Your Brain Once Had a Superpower. Could You Get It Back?

[@SciShow]

This video was sponsored by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Teacher Innovator Institute! If you’re a 5-8th teacher in the US, visit s.si.edu/tii to learn more about the program and fill out the application.

[@bixmcgoo5355]

can't say i support a "Teacher" institute when it is only teaching that being a minority gives you better odds at being valued. Funny how if you outright stated you give preferential treatment to white or straight people you'd be lambasted. Disgusting that SciShow has gone down that road.

[@Morghast]

This is SO COOL!!

[@VictorGalayda]

@@bixmcgoo5355 you got me lost, is there something wrong with their sponsor? Or it is a case of being against/pro LGBTQ and color? No hate, just curious.

[@InTheAKSnow]

you should look at valproates affect on being able to learn perfect pitch

[@mistahkrazy805]

So the Smithsonian is Ageist because they wanna focus on teachers teaching fewer than 6 years? Wow for an organization all about history, they really do dislike anything with years to it.

[@Pent4tron]

I'm a nurse in a specialized, in hospital, rehabilitation facility that treats people with severe neurological disabilities including everything ranging from paralysis to complete coma. Especially in strokes and brain hemorrhages the neural plasticity of the brain is one of the key concepts that allows regaining function and/or sensitivity in the affected areas. There are even methods were people with hemiparesis (loss of function/sensitivity in one half of the body, contra-lateral to the damaged area) get a mirror placed on their median body line, get the eye on the "bad" side patched, and have to perform functions and experience sensitivity on the "good" side. This can somewhat trick the brain into thinking its actually the "bad" side doing these things and thus restoring and/or strengthening neural connection to that side.

[@carlyblack42]

That's so cool! The brain is so amazing. Thank you for sharing this

[@Inertia888]

I damaged my left frontal lobe as a teenager. I did recover pretty well, but I wonder if I had used the mirror trick, early on, I would have recovered faster or better? The doctors told me during rehab (and my memory is very gray during that period, so I am doing my best to recall) that I had a timeframe of several months/ less than a year for the best and longest lasting recovery. They said that if I did nothing during this crucial time period, I would not be able to get the recovery that I would have. Likewise, the more I did to rehabilitate during this short timeframe, the better the recovery would be for not only the short term, but the long term as well.? Like how children have a short timeframe to learn quickly, but I was 18 years old, and they said I had less than a year. It felt like they were asserting that for some reason my brain was, for a few months, going to be plastic, like it was when I was only pre-teen. ? I am sharing with you because I am hopeful that you may have some insight that I have not yet seen. By the way, thank you for your service. It is people like you (who knows maybe you personally, haha…) who were the reason that I was able to live a life, post surgery, as good as I have.

[@tylerbrooks3998]

Do you ever employ peptides shown to increase BDNF for stroke patients? Semax is an interesting one. In Russia they use it as a first line treatment, but it's not well known in the West outside of nootropic enthusiast circles. It's shown to increase BDNF by as much as 9x.

[@oak4901]

Thank you for your career choice....

[@htopherollem649]

@@Inertia888 I too suffered a tbi (@19 right prefrontal cortex) and though I'm left handed I don't process the information coming from my left inputs (vision, hearing, and touch) with the same levels. I'd say it's about 40/60 percent with my right side being stronger. Additionally watch out for CTE as you age, I began manifesting symptoms at about 32 and admitted to myself the decline by 36 (now 46 and fading faster) This video mentions Gabba, which suppresses brain function (specifically tbi survivors have their Gabba 2 receptors constantly firing) A great video about this (Search "Medical Miracles with Ambien - Hamilton's Pharmacopia " . Sadly most medications make me extremely sick (the result of altered brain chemistry from tbi) and the medical profession has little to offer for degenerative brain disorders. The best of luck to you in all your endeavors!

[@FurtivePigmy]

imagine a world where you could learn as fast as children while being an adult, not only medicine could get new ways to treat related illnesses, science could get way faster by givig this to researchers a way to learn faster and make new connections in their brains. truly fascinating

[@jamesmoses1486]

Sounds like a world where I take my prescribed Adderall with Eutropoflavin and phosphatidylcholine. As in this world we are currently living. Let me know if this works for you or if it is likely psychosomatic.

[@Ratseeker]

Imagine all the adults with the confidence to start new careers & university.

[@viharsarok]

There is a downside to neural plasticity, though. You also forget skills you're not using.

[@Lolibeth]

Children forget that information much easier than adults; it's not really a superpower, just a quirk of the developing brain figuring out what it needs in a variable environment

[@mariow7818]

I wish it would restore our ability to learn new skills like we had as kids. Then we would have super power of learning and all of Us wouldn't be dependant on skills we learnt as kids and how bad parenting or school system affected our potential, essentially stumping it in its growth period. We would be able to rediscover our potential and skills that otherwise have been lying dormant in our brains because we haven't accessed them as kids and now we have literal wall we need to climb in order to access those skills. With this therapy or drug we could get a ladder that would make learning far easier than it is today. Besides that school system as a whole took away enjoyment from learning new things we all had as kids. We were curious bunch passionate about the world and being force fed knowladge to memorize and then spit it out on paper to pass tests isn't interesting for curious kids in the least. Especially to sit in class and do nothing creative but monotonous repetition and forced learning. My brain adapted to situation by being able to quickly memorize core concepts of material for next test and then forefully erase it from my memory. I lierally forget everything I learn that I am not curious about. ~ essentialy first thing I wrote before reading your comment

[@markcoleman9892]

A long time ago, in a universe far, far away (before email & internet 😆) there was a magazine article that referred to a college experiment where student volunteers wore glasses that turned their visual world upside down. After about 3 days of wearing the glasses all the time, their brains "corrected" the image to right side up. After removing the glasses, their brains took another 3 days or so to revert to "normal" vision.

[@skipperofschool8325]

:O

[@wanderingwatcher3981]

anecdotal, but I remember hearing about some people going even further with it, by going back and forth just as the brain had adapted the time to adapt got shorter and shorter, eventually leading to the ability to control the effect at will

[@イヨカン-m8m]

I don't think that's possible, because in the case of those of myopia, the vision is not focused on their retina, so the brain can't get appropriate parameters to calculate vision.

