02x04 - Your Brain on Tech

[bunniefuu]

Oh, hello.

Technology isn't just
changing our lives.

It's changing our brains.

Not just how they think,

but how they look.

It's been shown that playing
certain video games for hours

can improve your memory
for details,

your ability
to navigate space

in video games,

and can make your brain--

well, certain parts
of it-- bigger.

But scientists want to know
if exploring digital worlds

can change our brains
in ways that improve our ability

to navigate the real world.

To find out,
we've built a giant maze

to test their theories
for the first time ever

outside the world of computers.

And my job?

I'm the lab rat.

[theme music playing]

[vacuum humming, stops]

Our brains have been
profoundly transformed

by our interactions
with technology.

A lot of the information
that I used to have to store

in my brain
is now stored in my phone.

My contacts, my schedule.

In many ways, I've delegated

what used to be done
by this organ

to this new external organ.

Doing that frees up
by brain's resources

for other things that matter

or that technology
can't quite do for us yet.

So while we all don't have
implants in our brains yet,

technology has already found
a way into our heads,

which is why you may find it
deeply disturbing

to see me do something
like this.

Sh--

[music playing]

[Michael] Studies show
we can improve our brains

by having enriching
experiences,

even by playing video games.

To learn more about this,

I came to UC Irvine's Stark Lab
to speak with experts

in the field of learning
and memory.

So Dane and Craig,
you guys work on

learning and memory.

- What about them?
- So the lab is trying
to figure out

how memory works,
how it works in the brain.

And one brain structure, in the
temporal lobe

that we know is important to
memory is

the hippocampus.

So what does
the hippocampus do?

We know it has a role in memory

and, really, a certain
kind of memory.

The hippocampus
is really involved

when you need to rapidly form
new arbitrary associations.

You know, remembering
what you did yesterday

definitely needs
the hippocampus.

Maybe we'll go the store,
we park our car in the lot,

and we need to be able
to remember

not just, "I parked
my car in the lot,"

"I parked my car
in this exact spot
in the lot."

- [Michael] Right.
- [Craig] And those details,

that's what the hippocampus
seems to be really be

helping us out on.

And you keep looking down
at this piece of chewed

bubblegum on the book,
is that a hippocampus?

[Craig] Yes. This actually
is my hippocampus.

Is this the whole thing
or is it symmetric...

That's it--

Oh, there's one
on the other side.

That looks just like this?

Yeah, mirror image of it.

[Michael] In 2015,
Dr. Stark and Dr. Clemenson,

conducted a study to show

how video games
affect the brain.

They gathered participants

who normally didn't play
video games

and split them up
into three groups.

A control group who didn't play

any video games for two weeks,
an active control group

who played two-dimensional
games for two weeks,

and an experimental group

who played 3D games
for two weeks.

Beforehand, they had all
the participants

perform two virtual tasks
on computers

to measure
their spatial memory.

As soon as they came back,
we re-administered
those two tasks.

And what we found was that the
people who played the 3D game

saw an improving
in their test scores,

whereas the control group

and active control group
did not.

We didn't do brain scans,

but we can speculate
that there were changes

to the experimental group's
hippocampi.

So what are we going to be
doing to me here?

So we're gonna do everything
that we've done before

in our past studies,

except we're gonna add
two new things.

Uh, the first is we're gonna
add some brain scans,

so we're gonna see
if we see a change

in the structural side
of your hippocampus.

We've never actually looked
at somebody's brain scans

before and after
they played video games.

And the second thing
we're actually gonna do

is we're gonna put you through
a real-world space.

You're gonna be the rat
in a maze.

[Michael]
This truly untested territory.

The effect of video-gaming
on spatial memory

has never been studied
in a physical environment

on a scale this big
and comprehensive.

I will have to navigate my way

through a 3,600-square-foot
physical maze.

Will playing video games
improve my mental skills

in the real world?

If so, society
may start looking

at gaming in a whole new way.

First, we had to get

baseline measurements
of my brain.

