

26:38

cognitive efficiency. So in a

26:40

sense, the brain can lift more weight using

26:43

less energy. And there's a lot of

26:46

tools out there, new

26:48

computer programs, trying to exercise an older person's

26:50

brain. We have a

26:52

brain boot camp at UCLA to help

26:55

people with their memory, and we've got

26:57

memory courses throughout the country that are

26:59

very popular. But

27:01

there's also a question as to whether the

27:04

technology is weakening our memory. How many phone

27:06

numbers do you remember? Most people don't remember

27:08

their phone numbers because it's all in their

27:10

PDAs. They don't have to remember it. Does

27:13

relying on your PDA shrink your

27:16

hippocampus? And you

27:18

might ask yourself, where did I leave my brain? I

27:20

can't remember any of this stuff. What

27:23

I say to people is, we want

27:25

to pick and choose what we commit to

27:27

our biological memory. You want to remember names

27:29

and faces. You don't want to

27:31

have to look at your handheld device to

27:33

say hello to your office mate, Frank. But

27:36

you don't need to remember his birth date

27:38

and his anniversary because that can be in

27:40

your PDA. What

27:44

about some of the upsides of the

27:46

technology? Well, we

27:48

know it can help surgeons, surgeons who

27:51

play video games, make fewer errors in

27:53

the operating room. And

27:55

studies have found that it improves attention span, it can

27:57

improve reaction time, and it can improve your PDA. There's

28:00

a program that improves peripheral vision.

28:02

There's actually, I think,

28:04

all state insurance is making this program

28:06

available to people, older drivers, to help

28:09

them with their driving skills. We

28:12

also know that offline training will make

28:14

a difference with the brain. And we

28:16

can show that the amygdala,

28:18

the emotional center of the brain, can

28:22

have different neural

28:24

circuitry patterns from

28:26

psychotherapy. We found that

28:28

training the brain offline can

28:30

affect the prefrontal cortex. And

28:33

so what we want to do is

28:35

understand these various brain

28:38

responses to our technology environment,

28:40

as well as our offline

28:42

environment, and try to upgrade the

28:44

skills of people who need it, try

28:46

to help younger people with their

28:48

social skills, and also try to innovate

28:51

with technology. Make

28:56

sure we spend time with other people and

28:59

with nature. We

29:02

want to manage the technology to preserve

29:04

our humanity, and not the other

29:06

way around. So before I close and give you

29:08

a chance to ask some questions, I just want

29:11

to speculate a little bit about the future brain,

29:13

because there's some really interesting

29:16

research right now in brain-computer

29:18

interface technology, where people

29:20

can actually control the computers just

29:22

by thinking about it and having

29:24

sensors hooked up to their heads.

29:26

So this may be the student

29:28

of the future with one

29:30

of these headpieces. And there's actually now a

29:32

new company that claims to

29:34

have the first commercially available brain computer

29:37

interface. So you can now play

29:39

your favorite video game without having

29:41

to get a trigger

29:43

finger from operating the cursor. And

29:46

the future brain May look

29:48

like this, where instead of wearing a Bluetooth

29:51

device, you'll have a little sensor. And If

29:53

you want to meet your friend for coffee,

29:55

you just think about it. That Thought will

29:57

be transmitted to your laptop, which goes by

29:59

Wi-Fi. It your friends pdf and then you

30:01

meet them for coffee. and of course you

30:04

have to work tinfoil hats to keep keep

30:06

people from reading your mind as you walk

30:08

down the street. So it was are you

30:10

already have the can imagine the spam that

30:12

would hit you as you walk down the

30:14

street. As

30:18

the series is called emotive. E.

30:21

M O T I V P O

30:23

Sea get them online. So.

30:26

Technology is not only change in our

30:28

lives is changing our brains got a

30:30

new generation gap the brain gap. but

30:32

I think we can balance our lives

30:35

and bridge that brain gap by improving

30:37

the technology in the social skills and

30:39

knowing when to use them. And if

30:41

you want some more information, Visit

30:44

my website: Doctor Gary small.com.

30:47

Thank. You very much for your attention. Yeah,

30:54

your first got. Her

31:03

wish. To

31:06

her. Or.

31:12

By. Record

31:19

it. Was.

31:22

A year. There's a couple of

31:24

reasons for that that I think

31:26

it's important right now. One

31:28

that we can study as in more

31:31

detail that we have the technology to

31:33

really try to understand it, Or secondly,

31:36

It just seems intuitive to me that

31:39

there's something. That. is tremendously

31:41

powerful but the technology we have

31:43

today that it it really is

31:45

kind of thrust things into high

31:47

gear and it means there's tremendous

31:50

opportunities but potentially risks as well

31:52

if we don't understand it so

31:54

that those i mean those are

31:56

certainly were phenomenal a sex on

31:58

the brain and brain

32:00

evolution, just the handheld tool was

32:03

a huge effect. So, you know,

32:06

our brains are changing from moment to moment.

32:08

The good news is that a lot of

32:11

the most of this is not permanent in

32:13

an individual. We can really help people and

32:15

change the neurocircuitry and

32:17

change it back, so to speak. You

32:20

had a question. Well,

32:36

I think we should have a DVD version, so we

32:38

could actually make it kind of as a search engine.