[@WanderTheNomad]

@@イヨカン-m8m I don't think OP was talking about students with myopia. Just students in general

[@ArtII2Long]

Yeap. What's also interesting is that without those glasses you and I are seeing the world upside down right now.

[@LifeEleanorDeathNell]

Given the fact that there seems to always be someone out there who has a thing or is missing a thing or a thing is different about their brain/body (e.g. people who can't feel pain, people with a sternalis muscle, etc)... I wonder if there are adults out there who are lacking or deficient in inhibitory neurons that scientists could study. I wonder how much that changes a person's thoughts, actions, and personality?

[@michaelevans6216]

maybe it just gives them seizures

[@TheRogueX]

These could be people who remain able to adapt to the changing times and technology even as they age. Could also be people who don't start to fear change as they get older.

[@galenjones9529]

@@TheRogueX I didn't realize people couldn't adapt to change and technology as they age. I thought that was something everyone could do.

[@tiffanysullivan3655]

I might just be misunderstanding what you're wondering, but i think that might be ADHD? It's essentially an executive function disorder/neuro-developmental delay. Inability to control impulses is a major symptom.

[@michaelevans6216]

@@tiffanysullivan3655 i can see why you would think this, since what we're talking about is a deficit in inhibitory neural mechanisms, but inhibition on the level of neurons, and inhibition on the level of whole brains are two differrent things. so it is unlikely from my perspective that the deficit he is dicussing would result in adhd specificlly.

[@JesseGilbride]

Despite plasticity, remember that "play" is one of the most effective ways to learn anything, allowing curiosity and just plain having fun.

[@elizabethwilde1143]

My husband was 34 and had a major ischemic stroke. Parts of his brain died from lack of oxygen yet two days after his stroke his complete left sided paralysis, extreme aphasia,, and memories had gone away. His brain forged new pathways to bring him back to himself and fully functional. He even went back to work after a week with no restrictions. The brain is truly miraculous!

[@amarug]

Idk, I am 38, pretty well educated (PhD in engineering) and while all my friends complain how much harder it has become to learn new things, I find the opposite to be true. I never learned stuff as fast as I did now. I studied advanced differential geometry for fun, learned to speak (still quite crappy but totally usable and functional) Japanese within a year, including handwriting hundreds of Kanji. And more. If I think back to my teens/early adults, how much of a pain it was to memorize a few words of french and now I absorb a thousand Japanese words in a week, while doing 10 other things. Not sure why I seem to experience this so differently from my peers. EDIT: could it be because I never stopped learning and exploring new things? Not for a single day, since I really have become addicted to "studying". 😅

[@smileyface9459]

I have car accident an get brain damage doctors say i like a child but i think very deeply like a philosipher i still okie with math an reading i not genius but i think i am better than what doctors say i not trust them or experts because i disprove lots of super smart peoples theories with common sense

[@endless2239]

I have the same experience, I wonder if the lost of plasticity can in fact help with retention of information, after all, the younger years are the hardest to remember for most people, could be that the ability of the brain to change also make it prone to overwriting things learned or something like that.

[@HasekuraIsuna]

I think we as adults learn how we learn better, which offsets kids ability to learn things easily.

[@kutbilukhadia2715]

You are blessed

[@amarug]

@@HasekuraIsuna That is an excellent point as well!

[@rachelmiller261]

I was very recently diagnoised at the age of 30 with ARC alternative retina correlation. The optician pretty much said my visual cortext adapted as a child and in real time suppresses images in one of my eyes. I think he also said my eyes use a slighlty diffrent part of the eye to take in info. I though it was intresting enough to share :)

[@Morghast]

What do you think about Mind Altering Spectacles?

[@EvansvilleJill]

It’s good that it happened when you were young and your brain was able to “fix it”. I was in my thirties when I started seeing a double image. It’s too late for my brain to come up with a solution so now I have a prism built into my eyeglasses that helps me to see clearer.

[@Morghast]

@@EvansvilleJill how did you survive??

[@b_radfrmbu7246]

That is very interesting, thanks for sharing

[@axelkusanagi4139]

Is there any advantage whatsoever or did your brain just compensate back to normal? Either way, it's marvelous

[@haroldwilkes6608]

Some brains apparently went from plastic straight to cast iron...which rusted.

[@justryingmybest]

Nature and nurture

[@zzz_zzz_ZZZ_zzz_ZZZ_ZZZ_Z_z-ZZ]

@@justryingmybest Ahhh… That reminds me of the nursery rhyme I was taught long ago. It went similar to the flow of the alphabet song. Cocaine or coke, you gonna be broke, gonna go choke. Nature or nurture, the future, a caricature of an effigy that lead to the end of me. Pink Dolphin:Blue whale, delusions are enemies, Mickey mouse- Burn the house. Cocaine or coke, you gonna be broke, gonna go choke. Can’t breathe, no, Can’t see, My future is too bright it made me blind- Blind in the mind, what future do you even find?

[@Kayclau]

Hey! Don't shittalk my parents like that! /j

[@givemechoco9753]

That rusted cast iron is probably me

[@haroldwilkes6608]

@@givemechoco9753 My hair says the same...but I prefer "aged to perfection" to rust.

[@ArtII2Long]

That's what things like psilocybin, LSD and DMT do, increase brain plasticity. Very effective in overcoming things like PTSD and other deeply ingrained behaviors a person benefits in overcoming.

[@AngeloXification]

I scrolled through the comments wondering if anyone was going to say this.

[@MiqelDotCom]

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't mention this. The research isn't new, it's been well established for 6 or 7 years!

[@chrissmith3718]

@@MiqelDotCom I think it 's even longer than that. Scientist were using LSD for mental health treatments in the 50's. Then the hippie movement caused them to be all right banned at the fed level.

[@MiqelDotCom]

@@chrissmith3718 Oh yeah, for sure there was positive research on treating alcoholism and mental health issues in the 50s & 60s! But the proof that psilocybin & LSD can actually cause new neuron growth and better connectivity between neurons is recent.

[@rickardandersson1887]

I was just going to write about that.

