What Dr Sapolsky says about strengthening the prefrontal cortex through hierarchical resistance to temptations, resisting for increasingly prosocial reasons, is well known in the addiction recovery community. The more prosocial the rationalization for resistance, the easier it becomes to simply not do it. Direct altruistic action, doing for others for no other reason than it feels good, seems to enhance and reenforce the process. 25 episodes!! I've watched and learned something from every single one , thanks.
You brain REMAINS subject to your "choice" or immersion within your accessible ingroup. We DESIRE social niche; this has been so evolutionarily built in that all our hormonal systems promoting parasympathetic - anabolic-dominant part of that necessary cycling - "security" and Probability of social advancement. This is the addiction that is religion, sometimes culminating in violent response to perceived violation of ingroup regulations serving an unquestioned falsely exogenous portion of our brain. Recognize the hormonal pleasure of desire and persistence to understand the artificial prosociality of an ingroup focused upon the "success" of resisting to outgrouped "other[s]: while adhering to a limited tribal "safe" ingroup. Can you step out into the world you originally perceived, BEFORE becoming so dependent upon an ingroup, which perceives threat from all "foreign" signals? The conservation of "security" is the inherent addiction. The linking of natural generosity and openness to ANY specific ingroup distorts the openness to experience, falsely linking it to your, and ANY, messianic ingrouping impulse. Missionaries are the desperate, narrow-minded conservatives who descend into frenzied violent conservative response. Having experienced the combined acquired dementias of each separate parent, as well as meeting the harsh and ubiquitous priests and ministers of religion as adult, that refusal to admit any validity other than their own social dominance, remains a continual highly unpleasant experience, for anyone who did not succumb to either alcohol or religious demented submissiveness.
@@briseboyYour first paragraph was an interesting read on spiritual and faith based recovery modalities and one I largely agree with. You lost me after that, sorry I’m a bit on the dumb side. I’m referring to evidence based modalities and prosocial and altruistic practices can extend to everyone in your material sphere and the world at large. An example of this hierarchical rationale might be: I don’t want to do this substance because legal consequences negative emotional and physical health negative impact on interpersonal relationships, negative impact on relationship with society/ humanity Negative impact of trade of said substance Not wanting to engage in any blatantly harmful activity or behavior whatsoever Wanting to engage in humanistic behavior that benefits others, no in group association necessary. Sorry if my language was triggering. Sounds like you prefer the path of the Ubermench , raw logic and reason and it sounds like you have the brain to walk that path. Good luck ❤
@@Amethyst_Friend Thanks for saying so, I find Dr. Sapolskys work carries a message of great hope, moving us farther away from questions of morality and highly supportive of evidence based solutions to a plethora of maladaptive vexations. Our neural plasticity allows us to alter and in some cases reverse deep neurosis and the maladaptive default thinking, that drives many of these vexations. Good luck on your path whatever that may be ❤ btw, your playlists are awesome!
Oh my God! The informative storytelling of the music, nature's rock musicians, dance. The hidden science that connects all living creatures, Pain and problems with the pre-frontal cortex. I hung on every word.
Music as cheesecake brought back a childhood memory. When I was a teenager I used to play piano at this restaurant and one day I was playing this improvisational piece and the owner/chef came out from the back and said "What you were playing, that was some Chicano cheesecake". I had no idea what that meant, but he gave me a slice of New York cheesecake so that was pretty swell. Free cheesecake!
Neural plasticity is fascinating. 'use it or lose it' is very true of both muscles, and neurological groupings relative to certain skills or actions. I have been thinking on this lately and have come to realize that changing pre-established neurological structures being an 'energy intensive' process is core to why people are unlikely to change their beliefs. once we believe we posess knowledge (once we have the cognative closure of feeling we 'know' something) and once we have created robust neuronal networks to this effect, the process of unlearning or relearning becomes daunting and hostile first and foremost because of the reality that restructuring/rewiring is psychologically and metabolically intensive.
This is a very interesting point , people recovering from SUD and other intensive Therapeutic interventions, frequently have rapid weight gain, it’s referred to as substance shifting and primarily considered a self soothing behavior, which in part it is, but what you mentioned here definitely adds more dimension and nuance to the problem. More focused metabolic support during intense neurological changes could be very useful for individuals going through such rigorous reordering of their thought processes. Great observation! Thank you 😊
that was a brilliantly interesting session on your special occasion. Many thanks indeed, from one of Prof Sapolsky's converts to neurobiology. PLEASE keep your discussions going... I love them.
Thanks, so wonderful! English is not my language and sometimes I have to listen twice what you say and you speak a little too fast! But all what you says is so interesting! Pain killers help with emotional pain !
omg you just totally described rhythm music theory!!! rock n roll is ... ba ba ba ... bababa ..kind of like a baby crying haha 😂😂😂😂😂 The sax guy from Bill Haley and the Comets did this and boom ! American Rhythm and Blues is based on this!!