Welcome to the MRI Center.

We're gonna be taking a whole
series of scans of you,

as the before scan

to then see what's gonna be
happening to your brain

as a function of actually
doing the gaming.

Cool. What kind of things
are you looking for?

Changes in the size and shape
of your hippocampus

and also changes
in the connectivity
between brain regions.

[Michael] My brain was scanned
using diffusion MRI,

with a special emphasis

on my all-important
hippocampus.

[music playing]

[Craig] So this first test

is a standard memory test
that we do.

It's called an object
recognition memory test.

[Michael]
This test began by showing me

a series of random objects.

I did my best to commit
every one of them to memory.

Okay.

- Finished.
- All right.

What we're gonna do now though,
is we're gonna test

- your memory for those objects.
- Okay.

And this is actually
where it starts to tap

into the hippocampus
that we know is so important

for things
like spatial memory.

[Michael] This time, I had to
view another series of objects

and identify
any that were identical

to the ones
I'd seen previously.

The catch, some of the items
were very similar

to the earlier ones,

but not exactly the same.

This tested my memory
for details

and very slight changes.

Okay.

[Michael] Next up, a virtual
version of a water maze

normally used by rodents
and mice.

[Dane] The idea is that
you are trying to locate

a hidden platform
in a pool of water.

[Michael] Oh, man,

I'm so glad I'm not a lab rat.

This task really put my spatial
memory to the test.

I had to find the same
invisible underwater platform

over and over again,

using only the shapes
of the mountains as my guide,

but at least I didn't have
to get wet.

Hey.

That was more difficult
than I expected.

[Craig] These are the sorts of
tasks that we've been able to do

because we can put them
on a computer.

And we're gonna revisit them

after you've done
the video games.

But we also have a really
great opportunity here now

to be able to try to take it out
of just doing it on the computer

and actually get it
into the real world.

Have you guys done
this before?

No. We don't get to do
this kind of thing.

- Well, welcome
to the Mind Field.
- Awesome.

[music playing]

[Michael]
So this is it? It's huge.

[Craig] This is what
we brought you here for,

to have a real-world test
of memory.

You're gonna be
a lab rat in a maze.

So this is a big first for us.

It's a big first really
for memory research.

[Michael]
So how do you think
that'll effect

what you guys
have already seen,

which is
that moving around
in a 3D environment

in a video game can
actually physically
affect your brain?

[Dane] We would expect that
if we can somehow, kind of,

train your hippocampus
to be better
at spatial memory

and spatial navigation,
we would see improvements

in some of these areas.

And it's not just
gonna be running a maze.

You've got objects
embedded inside here,

and we're gonna be testing
your ability to remember
where everything is.

Oh, and build a mental map
of whatever's inside there.

[Craig]
So you have five minutes.

Go on in, explore,
learn the maze,

and learn the objects.

Go.

[Michael] Because the walls
were six feet tall,

I was unable to get
a bird's-eye view.

My task was to create
a spatial memory

based entirely on the angles
and turns of the white walls

I could see at eye level,

and a few tall trees
and light poles

outside the maze.

Okay. So I've oriented myself.

The entrance is that way.

There's an exit over there.

I'm considering this the right
side, that the left side.

I've got a vague idea
of where things are

that I feel like exist
along the outside edge,

but I don't know about
a lot of the stuff inside.

[Craig] And time.

All right. So
now you've had a chance
to explore the maze,

find out where
the objects are.

Now we're gonna test
your memory...

- Okay.
- ...and we'll be timing you

and seeing where you go.

- Okay.
- Okay. You ready?

- I'm ready.
- [Dane] So your first object

is the bicycle pump.

- Go.
- [Michael] Pump. Okay.

[Michael] Pump was just
always making right turns,

hugging the rightmost
part of-- pump.

Ha ha! Yes. Easy. Okay.

Now, I guess I do the opposite
to get out.

Left side-- yup,
I think I should make this turn.

There it is.

- You asked for a pump?
- All right.