[@mariow7818]

I wish it would restore our ability to learn new skills like we had as kids. Then we would have super power of learning and all of Us wouldn't be dependant on skills we learnt as kids and how bad parenting or school system affected our potential, essentially stumping it in its growth period. We would be able to rediscover our potential and skills that otherwise have been lying dormant in our brains because we haven't accessed them as kids and now we have literal wall we need to climb in order to access those skills. With this therapy or drug we could get a ladder that would make learning far easier than it is today. Besides that school system as a whole took away enjoyment from learning new things we all had as kids. We were curious bunch passionate about the world and being force fed knowladge to memorize and then spit it out on paper to pass tests isn't interesting for curious kids in the least. Especially to sit in class and do nothing creative but monotonous repetition and forced learning. My brain adapted to situation by being able to quickly memorize core concepts of material for next test and then forefully erase it from my memory. I lierally forget everything I learn that I am not curious about.

[@joshwagoner3331]

I’ve found as an adult, I learn things easier than I did as a kid. I’m also interested in things that I really could have cared less about back then as well. 🤷

[@dg-hughes]

PTSD seems to be type of rewiring of the brain. I think shock whether from physical trauma or observing a traumatic event also seems to be a type of brain rewiring.

[@yeastspread3433]

I'm a neurodivergent synesthete, and improving and expanding my set of synesthesias is my special interest. Neural and neurogenesis can be increased and decreased through lots of different methods and techniques. It's the blind spot problem at large.

[@TheRandomINFJ]

Oh geez lol 🤦

[@_red_scorpion_]

My little brother was shot in the head when he was a kid. We were told if he survived he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. While in the hospital he suffered some strokes too... but 5 years later this kid is able to function fairly independently. While he does have trouble with his right hand he can still walk, talk, use both arms, do his schoolwork, play video games ect ect... It's truly remarkable how a child's brain is able to "rewire" itself... And it's incredible what modern healthcare can achieve.

[@regipope3213]

not to be ignorant or anything but in what context does a small child get shot in the head?

[@raerohan4241]

@@regipope3213 I'm guessing they're American?

[@kellysouter4381]

I'm glad your brother got better to the extent he did. He was fortunate.

[@RockyStonester1]

wishing him strength for th rest of his life

[@thevoiceharmonic]

Children get shot in the head all the time in USA. It doesn't happen anywhere else in the developed world unless it is a war zone.

[@mrsslibby6857]

As someone with epilepsy, the idea of decreasing the brain's inhibitors immediately sounded dangerous to me. I have to do everything I can to increase inhibitory processes and limit excitatory ones so I don't have seizures.

[@Spicyfeathers]

I do things like this I just don’t know how to communicate it. I can say that I train having different disabilities (blindness, deafness, limiting limbs etc.) I’ve been doing it since I was a kid (admittedly I was inspired by daredevil) the result is an ability to split my senses and focus on one at a time making it stronger. It mixes horribly with my adhd.

[@Al.j.Vasquez]

So what you're saying is that you've trained your senses through sensorial deprivation, but it has actually worked. I can't help but to remember the kid that was able to develop echo location, and tell the shape of things after making sounds with his tongue.

[@queeny5613]

Huh wow

[@Spicyfeathers]

@@Al.j.Vasquez 😂😂😂

[@YouGotCreeped]

I would’ve assumed that the neurons just connect up into a loop making it harder to learn new things. As a child you would have less neuron connections than adults making it easier to learn and make non looping connections but once you have so many connections eventually you’ll end up in an infinite loop until the loop is broken. Likely wrong as I have no degree, but makes sense to me.

[@mamo987]

surprised they didn’t mention anything about psychedelics , considering their relevancy with the topic of forming new connections and child brains

[@feygor]

I'm not surprised at all since this is a very family friendly channel. If you are looking for that kind of info though I recommend M.A.P.S or Erowid

[@muffins4tots]

Probably because it's new research that needs a lot more focus

[@switchlaserflip9243]

The science is still pretty new on that, so it's controversy makes people hesitate to talk about it.

[@MysticOfTheNorth]

Wooooah! This is awesome! As someone with amblyopia, I would love to be able to see the world through both eyes!

[@Catlily5]

Yes, I can't imagine seeing in 3-D.

[@topg2820]

Thanks for this, had this disorder since a long time but Opticians never told me, my left eye is super myopic and right is the opposite, my brain switches between them while viewing close and far resp. , finally I know what it's called

[@desertdarlene]

Exactly the same for me. Mine didn't have this issue until I was an adult, so they refused to treat me for it.

[@GhanashyamSateesh]

Damn, I have Amblyopia and I guess I missed it when I was still young... Maybe there is some hope for me after all😁🙌 Incredibly thankful for the Scishow team and luckily the KZbin algorithm for letting me catch this 🙌

[@safaiaryu12]

There may be! I'm getting mine treated at 30 and it's not great, but it's better than it used to be.

[@Catlily5]

I have it too. My parents didn't believe in operating.

[@starblaze27]

Would have been real nice for my eye doctors tell me I had amblyopia when I kept telling them on how my right eye is fine and I mostly had 20/20 vision unless I looked only with my left eye(which had 20/30 or 20/40 vision). Instead I was just talked to like I was a idiot and again when I ended up having to bother with glasses again to drive when I was in my 20s. I guess my brain still learned to wire itself though because when I had to do another vision test for my license again later on it made me see better on my left eye... just enough to pass the test(the right eye and both eye test I did flawlessly like before of course). That being said, perhaps someone can answer me this question. How come medical professionals tend to disregard and not consider things like amblyopia or other disorders toward children and adults until it becomes mostly too late to fix and prevent? I know of others who ended up finding out years later they had certain conditions that the doctor never even considered and yet they had everything that should have made it one of the first things to consider.

[@Lilith701]

Some doctors are lazy and stupid. Not everyone graduated top in their class.

[@starblaze27]

@@Lilith701 Heh I can believe it. In the case of my town, especially now, that is probably about 99% of them since almost everyone here will drive two hours to another city for a doctor rather than here. The 1% has his own clinic after he left the hospital(probably because the rest were so incompetent)

[@resourcedragon]

You may not have missed out on as much as this video wishes to imply. Here is my experience (quoted from the standalone comment I posted): I was a victim of the "patch over the stronger eye" treatment (you get a fuckton of bullying, apart from anything else), the weaker eye didn't improve but I think the atropine drops in the "stronger eye" damaged it. At the time this was attributed to "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

[@jurjenbos228]

Find an optometrist who knows what he's doing. Thanks to my optometrist I can now see depth since I was 30 years old. That was a really odd experience.