32:40

You can kind of get the information that way. What

33:01

a great question. So

33:03

I think, you know, I think we don't know

33:05

the answer to that. I think, you know,

33:20

we often talk about

33:22

brains like, or computers are like brains

33:24

and vice versa, and I think whatever

33:26

we do there will be an adaptive

33:29

response. So I think somebody

33:31

here mentioned the changeability and how the

33:33

young digital natives are adapting very well

33:35

to a change in involvement. I think

33:37

this is the same phenomenon. I think

33:40

that, you know, what we tend to do with the search

33:43

engines the way they are, we

33:45

sort of pace ourselves at our own level.

33:47

We'll go as fast or as slow as

33:49

we feel comfortable. I think we saw this

33:51

with our brain on Google study where

33:53

the digitally naive people, They

33:55

didn't quite get it at first, but very quickly

33:57

they picked up on it. When

34:00

years. I think our

34:02

brains are ready for whatever you want to throw at

34:04

us will take it's of the next level which I

34:06

think makes it a little bit scary but kind of

34:08

exciting about with the future. Brain will really look like.

34:12

Just. Search

34:15

results. To.

34:25

For search results of well I think

34:28

we we don't have the answer to

34:30

that. This was the first study of

34:32

It's Kind and we just use the

34:34

book page on control as it as

34:37

a task we really need. Asset Question:

34:39

We need a whole body of studies

34:41

to understand that on which I don't

34:43

know that something of interest to google

34:46

the really look at are you probably

34:48

look at behavior a lot with you

34:50

look at brain functional patterns. I don't

34:53

know if you've done studies like this

34:55

variant. What?

34:59

What? What? It is. What?

35:14

They don't know. Why

35:30

I think you know this. We're all

35:32

part of this process. I think you

35:34

know your your job is to make

35:36

those search engines better and better to

35:38

respond to your customers with the customer

35:41

will do is a like that and

35:43

then they're going to want more and

35:45

more and more in the process will

35:47

continue to evolve. I was just talking

35:49

with a journalists and they were talking

35:51

about a new software that. Now

35:53

is instantaneous. You don't have to wait for

35:55

you probably know about the soon have to

35:57

wait for the program to boot up and.

36:00

We have the handheld right away you

36:02

see or email and a lot of

36:04

times on the desktop. It takes time

36:06

to boot up the programs and so

36:09

it is. Brings up the idea that

36:11

in a way the our brains are

36:13

craving for this and rather than I've

36:15

been talking a lot about how our

36:18

brains are adapting to the technologies here

36:20

the technology is adapted towards the brain

36:22

was and so it's an interactive process.

36:46

Of. right?

37:21

What you yeah think because the

37:23

sciences in it's infancy and that

37:25

in this is just words of

37:27

people have of pediatricians and psychologists

37:29

have observed that's what they decided

37:31

to look at and they clump

37:33

them together. But you're absolutely right,

37:35

they're very different or mental. Activities.

37:38

i mean i've actually heard myself say to

37:40

my son harry get off that video

37:42

game and come downstairs and watch television with

37:45

me you know and so what i was

37:47

expressing was my anxieties they were spending too

37:49

much time with the video game that i

37:51

was concerned it was too much of

37:53

a repetitive activities i wanted him to socialize

37:56

more maybe there was something about the program

37:58

that i once of year basic principle

38:00

of neuroscience or brain science that

38:03

is probably good for the brain

38:05

to vary activities. It's this idea

38:07

of cross-training and you

38:09

know we don't know for sure but

38:12

it's something that that seems to make

38:14

sense. So but that's a

38:16

good point. There's too much clumping. We really need

38:18

to understand it better what's going on. I think

38:20

you had a question? You mentioned

38:22

potential problems including addiction

38:25

and after being a special skills. Are

38:28

we seeing any evidence of other direct physiological

38:30

changes that we should be worried about? Well

38:34

you know I think there's just the practical problems.

38:36

I mean a lot of people get eye strain,

38:38

they get neck ache, they

38:40

get you know problems

38:43

with their wrists and their fingers

38:45

from overuse. So I think

38:47

there's those kinds of problems. There's certainly

38:49

associations between being overweight,

38:52

you know not getting enough exercise because

38:55

we're so drawn to the technology. So

38:57

I think again it's the

38:59

issue of balance in our lives to

39:01

try not to overuse it but you

39:04

know use it in a way that enhances our

39:06

everyday life. Another

39:11

question. You talked a

39:13

bit about developmental changes

39:15

due to the technological presence but that

39:17

seems to love young people all

39:19

together as being technologists. I

39:22

mean are we seeing differences in groups of

39:24

young people in those whatever your uses of

39:26

technology or who use it in different ways? You

39:29

know there that hasn't been studied as systematically

39:32

as we probably like but sure there's going

39:34

to be variation within each of these groups

39:36

and you can even take the

39:39

natives and the immigrants and subgroup

39:41

them further. I mean there's the

39:43

millennials, there's just

39:46

lots of different subgroups or

39:48

cohorts of people that have

39:50

different value systems

39:52

that can be generalized and kind

39:54

of respond differently in

39:57

terms of their own emotional reaction to the

39:59

technology how use it, how they interact

40:01

with it. Okay, well

40:03

thank you for your questions and if you'd like

40:05

me to sign your books I'd be happy to

40:07

do that. We can talk for a few minutes

40:10

afterwards. Appreciate your time. Thanks

40:19

for listening. To discover more amazing

40:21

content you can always find us

40:24

online at youtube.com/toxic Google or via

40:26

our Twitter handle at toxic Google.

40:29

Talk soon!