Item two, the basketball.

[Michael] Later, Dr. Stark
and Dr. Clemenson

would evaluate my performance

on how fast I was,
the number of errors I made,

and whether I took the most
optimal route each time.

[Craig] And time.

Third item
is the cat. Go.

[Michael]
Here kitty, kitty, kitty.

Got it.

[Dane] The fourth item
is the pillow.

[Michael]
Retracing my steps.

- [Dane] The crayon.
- [Michael] Easy.

- [Dane] The book.
- [Michael] Okay.

[Dane] The boot.

Last item
is the water bottle.

- Go.
- [Michael] Water bottle.

I think--

by--

Yeah, it was back here.

Maybe on the other side
of this wall.

No? Oh, sh**t.

Okay. Maybe it's down here.

Oh, wait.

That's-- no?

That's the central cube.

It was down some sort of...

a long corridor like this
in this area.

Oh, man.

[Michael] Until this point,
things had gone pretty well,

but now it felt like
my hippocampus was failing me.

With most of the items
now gone,

I couldn't use them
for reference,

and it was difficult
to distinguish the differences

between the various
white corridors.

Oh, dang it.

Oh, what about through--

Got it.

- Bottle coming up.
- [Craig] All right.
There you go.

- [Michael] Got it. Nice.
- That one was a little
tougher, huh?

[Michael]
Yeah, it was tougher.

- So we found all eight objects.
- Yup.

[Dane] Now, we're gonna make it
a little bit more difficult.

So we're gonna move
onto the next phase

and that's gonna be
from the other side.

[Craig] Navigating
the maze in reverse

will be an even bigger test
of your spatial memory.

We're gonna give you
a list of four things to get,

in order.

[Dane] So the first sequence
is the book,

the bottle, the crayon,

and the boot.

- Go.
- [Michael] Book.

I think--

That's the ball.

Got it.

Oh, yeah, bottle
was that hard one,

but now I remember
which alley to go down.

Perfect.

Crayon.

Boot. Don't want that.

Here it is.

Okay. Now, I need the boot.

Oh, I just saw the boot,

but how did I--

Got it.
I'm done. I'm coming back.

- Got them.
- [Craig] All right.

So then the next four.

[Dane] The pump, the pillow,

the basketball, and the cat.

- [Craig] All right. Excellent.
- [Dane] All right. Nice job.

[Michael] Okay.
So that was really fun,

but I can't be
the only subject.

This experiment
could use a control.

How else will we know that me,
enriching my life

with daily
video game playing,

really causes a change
in my spatial memory, right?

Well, luckily for that,

we've got a nice
matched control.

Guys similar to me.

Okay, one of them
has too much hair,

but you guys look good.

- You ready?
- [all] Ready.

[Michael] In every experiment,

it's important to have
a control group.

My look-alikes had to go
through the exact same tests

as I did in the maze

to establish
their individual baselines.

The difference would be
that they would play

absolutely no video games
for the next 10 days.

Then any change
in my performance

would be compared against
any changes in theirs.

[music playing]

Next, I began
my gaming regimen,

starting
from an ideal baseline,

since I haven't played
video games

since I was a kid.

Would ten days of gaming
really make a difference?

[music playing]

Technology isn't just affecting
the way we remember things.

- [whirring]
- It's also playing
with the empathy

and social circuits
of our brains.

In fact, in many cases,

we are more comfortable
relating to machines

than we are to people.

Just think about how much
we care about our phones.

Roboticist
and MIT Media Lab alum,

Alex Reben,
invented the BlabDroid,

a miniature robot equipped
with a camera

and an innocent little voice

that asks
very personal questions

of unsuspecting pedestrians.

[BlabDroid] If you could
take back one mistake,

what would it be?

Oh, gosh.
I only get to take back one?

[Michael]
The majority of people

instantly shared
intimate details.

[BlabDroid] Tell me something
that you've never told

a stranger before.

I'm scared
I won't be able to love

and to let myself go
in a love relationship.