[@faerys_wheel6529]

All throughout my childhood, i thought i had good vision only to discover at 16/17 I had amblyopia when my siblings had their eye glasses made, and my vision was tested bec there was free eyetest check up.. i never knew since my stronger eye was carrying all my vision

[@seatbelttruck]

My aunt apparently had that "cover one eye" treatment for her vision as a kid. Unfortunately, her eye wasn't weaker, it was completely blind, so she was stumbling around completely unable to see until they figured THAT out.

[@minnymouse4753]

Girls stop maturing sooner then boys

[@movement2contact]

@@minnymouse4753 *than And what you said is not relevant in her case...

[@Freedom_LoneStar]

Lmao I’m sorry but that’s hilarious dude 🤣🤣🤣

[@sillyslicker1]

How on earth did they not figure that out, sooner?

[@lonestarr1490]

@@sillyslicker1 I don't get it either. *Ophthalmologist covers strong eye* Ophthalmologist: "So, little Aunty, would you please read the first line of letters?" *Little Aunty looks in the completely wrong direction* Ophthalmologist: "Oh..."

[@tree.mctree]

my niece had 3 strokes before she was 8 months old. she has full motor control, eye function, perfect speech. kids brains are crazy

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

@@Paonporteur bad juju 😄 ischemia can be caused by a variety of things but most commonly it's due to a clot

[@rhael42]

@@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse yes obviously... but what caused the _clotting?_

[@kimmium]

@@rhael42 bad juju obv 😂 Joking aside, I am curious too. The body is complicated.

[@aresmars2003]

I noticed from hours looking in telescope as a teenager, my right eye (which I'd exclusively use) seems more sensitive to detail in any given view, especially dark views rather than the bright moon. I wonder if I actually gained more neurons for interpreting sight in my right eye?

[@michaelevans6216]

thats a really interesting observation

[@loganskiwyse7823]

The reason GABA makes " circuit breakers " in the brain wiring is to prevent overstimulation of the Neurons in the brain from strong sensory input. Around 6 years of age the brains development is stalled while excessive Neurons are destroyed, failure to remove excess Neurons is one of the prime suspects in late Diagnosis Autism (anti-vax crowds usually associate this with vaccinations that happen around the same age, there is no actual connection other than overlap in age for receiving vaccinations and the normal period of this brain developments). The next stages are reinforcing and adding Neurons to the most active pathways and the addition of blocks " circuit breakers " that reduce or prevent signals from progressing down the incorrect pathways. So any drug that reduces the effectiveness of GABA is going to have seizers as a side effect. (If seizers is spelled wrong blame autocorrect :-))

[@sammy_sand_utubeyt6901]

Seizures?

[@loganskiwyse7823]

@@sammy_sand_utubeyt6901 thank you. I have Autism, and spelling is one of my hardest subjects. I know when things are wrong, but not which right is right. Think someone with a " gifted " IQ wouldn't have those issues. Wish it worked like that.

[@gunnart48]

@@loganskiwyse7823 I bet it doesnt help that autocorrect learns from your spelling.

[@Wabbelpaddel]

More unnecessary connections mean more noise/error quote/inaccessibility of memories due to aberrant cross wiring. Efficiency correlates with cleverness. If you've ever seen some network optimization or machine learning, you'd especially get it. See Numentas sparse connection model.

[@loganskiwyse7823]

@@Wabbelpaddel Actually, this isn't what we observe. People with Autism that fit into this category tend to have above average IQs with a cross signaling of sensory input to various degrees (sensitivity to sound/light/touch etc). Resulting in a far better problem-solving abilities at the loss of default social abilities normal people have. AKA the primary deficient of most people that don't experience the proper pruning of brain cells is social not intelligence or " cleverness " as you put it.

[@CostSteam02]

i have pretty bad ptsd. this was a great watch.

[@robmack519]

I'd be curious of the potential unintended consequences of increased plasticity. Given that we evolved to lose the plasticity as we mature, was that just a quirk thing that happened, or is there some trade off in judgement, memory, ethics, or something? It would be weird if suddenly adults could learn like children again, but it diminishes something else. Or as mentioned, causes siezures.

[@ghostratsarah]

I would make an uneducated guess that it might affect mental health. An overactive brain is not a good thing, as anyone with ADHD will tell you. Breeds depression, intense anxiety, and makes you very prone to panic attacks,

[@Wandergirl108]

I was thinking that too - there must be some REASON why our brains evolved to develop those inhibitors that GABA helps with. But, if you think about it, our brains are designed for survival in the wild, and in the wild, having a very set, non-plastic mind is beneficial, it means we develop habits early in life that allow us to survive and then never revamp them, doing the same thing and believing the same thing is beneficial to survival in the wild. HOWEVER, we do not live in the wild anymore, we have created a completely different environment that is constantly changing and requires much more drastic adaptability than what our ancestors had to contend with, so perhaps undoing that brain mechanic is exactly what we need in order to live in this completely different environment we've created.

[@vysharra]

@@Wandergirl108 not all evolution is about positively increasing reproductive fitness (aka “survival of the fittest “). Sometimes evolution is just neutral or only a little bad, so long as you can still survive and breed, the mutation can get passed on. ADHD doesn’t stop people from having descendants, and therefor offspring likely to have adhd too, it just makes life a little harder.

[@Wandergirl108]

@@vysharra This is quite true; however, the fact that this particular phenomenon happens to EVERY brain, that is to say, every ancestor in the wild whose offspring would go on to build modern society had brains that function like this, suggests to me that it may have had some form of survival benefit in the wild. But, again, as we have developed a completely different environment in which to survive over the course of the last couple of centuries - far faster than evolution can adapt, especially considering that natural selection no longer has much influence on the development of our race - what may have provided a benefit in the wild might now be a detriment and only a detriment, and undoing this once-possibly-vital function may be exactly what we need to now survive in the world we've built. This is all postulating, of course, I'm just a bio nerd, not a licensed scientist. XD

[@Samuel7Clow]

I’ve heard this very point discussed on Tom Bilyeu’s channel, and one thing the interviewee said was there would be an impact on your sense of self, character, and the like.

