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- I want to explain something to you as if you were smart?
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- Yes. - I like that.
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- I have a very close friend in Australia
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who's in charge of measuring
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what happens to Australian soldiers
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before and after going to Afghanistan or Iraq.
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What they see is that with every deployment,
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the frontal lobe becomes slower.
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And that means that when your frontal lobe becomes slow,
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you cannot pay attention and you cannot engage.
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But when they exposure to a very terrible,
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frightening situation, your frontal lobes comes online.
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So what we show is that when you're traumatized,
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when you're not in danger, your brain doesn't function.
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But when you're in danger,
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your brain has been changed
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so that you are a specialist in dealing with danger,
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but you're no longer a specialist in dealing
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with spring in western Massachusets.
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And it passes you by.
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Let's talk about quantitative EEGs,
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which are fairly easy brain maps,
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much cheaper than FMRIs, where I can show you
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what the wiring of the brain looks like.
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When you close your eyes,
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you're supposed to feel relaxed and calm,
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and it can measure that in the brainwaves
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at the back of your brain.
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You ask traumatized people to close their eyes,
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they develop a lot of high-intensity waves
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in the back of their brain as if their brain is saying,
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"If I close my eyes, I'm in danger.
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I need to look around all the time"
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to make sure that nobody's going to hurt me."
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That is driven by this brain that is set to expect danger.
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And when you see these brain maps of people,
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they are extremely abnormal.
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And you can can say,
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"Oh, no wonder they have so much trouble with their temper.
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Oh, no wonder they have so much trouble with eating.
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No wonder they have
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so much trouble with forming relationships."
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And we can focus on these things,
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and we can actually repair these circuits.
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Now, but we can do is to actually wire up your brain,
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so whenever you make quiet waves in your brain,
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you get a little reward.
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You hear some sounds and you see some images that you like.
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So we can shape your brain to actually have
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a different configuration and a different wiring,
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so it's no longer set to expect danger,
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but it's actually set to be open to new experiences.
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Neural feedback needs a lot more work
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because it's never been supported by federal funding.
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How long does it take?
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What's the best method to rewire these brains?
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Because I wouldn't give little abused kids
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in the foster care system psychedelics,
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you can be sure of that,
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but it would give them neural feedback,
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so they can go to school
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and not be labeled as a pain in the neck kid,
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and they're able to have friends and they're able to learn.
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To my mind that's actually my biggest dream.
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Is that smart enough?