[Michael] In many ways,

we are more comfortable
talking to a machine

than to a human.

But what about talking
through a machine?

I mean, it's often easier to say

difficult things
to a person via text

instead of in real life,
isn't it?

Well, what if the person
on the other end

wasn't a friend
or a significant other,

but was a therapist?

A mental healthcare startup
called Talkspace

allows adult users
who pay a weekly fee

to text therapists for advice.

[woman] At Talkspace,
we believe that therapy

should be anonymous,
stigma-free,

simple, affordable,
and comfortable.

Texting can give users
the distance they need

to be open and honest.

And messages can be sent
when the user wants,

not during an appointment

or business hours only.

[woman] Talkspace,

therapy for how we live today.

[Michael] How am I?

Better now that my phone
is working.

Sometimes, however,
we aren't looking for
technology to comfort us.

we're finding ourselves
wanting to comfort technology.

This is a ROBOTIS OP2.

Cute little fellow, isn't he?

So how did that make you feel?

Bad?

Well, why?

Robots are just machines,

metal and wires
and computer chips.

But we spend a lot of time
with technology.

We depend on technology,

and we care about it.

But the degree to which
we empathize with it

depends on context.

[music playing]

[Michael]
Recently, my Vsauce office

was invaded by bugs--

robot hexbugs, that is.

These bugs are made
of plastic, metal,

and electronic circuitry.

They aren't alive.

But could certain conditions

cause them to inspire
empathy in humans?

A 2015 MIT study

found that giving a robot
movement, a name,

and a personal backstory

tends to increase
its anthropomorphic effect,

which can lead to
an emotional connection

with humans.

We decided to see this in
action.

- Thank you for your help today.
- Of course. Pleasure.

[Michael]
In our demonstration,

our subjects think
they're focus testing

a new user-friendly technology.

In this case,
they're given a lifeless hexbug

and asked to describe it.

This thing kind of
looks like a bug,

only I don't know
what it does.

It has a switch on the bottom.

It's light.

It's sort of a rectangle,

but the ends
are like hexagons.

[Michael] Then it was time
to test their empathy.

Now, Karina,
what I would
like you to do now

is place the item
in the middle
of that block.

There's a magnet
that will hold it.

And I would like for you
to take this mallet

and please smash it.

Yeah. Really? Okay.
This is cool.

[Michael] Our participants
demonstrated no resistance

to smashing
this lifeless object.

Many of them
even seemed to enjoy it.

Do you feel bad
for breaking it?

Not really.
I felt indifferent to it.

Not really 'cause
it wasn't real. [laughing]

Not really.

[Michael] While these subjects
exhibited no empathy

to the inanimate bugs,

look what happened when we gave
the exact same bugs

names and movement.

This is Margaret. Okay.

I'm gonna place Margaret
down here.

I just want you
to take a moment

to watch Margaret,
all right?

And you could feel free
to pick her up.

She's really well-behaved.

- She's honestly one
of our favorites.
- [woman, laughing] Okay.

So how would you describe
Margaret's personality?

A little erratic right now,

but I think if I pick her up,
she calms down.

[Michael] Notice
how the subject has already

anthropomorphized the object,
referring to it as "she."

Maybe she feeds off
my energy.

Could be.

Go towards the light.

Go towards the middle.

[Michael] Do you think
Margaret likes you?

Yeah, maybe that's why
she's doing this,

and maybe when I go
like that,

she doesn't act
all erratic.

That's Aaron.

Hi, Aaron.

He can be a bit
of a p*stol.

- No way.
- Yes.

It really depends on
who's holding him.

[laughing]

Oh, yeah.
He's got a lot of energy.

Aaron, hi.

[Michael] Now that you've
interacted with Eli a bit more,

how would you describe
his personality?

Probably he's just nervous.
He's scared.

- He doesn't know
what's going on.
- Hey, Joe.

[Michael] Will these subjects
be just as willing

to smash their bugs?