[@Urannshi]

I actually work in the visual field as a Vision Therapist. We treat people of all ages and have seen success in people from 4 to their mid 80s. Vision Therapy can treat amblyopia, strabismus, and other visual issues. I promise that hope isn't lost. A lot of doctors that say you can't do anything after the "critical period" tend to not have the knowledge of the field I work in. It can be expensive, but definitely worth looking into

[@fluffyraichu9706]

Docs tried to use the treatment for Amblyopia for me when I was young because I had barely any (I was and still am considered legally blind in that eye) vision in my right due to cancer and I of course favoured my left. Well it’s safe to say they shut it down pretty quickly since 1. The damage done was already irreparable and 2. I basically blind with the eyepatch over my left and it was to the point where I would often run into walls. Yeah my retina was massively fricked by the cancer and even if those efforts were continued, it probably wouldn’t have done much.

[@ditto7380]

I remember an experiment were made participants wore special glasses that flipped their field of view upside down. After 3 days their brains adapted and flipped right side up. Some participants reported a moment where their vision rotated for a few seconds before appearing right side up. After taking them off it took 3 days to flip back. I wonder if repeating the process can keep the brain in a more plastic state

[@psykology9299]

my one teacher did this and with me the image never righted itself but my brain just kinda started to look "down" for up and vica versa, kinda like when you invert the y axis in a videogame

[@dirt007]

It would definitely increase the sales of anti nausea meds.

[@marleypeters4758]

My two daughters had to use this treatment, they had the same issue in the right eye. It was hard to get a six year old to wear a patch but now in their late teens they glad they did.

[@skbartistry2473]

If you're an adult who have found things becoming easier to learn as you get older, then if you've never stopped trying to learn new stuff, the most likely reason for your ease of learning is really rooted in the same patterns that allow multipotentiality. And those patterns tend to stimulate the plasticity of the brain, making you grow more pathways and faster, as you can apply knowledge from other fields in learning new fields. This same ability is linked to higher plasticity and it is one of the aspects that let people with multipotentiality learn new skills faster and faster

[@johnacord5664]

I remember what is was like having that kind of visual impairment. Life sucked. 42 years later, it took me having two instematics implanted in my head to help with the cataracts. I was able to get confidence back.

[@Zahaqiel]

Another recent study from the University of Plymouth involved using transcranial ultrasound stimulation to disrupt brain regions responsible for maintaining learned maladaptive behaviour patterns in macaques, and by doing so their brains were induced to treat situations they had previously encountered as effectively new learning instances - basically inducing selective plasticity.

[@Neuro_Delinquency]

You must referring to TMS or TDCS. Ultrasound does not impact Neuro plasticity at all.. in fact, functional ultrasound is used nowadays as an alternative to fMRI in brain imaging of lab animals. We wouldn't use this methodology (fUS), if it would intervenes with the brain activation. The only way Ultrasound can be used to influence neurons in the CNS is by locally allowing the transfer of big molecules, that can't normally pass the Brain Blood Barrier (BBB), I to the brain due to localized heat

[@Zahaqiel]

@@Neuro_Delinquency No, I'm referring to low intensity transcranial _ultrasound_ stimulation. The study was released in the last month - all the information above is enough for you to go look it up yourself, instead of trying to correct me on something you actually need to update yourself on.

[@AnonymousCaveman]

Nice to see something from the University of Plymouth on a KZbin comment!

[@LindysEpiphany]

I believe that our brains are able to adapt to anything thrown at it. Plasticity may be harder with age but that doesn't mean it can't happen just that you have to work harder. Having an open mind and the willingness to work hard is key to making it work. We know now that after trauma the faster you begin to re-use the damaged part the better it heals. When 50 years ago we thought that rest is what healed. If you broke a bone you were bedridden for months. This caused more problems. It all comes down to USE IT OR LOSE IT!

[@kasann4833]

The most recent studies suggest that neurogenesis doesn't occur after gestation ends (when previous studies suggested that the dentate gyrus could perform neurogenesis into adulthood). New synapses may/will form and be pruned away well into adulthood, but to say new neurons, the actual neuronal cell, will form is an a somewhat harmful over generalization. When neurons die, they do not come back because in adulthood new neurons can not form; however, that doesn't mean that the brain can't adapt to their loss through a "rewiring" or plasticity of the surround synapses. This processes is involved mainly with the glutamatergic system under the context of learning and memory, but in reference to critical periods, I think this would be better explained by acknowledging the role of NGF and BDNF as they play a crucial role in the routing of neuronal circuitry as well the survival of the neuron itself. There is new research suggesting that using growth factors, they may be able to reopen critical period (in humans idk bc there has not be human trials). There are multiple theories on why a growth period ends that range from myelination, a change in glutamatergic receptors, as well as constraint of cortical activation. I'm majoring in neuroscience and I understand that not all ppl want a that in depth view into the topic, but I wish you would have gone over some neurobiology to help ppl get a since of the moving parts, bc some of the statements made were far too reductive. At points it felt like you were referencing LTD??

[@travislupum]

I've never lost this ability

[@ronaldwhite1730]

Thank - you .

[@stevejeffryes5086]

Read "Fixing My Gaze" by Susan Barry, who had amblyopia all her life, with childhood surgery effecting only a cosmetic fix. As an adult, she had surgery to provide true alignment of her eyes. At the age of 48 and some months after the surgery, she developed stereo vision, when neuroplasticity should, by accepted thinking, have already passed her by

[@vacafuega]

Super relevant to discussions around autism and adhd. You can also set yourself up to retain neuroplasticity to some degree if you train your brain to always be looking for new information and new experiences - fossilize into being a flexible person, if you will

[@korstmahler]

Undiagnosed probable Amblyopic here. I really wish this was an acknowledged thing back when I was in school. I already assumed it was a minor error in my right eye's mechanical processes but this gives me hope that my occasional one-eye training is actually a good attempt to fix it. I can only hope that at 29 my brain has enough give left in it to change. I believe I'm getting some results, as over time my visual clarity from that eye has improved, but it's slower going than I imagine it would have been were I diagnosed as a kid. I think I'll hold off on the GABA altering medications until we've figured how much excitation is too much and stops causing seizures.

