Can we use deep brain stimulation to make you smarter?

And this is accomplished using this kind of device, and this is called deep brain stimulation.

Now, about a hundred thousand patients in the world have received deep brain stimulation, and I'm going to show you some examples of using deep brain stimulation to treat disorders of movement, disorders of mood and disorders of cognition.

I've shown you that we can use deep brain stimulation to treat the motor system in cases of Parkinson's disease and dystonia.

Ah! Good for the brain.

let me close with an example of the brain.

That is mind boggling.

logical mind training, logical thinking.

All they needed was a little push. A push.

This is a thousand year old drawing of the brain.

like an on off switch.

By this age the brain can actually store.

How is the brain able to do this?

It's a very big signal it's sent to the brain says,

We thought we could adapt it for the brain.

But both of these are mind blowing.

Why Stimulus Has Failed

The Bogey of Fiscal Stimulus

It's about stimulation.

That means that it's possible to map out the activity of the brain.

Is Stimulus Still Necessary?

Any aerobic activity that basically pushes the blood into your brain faster, pushes the oxygen and nutrients into your brain faster helps things repair, pushes the waste out of your brain.

So, this clip is from the PBS series, The Secret Life of the Brain.

Less Bang for America s Stimulus Buck

Stimulate or Die

Let's take the example of electrical stimulation.

That's what this stimulus means.

The other main characteristic is motivation.

This shows the power of incentives.

Particularly, a part called the pre frontal cortex.

What it's all about is the selective representations of things that are important to the brain.

There was a lot of bank rescue in economic stimulus and there was a lot of economic stimulus in rescuing banks.

All Stimulus Roads Lead to China

It was right to stimulate.

Consolidators versus Stimulators

Fiscal stimulus is a tricky business.

Without the dopamine, we have no motivation.

This right here is the initiation step.

I've never objected to stimulants... as stimulants.

And then, finally, what we think about also matters to the brain.

We're going to do this hand model of the brain, and I'm going to teach you all how to do this.

My rescuer? My deep love?

When we grow up our moral and ethical compass is almost entirely forged by our environment.

I asked the participants in the experiment to lie in a brain imaging scanner.

Indeed, this part, the VTA, is part of the brain's reward system.