Amy, I'm gonna place
Margaret right here,

and then I
would like for you
to take this mallet,

and I'd like you
to smash it.

No.

I don't wanna hurt it.

Just take this mallet
and smash Aaron.

[music playing]

[Michael]
I'm gonna ask you
to take this mallet,

and I'd like for you
to smash it.

Smash it?

Hit it?

And, Chris...

You want me to k*ll Joe?

Please smash Joe.

Ugh.

Joe, I'm sorry.

Oh, Joe. Joe.

[music playing]

Now, how did it feel
to smash Aaron?

It didn't feel good,
you know,

after spending time with him

and getting to know him.

Even though
it's lifeless

and doesn't have a mind
of its own,

instantly,
I grew attached to it,

because when I put it
in my hand,

I felt its energy.

I'm sorry, Joe.

- Do you feel bad?
- I do.

I do feel bad about Joe.

He was pretty cool.

Oh, he's back.

He's back?

Pump, pump.

Would you smash him again
to make sure

he doesn't come back?

- No.
- Why not?

I mean, he survived it.
He survived it once.

I'm not gonna do it again.

[Michael] Clearly,
it doesn't take much for humans

to become emotionally
attached to technology.

But after my ten days
of video-gaming--

Nice.

I was about to find out
if technology had

affected my spatial memory

and my physical brain.

[music playing]

[Michael] All right.
It's been ten days.

Exactly, so we're gonna look
at the difference between

your test ten days ago
and your test now

to see
do we see any change.

[Michael]
First, I had to retake

the object recognition
memory test

and the Morris water maze task,

both of which had been revised
with different content

than they had the last time.

I think I did better.

Dane and I will
analyze all this data
and see how you did.

But now we got to go back
to the full-size maze.

[music playing]

[Craig]
So we've got a new maze.

Tore down the old one,
built a new one

to try to be isomorphic.

So it has sort of the same
level of difficulty.

The same number
of choice points,

the same number of turns,

the same total distance
to each of one the objects

to try to have a similar maze,
but that's new.

Three, two, one, go.

[Michael] Right around here,

we got a bonsai.

As before,
I was given five minutes

to familiarize myself
with the maze

and where all
of the objects were.

Now, this is where I was
before I hugged that wall,

so if I hug
the second right wall

and stay all the way right,
a vase.

Was my hippocampus
working better?

At this point,
it was hard to tell.

Thirty seconds.

I'm not even sure
I've discovered

all the objects hidden here.

And time.

[Michael]
Then my test began.

First object
is a rubber duck.

- Go.
- Rubber duck was way over here.

Yeah!
How do you like that?

I got a duck.

Second item
is the hat. Go.

[Michael] With this maze,
I found myself instinctively

using a different approach.

Top hat.

Instead of thinking of the
overall geography of the maze

like I did last time,

this time I was remembering
specific details.

Second right,
hug the turn, got it.

Literally recalling
certain corners,

turns, and straightaways.

Bonsai.

Now blue vase.

Oh, wow.
It's actually a cool vase.

But would this improve
my overall performance?

I got you a backpack.

- All right.
- Excellent.

So we've gotten
all the objects.

But, of course, we have
another memory test

that we're gonna do here.

We're gonna go around
to the other side of the maze

and test your memory
from there.

- [Michael] All right.
- [Dane] So your first sequence

is the blue seahorse
the flashlight,

the rubber duck,
and the bonsai tree.

Go.

[Michael]
With the multiple item tasks,

even though I was working
from the opposite entrance,

I continued to recall
various details of the maze,

which seemed to serve me well.

From there,
it's just a little spiral.

Nice.

[bell dings]

[Dane] All right. Your next
sequence is the blue vase,

the hat, the backpack,

and the baseball glove.
- [Craig] Hit it.

- And time.
- Awesome.

So how was it?

That was not as hard
as I expected.

- It was about details.
- [Craig] Right.

I was literally
thinking, "Oh, okay.

There's that turn,

and I could do one
or two things.

The glove's
the first one.