[@rusuioana2493]

Imagine how much progress society will start making once we can learn like toddlers again! I'm guessing the rate of mental illnesses will drop too!

[@movement2contact]

Don't you mean increase..? 🤔

[@BPS298]

@@movement2contact That makes no sense. Being able to re-wire someone's brains out of mental illness would be WAY easier. And most people who do get things like anxiety or depression get it in their teens, you know, when some of those critical periods start ending?

[@movement2contact]

@@BPS298 It does make sense because there's a correlation between intellectual abilities and schizophrenia etc...

[@user-ko4zp1wm2i]

@@BPS298 mentall Illnesses are more "complicated" to un-ill then to understand in the first place.....

[@BPS298]

@@user-ko4zp1wm2i Don't call me un-ill. I have severe anxiety. I know what it's like to feel hopeless, alone, and to push aside things you really want to do.

[@jaybingham3711]

This: 2:07 "...vision in that eye might just be worse." Followed by 2:11 *winks with left eye (use slower speed if you miss it) I did not see this affect with any of his other blinks in this video. So I'm left wondering if: a) He actually had amblyopia when he was younger and this is a shout-out b) He just playin' c) Having prepped with the copy previously, he was subliminally predisposed to this happening. d) Simple happenstance.

[@mattagamer98]

My brain had the ability once to focus on one thing for an extended period of time

[@oeeveemkittygfreak]

*closed strong eye for the entirety of the video* thanks for the reminder!! ^^"

[@richcast66]

Amazing things for medicine? This has far broader implications. Being able to condition a primordial affinity far past the critical point would be revolutionary. It would create far more opportunities for acclimation within each respective affinity

[@Paitriot21]

Would this increased placticity, if we are able to make it work properly, also help in mental health? I feel like it would be an amazing way to treat childhood traumas for example. Great topic, thanks for the episode :)

[@brendakrieger7000]

Thanks

[@swanky464]

I was diagnosed with amblyopia a long while back, never knew what caused it. That’s pretty neat.

[@kml1482]

Born with it I was born with amblyopia

[@kml1482]

Even at three surgeries on them

[@swanky464]

@@kml1482 I mean yeah I’ve had it since I was probably born, cause I’ve had to have glasses ever since I could walk, but I never really knew much beyond that I had it

[@allanolley4874]

I tried the eye-patch method for a while to treat my amblyopia without much in the way of results, I think we gave up after it failed to improve vision in the weaker eye, but made vision in the good eye worse. I also did a thing where I spent like half an hour staring at a diffuse coloured light, I'm pretty sure that was just weapons grade quackery though.

[@amyalewine]

I have healed my eyes by sungazing. Light is the real medicine. Sorry you didnt have success with the color lights. The brain is powerful and if you believe it to be quackery then it is.

[@keithyinger3326]

The vision in my right eye was about twice as bad as my left. Live right I was starting to get lazy and go cross. I was about 13 but they just gave me glasses. Once my right eye could see good again it slowly started uncrossing and working as normal luckily. 42 now and the right eye is still twice as bad as the left but they haven't gotten a whole lot worse over the years which is good. Because of that though things like 3D glasses don't work for me and 3D films just look ugly with the bi-colors. It doesn't matter if the glasses are inside my real glasses or outside, my brain either wants to focus on the red side or the blue side and just can't process both at the same time. It's almost like my brain is taking alternating inputs from each eye versus a single input merged from both of them.

[@mastod0n1]

@@amyalewine sungazing is quackery. It's so harmful to the eyes that it shouldn't ever be used as a treatment. You either got lucky or there was some other factors at play because I guarantee staring at the sun is not what fixed your vision.

[@amyalewine]

@@mastod0n1 Been doing it for 10 years. No eye problems. Actually eye sight is better than it was. Let me guess you wear sunglasses and sunscreen because you were programmed to think the Sun is harmful

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

@@amyalewine I'm sure you've seen the light. You see it all day. The white light of heaven. The white light of ultraviolet radiation causing sunburns on your retinas. Tried lasers?

[@desertdarlene]

I have amblyopia, but it wasn't diagnosed until I was about 21. All the eye doctors told me that there was nothing they could do about it. I can't get treatment if I wanted to. I didn't start wearing glasses until I was in my mid-teens and didn't get the amblyopia until later, so there was no way to treat it when I was young. I just have to live with it. Now I'm middle-aged and have one eye with near-perfect close-up vision and the other has near-perfect distance vision. Go figure. Still can't drive without glasses because the distance vision between the two eyes is too great.

[@jaftem2x]

SciShow, can you do a video on "visual snow"? The neurological kind. I have it, ever since I can remember as a little kid, and there isn't much info on it on the Internet.

[@VeggiePun]

2:20 I've been living with this since I can remember and never had a name for it! When I close my good eye I still see info from it in my bad eye! So while I'm looking through my bad eye those blind spots are now filled with what my good eye sees! They tried to get me to wear an eye patch over my good eye growing up but kids being kids I hated it cause I couldn't see so I took it off. I asked about it as an adult and they said "lol nah can't do it now bud. Your SOL"

[@sigsin1]

I learned about amblyopia when I was a kid whose favorite comic strip was Peanuts. Linus had amblyopia and had to wear a patch over one eye for awhile.

[@thetimewizard6375]

massive parenting tips

[@safir2241]

"flat out increase brain plasticity in adults" PSYCHEDELICS

[@JODAKAN0815]

I was wondering why he didn't talk about the LSD studies

[@somnorila9913]

I bet all of those "is never too late" people are kicking themselves right now. And supports the idea that development, as in environment, parents, people and such, are important stuff and if you draw a bad hand in the beginning, later is not so easy to bounce back. Like i say, you can't become someone else than you already are. As in you can't rebuild everything, just maybe the last layer, so when it comes to your character foundation, forget about it. Identity is very important, reason for why religion and all around culture are not easy concepts to shake out of someone's self once they were settled in and literally became part of you.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

The whole idea of there being a critical period for pretty much any learning is bad science. There is a bit of a critical period in that sometime in your late 20s your skull finally finishes hardening and there's no ability beyond that to get larger, and that if some form of language doesn't develop early on, the ability of the brain to communicate with itself is severely impaired, but beyond that there's simply not much evidence to support the idea. Language is the one that people cite the most often, but even there, the apparent lack of progress learning languages as an adult is almost entirely explainable just via lack of time and ability to cope without doing the learning. Hour for hour, adults learn languages far faster than children do and it's not even close. An adult is capable of learning in a single year far more than children do in their first 5 and the adults don't even have to put much effort into it. Sure, learning at that rate and amount as an adult is incredibly unpleasant, but it's definitely doable. I'm in my 40s now and I definitely learn and retain information better than I did as a kid, but I'm willing to torture my brain in ways that most other people won't to get the results.

[@prakash_77]

Exciting stuff!!

[@stargatemaster94]

We need more research with psilocybin

[@booJay]

Adult here...I tried playing with a programming language designed for 6 to 8 year-olds and struggled 😅

[@millicentduke6652]

I have amblyopia and was told just five years ago that it could have been treated if it had been discovered when I was a child. Thanks for letting me know! I may finally have full binocular vision someday soon for the first time in my life thanks to you and this video and the therapy I’m signing up for! 🥳

[@Catlily5]

Everyone around my age (47) who was treated for amblyopia as a kid still has problems with their vision.

[@MrLeafeater]

I spent about four years doing exercises with my left eye, to train my brain to focus my vision, back in the 70s. Most of it was staring at a pencil eraser, but there were cards, too. It worked. Glad I had a good eye doctor.

[@zerodadutch6285]

Omg I did that in the mid to late 90s. Lol it didn't work for me very well. It did leave me with an interesting side effect. I can now divert both eyes on command lol.

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

This could make a world of difference in people with so very many problems! By the way, my dad told me when I was a little girl to always learn something new every day, and that day wasn't wasted. I've worked to make sure I never waste a day, all this time. I've also read that learning that something new each day keeps us younger, very similar to the things thesw studies are finding, so hey, plus plus! 😁

[@hermeticsource1824]

Neuroplasticity neurogenisis

[@RoseDragoness]

both me and my brother have ambylopia, and he lost one of his eyesight permanently last year.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I'm sorry to hear that. I was developing it in both of my eyes due to having synesthesia and trying to use my optical circuits to process hearing and touch along with visual stimuli. I still lose sight completely if I hear loud noises. But, what I've had a great deal of luck with is getting a job that required reading labels on the products at the local store. It's not going to bring back completely gone vision, but if you're using the neurons that you weren't using, the vision should somewhat come back. My vision now is better than it has been in years. One of the worst bits of advice that doctors give with respect to any sort of brain issues is to accommodate it. They'll tell people with strokes not to do whatever it is that they can't do and give them help not to do it. Occasionally, that's right, but most of the time, it just ensures that the brain won't even try to repair the damage as it's not being asked to. Sure, if it's something dangerous, that might be good advice, but if somebody has issues walking, there are tons of ways of protecting against injury that would allow for the patient to try.

[@BaddeGrasse]

More good news for the future of medical psilocybin!

[@itsohaya4096]

Legalise it 🌿🍄

[@michaelevans6216]

@@itsohaya4096 yeeessss

[@ilect1690]

Wow i just learned something new... Scientests even do placebos on rats

[@UHFStation1]

That's interesting. I think there was a study out of Vanderbilt that said inhibition of GABA initiated regeneration of the zebrafish's retina.

[@LafemmebearMusic]

I have a story: so I’m a musician and I learned all by just picking up instruments and playing them. Had a teacher once for about a year when I was 11 but it didn’t work out for family money reasons. Fast forward to adult hood at 30 I picked up a guitar and now 4 years later I play on billboard top country songs with Reba McEntire. I also play a lot of other instruments piano bass and now flute which I started learning a year ago and am moving just as quickly as I did with guitar. The point: I never had academia teach me music, again. I NEVER HAD ACADEMIA TESCH ME MUSIC. I don’t read music I have a basic understanding of theory at best. Being forced to use my ear instead due to socioeconomic positionally as a child, meant I had to just listen to learn. What would happen if we focused on ear training and much less structured theory academic ideas of learning? Could this translate to other topics? How do reimagine what learning outside of traditional academic settings? There are folx who swear I should learn theory and it would be a benefit , then they come in the studio with me and watch me work and go wait... how are you just doing that... cus no one told me I couldn’t with out proper training, like academia often preaches. Maybe it’s not just the humans but it’s how we are teaching them. I didn’t have academia telling me I wasn’t a musician unless I knew x thing, so I just tried things until they worked. What if we took that kinda of discovery approach to learning. At this point, some of the most well known musicians musicians I’ve been in the studio with or on stage with, have met me and now question why we learn music the way we do with such an emphasis on theory. We had ears and it just never was of use in ours sessions and that boggled their minds. We all melded and made amazing music without it... academia might be the issue folx...

[@LafemmebearMusic]

I know there’s a school of new music teaching focused on ear and not theory. I’m not the only one by any means capable of this so I hope more folx open to this idea of stepping away from traditional learning, folx may be missing geniuses because of it

[@Kayclau]

Well, I'm convinced! Drug me. I wanna learn everything!!!!!

[@monkemind420]

The medication Gabapentin made my vision blurry. I see why now.

[@safaiaryu12]

I have amblyopia. It was indeed caught as a kid, but I got bullied about the eye patch and refused to keep wearing it. So, amblyopia. It's kinda hard to explain to people that I CAN see out of my left eye, I just don't use it. It's cool to see this in a video. I have a brilliant eye doctor now, and special prism glasses (Neurolenses) to correct and make me use my weaker eye. I'm noticing that I'm now using my bad eye more often even when I'm not wearing my glasses, after a couple years. It's certainly not 50-50, but it's better than it used to be! And I'm 30 years old!

[@Catlily5]

My eyes cross so I explain to people that if I use both eyes at once I see double and get bad headaches.

[@8023120SL]

I have a super power. I can make peoples eyes roll any time i want! Told you!

[@MrDiveDave]

Look up the effects of psychedelics on the brain in this regard. You will be surprised at what you find.

[@DeathMetalDerf]

I want to get a job as a STEAM teacher just to be part of the Smithsonian Institute thing. That would be an absolute dream come true!