The bonsai's the one
even before."

I didn't even
plan that at all.
It just kind of happened.

[Michael] My look-alikes were
also tested in the new maze.

Have you been playing
video games?

[all] No, sir.

[Michael] Again,
their non-gaming condition

would be the control,

with my amount of improvement,

if any,
measured against theirs.

[Craig] All right.
We're here for scan number two.

[Michael] Finally,
my brain was scanned once again

to determine whether
any physical changes
had occurred.

Dr. Stark and Dr. Clemenson
would analyze the MRI

along with all the other data
and report their findings.

[music playing]

[Michael] I feel like
my hippocampus

is a little bit bigger.

Yep. Actually, no,
I don't know.

I'm anxious to see
what your results are.

I guess let's start
off first

with the object
recognition task.

And it's important to note
that in our control test
without video-gaming,

people did not improve
in this task, but...

your memory got better.

You went up by ten points.

Ten points is actually
20 years' worth

of what happens
to us as we age.

Oh, wow.

That's about what you might see

in someone
who's getting really old,

- but they might go down
by ten points.
- Exactly.

So the second one we did
was the virtual version

of the water maze task,
and you actually performed

30% better the second time
you did it.

Hey, not bad.

I could tell that I was
using better strategies.

Yeah.

- We also had the real maze.
- [Michael] Yeah.

[Craig] As you know,
we made two mazes.

Despite our efforts
to try to equate them,

the second maze was
a little bit more difficult

than the first maze.

If we took a look
at things

like how quickly you
got the objects,

how many errors you made,
and we looked

at the control subjects'
performance in
pre- versus post-.

So on all of them,

they actually got a little
bit slower in maze two,

and all but one of them
made more errors.

We took a look
at your performance.

You didn't get slower
from maze one to two.

You actually got faster.

- [Michael] Really?
- [Craig] And you made the same

exact number of errors.

So they don't improve,
and you did.

And even though
this experiment

had a small number
of subjects,

the results are consistent
with our virtual maze study

with 70 test subjects.

- [Craig] All right.
- Thank you, video games.

What about
inside my brain?

[Craig] Inside your brain,
it's a little tougher
to really tell.

We would expect
that any effect of this

is going to be small.

I mean, we couldn't take
your hippocampus

and make it twice as big

because then it would
have to be pushing
something else out.

So it's just not going
to be a large change.

So where we did find
a difference

is actually in the shape
of the hippocampus.

What we saw is
there were some regions

in the hippocampus
on both sides

that appear
to have changed shape

from day one before gaming

to day ten after gaming.

What's really surprising to me
is that as an adult,

my brain is still changing.

That makes me wanna take
better care of my brain.

Yes.

Exercise it more,
'cause it is a thing
that can change.

I'm not just stuck
with what I have now, today.

I mean, in all of this,
I think that the big takeaway

is that doing things,

giving your brain
something to learn,

something to do,
something to figure out,

this is what we think
is actually

keeping your brain sharp.

One way to do that is to keep
watching Mind Field.

[Craig] Exactly.

[music playing]

[Michael] As our relationship
with technology becomes
ever stronger,

people are bound to worry about
what it will do to our brains.

Will offloading memory
and computing

to our machines make us dumber?

Will our empathy for machines
have negative consequences

for how we interact
with each other?

Well, let's look back
to another time

a new kind of technology
threatened

to fundamentally
change our brains.

Two and a half thousand
years ago,

the Greek philosopher, Socrates,

worried that
the wide use of writing

would have a negative impact
on people's minds.

He said that writing would,
to quote his student, Plato,

"Create forgetfulness,

because people will
not use their memories.

They will trust the external
written characters

and not remember themselves."

Socrates was right.

Written language did
fundamentally change our brains.

But it's also one of
the cornerstones of everything

modern civilization
has accomplished.

One of the defining
characteristics of being human

is that this is not
the boundary of my body,

and this is not the boundary
of my mind.

And, as always,
thanks for watching.

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