[@thevoiceharmonic]

Toot Toot. The age of steam continues for electrical generation in coal and nuclear power plants. Perhaps we need more STEM teachers as well

[@MistyAnime]

I had the eye patch thing too. Didn't work, my 'lazy' eye had a huge turn. Anyway I didn't make it to the school gate with the patch on. I couldn't see really anything. Can't really train the brain if that part of the brain is damage beyond repair. I got to be one of a few 'blind' people who have healthy eyes

[@handkeez]

How are you seeing now? Or is it just one eye?

[@RedianRed]

@@handkeez one eye. Ia also got amblyopia. But i couldn't treat it when i was young because i didn't know what it was. I thought everyone saw the world like how i do.

[@MistyAnime]

@@handkeez I'm not 100% sure how I see. The sight I do have isn't much. 20/20 is normal vision. I have 3/20. What a fully sighted person sees at 20 feet, I won't until I'm 3 feet from it and that's my 'good' eye. It can't be corrected, I'll never see, but don't worry I've lived with it all my life. It doesn't bother me

[@HeelTaker7]

That is one HELL of a URL ya got there, Smithsonian! 😂

[@kingjames4886]

is the placebo effect even a thing in animals?

[@slavsquatsuperstar]

Imagine walking around with an eyepatch in Kindergarten from a medical prescription. Now that's one way to be popular!

[@sandybarnes887]

I had to wear a brown patch that mom heated, then glued over my strong eye.

[@rachael4345]

I was born with a cataract in my left eye that wasn't caught until I was 6-7. I developed amblyopia and I have essentially "aged out" of the treatment shortly after the studies come out. It's pretty annoying.

[@bishopoftroy]

Try also to explain what GABA is

[@williammoore4101]

It sounds like Flowers for Algernon isn't too far off.

[@paladin656]

I’m right hand dominant, but left eye dominant. This can get awkward sometimes. Can I get some of this anti-GABA and see what happens?

[@The_KingDoge]

That's mainly genetic

[@grassgeese3916]

That's my situation too! I am curious, how has it inconvenienced you?? It isn't a big deal to me, the only time I've noticed difficulty is in shooting a handgun.

[@paladin656]

@@grassgeese3916 shooting sports for sure. I have trouble enjoying 3D stuff like movies or having to leave the 3D turned off on my 3DS to prevent headaches. (I don’t know if that’s the case but I suspect the weaker eye throws it off) If I’m really tired it can throw off my depth perception some. I mean it’s not like it’s life changing. Just annoying.

[@AmyDentata]

For increased plasticity, if all else fails, there's always lysergic acid diethylamide.

[@itssuperninja]

i was thinking weed

[@beezusHrist]

Yeah, cannabis does the same thing...

[@safir2241]

I WAS LITERALLY COMMENTING THIS. ever since taking acid, my perception has been dramatically changing. it also helps that i'm a painter, but both combined makes me basically see the matrix when observing any object

[@sebastienh1100]

@@beezusHrist - I don’t know your age but it is very false - on the contrary weeds slows down the brain and makes us quite stupid

[@sebastienh1100]

@@itssuperninja - I don’t know your age but it is very false - on the contrary weeds slows down the brain and makes us quite stupid

[@shoot-n-scoot3539]

I have astigmatism in both eyes. Neither eye by itself can pass eyesight test for Drivers License. But both eyes together pass enough information to Visual Cortex to pass. I would call that neural plasticity. Another example is it is harder for older people to learn new info; foreign language, how to operate a smartphone, memorization, etc.

[@joel-uw2lg]

I had to do the eye patch method for a while and modern day i have 2020 vision. I have a really scary memory where. Was wearing the eye patch and the over eye got covered in a weird static thing It stopped when i took it off but still it was scary for 7 year old me

[@sandybarnes887]

I had to use a heated up patch that was glued over my good eye. Didn't work, my vision still sux

[@aal-e-ahmadhussain3123]

Do spectacles “treat” visual impairment?

[@DrewNorthup]

The lack of GABA is what causes alcoholics who quit cold turkey to suffer intense and potentially fatal seizures. Watching that happen is a flashback I don't need to "see" again today.

[@Rico-Suave_]

Watched all of it

[@Erowens98]

Increased brain plasticity in adults is gonna be very important when we start significantly extending human lifespans. Since right now, one of the primary ways societies progress is through young people replacing old people when they die. These young people bring in fresh ideas and ideal more suitable for the current time period. Since it's the one they grew up in. Increased brain plasticity might help old peoples brains stay more up to date.

[@jacobmartinelli7496]

don't dwell about things to not regard it for too long, like to the point that it's all you know about experiencing.

[@nariu7times328]

OH I love neurology so very much. :)

[@hiddenshadowwolf]

:( I miss the old scishow intro, but this is a great video!

[@boomerix]

When I was a child I was supposed to wear glasses, but I refused to wear them. A couple of years later I had another eye test done and my vision was perfect. If I would have worn the glasses, I might still need to wear them as an adult.

[@Alex-lp6bg]

Same here. Had some condition that went away by itself.

[@OGSumo]

Your eyes and vision *can* get better as you age when you are young, this is already known. Refusing to wear glasses might not really be relevant here, other than forcing you to be unnecessarily poor-sighted for a while.

[@Knobulon]

I needed them when I was younger and never wore them now I'm a bit older I still need to wear them rip

[@nmplab]

My psychiatrist really hasnt answered this clearly but is my brain permanently damaged after having gone through years of severe mental illness? I remember waiting for one month before getting treatment because I didn't want my parents to know while I was around them, so in that one month, I spent around 90% of my awake time having an anxiety attack thinking about the intrusive thoughts and I couldn't stop shaking. I also had less sleep (and that problem already existed before but I still felt at my prime before the anxiety). Is it possible that my brain has some permanent damage somewhere? I can't remember certain events anymore; I'm always tired; I'm really averse to even the slightest stress. I also easily get anxiety if I'm hungry for too long haha. And one last thing: it took me two years to finally start taking psych meds since I was too afraid that it might make it feel worse. But I got better anyway with the meds overtime and now current me wonders why I didn't do this earlier. Haha My psychiatrist did say the brain does heal itself when we're asleep, and I still have hope in feeling like myself again with proper sleep, diet, water intake, and exercise.

[@jnesrh420]

So out of curiosity, during those ages, has it been tested or would it be possibly beneficial to do 'one or weak eye etc exercises' for potentially better results?