I'm really enjoying Dr. Sapolsky's monologues, don't get me wrong. But more dialogue between the two would be even more delightful. I'm wondering why Offspring Rachel doesn't engage much with these thoroughly engaging ideas.
Fair question. I'd say but could be one or more of many reasons. One might be that Rachel is supposed to be the interviewer. As such, less is more. On the other hand, she could well add some value with a few well placed questions, or interjections. I have to assume she's quite familiar with his work and ideas.
She does sometimes a little bit. I agree that it could be more. I think we shouldn't forget that he is used to talking in front of a lot of people or a camera and she is probably quite new to it.
Insights into rhythm just blew up my mind. It's so much more than the naked eye can see. Might start with mating, but if you extend, it's about fitting into society, job, and so on... Awesome episode.
As always, fascinating. Dear Mr Sapolsky and The Beautiful Offspring, hehe.. Would you mind to spread your magnificent wisdom in the realm of platform X? I guess, that will be a tremendous amount of impact if your wisdom will be at X. Thank you :)
Thank you! Very interesting about music, dancing, rhythm…love how much Dr S knows about music, gasped at the rock hydrax’s performance!…love this show so much; learn a ton
Ulises Reveles (Virginia / Mexico). Dear Professor Sapolsky, I respectfully disagree with your notion that there isn’t a “little person” inside us who defines who we are and provides us with metacognition. You assert that metacognition is nothing more than a delusion created by our brains, a mere outcome of neural networks. However, I believe this perspective overlooks an essential aspect of our human experience. It's akin to saying that the brain doesn't actually "see" because it's enclosed in the skull, shrouded in darkness, and only processes electrical impulses from the eyes. Yet, this processing is precisely what we define as "seeing." In the same way, this so-called "little person"-even if it’s a product of neural processes-is in fact our very essence. It’s what makes us recognize ourselves as independent individuals, with dreams, goals, illusions, and emotions. I believe this "little person" is central to our identity and consciousness, not just a byproduct but a vital component of what it means to be human.
Thank you for sharing. Always enjoy your discussions. Enjoy learning. Have intended to comment occasionally recently but sometimes time and tide get the better of me. It's a brave new world with the dog who keeps me more than busy at times. Also the state of affairs in the world takes energy and time. More later -
great stuff! The information on the prefrontal cortex,music and the auditory cortex has pointed me in a new direction for understanding my tinnitus a bit better.Thanks.(I've sent you a question)
Very interesting. Thanks and greetings from Denmark. In continuation of the talk about the plasticity of the brain and your previous section about the characteristic of autism with fewer "long firing neurons", the 80/20 principle, - I have a question. Can autism be modified by exercises sometime in the future? Perhaps by influences that enforce neuron pathways across the brain. By building a bridge between isolated islands, traffic will begin to increase between the islands. If the brain is plastic, perhaps autism and other problems should not be considered static conditions? I'm an IT geek, not a scientist, - but this question has haunted me for a long time. Robert Sapolsky must be the perfect man to ask. 🙂
Q.1 advice about "training PFC into auto-pause before judgement/decision" quite reminds of self-stop described by Orwell. People in dictatorships like Russia learn to detect and stop their unapproved, dangerous thoughts - even before they become cohesive in their heads 🚫. Q.2 is great too - so maybe folk medicine of heavy drinking after very unpleasant social situations - helps mostly through analgesic effects. Alcohol may numb pains of the rejection, insult and grief. But you can just try strong dose of acetaminophen, ibuprofen etc. No morning hangover 😄
Safolsky you like a teenager and confident if i have you like a student its straight to my road to the PhD and the kabbalah relation with the genetics and human beings and the other podcasts of rabbi coach and i saw you we appeal like a sex appeal its an open question and thanks to my divine mother and where my place on Stanford ptinceton and keep going for humanity and new earth new era you have your place on the board and you ask the real question and the truth
that just wonderful "boB" (motivating habituated concept its the same emotion is as you know its why migrant can kill native animals with joy ) some people can read a book and have a full insight into a mechanism other having details but still feel the need to inflict pain an some innocent creature reminds me of the movie "brute force " and the Munzies of this world sticking pines in helpless flies
"My impression is that a sense of rhythm, which has no analog in language, is unique and that its correlation with movement is unique to human beings. Why else would children start to dance when they're two or three? Chimpanzees don't dance. Darwin speculated that “music tones and rhythms were used by our half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship, when animals of all kinds are excited not only by love, but by strong passions of jealousy, rivalry, and triumph” and that speech arose, secondarily, from this primal music. There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability. The power of music, narrative and drama is of the greatest practical and theoretical importance. ... We see how the retarded, unable to perform fairly simple tasks involving perhaps four or five movements or procedures in sequence, can do these perfectly if they work to music. Very young children love and demand stories, and can understand complex matters presented as stories, when their powers of comprehending general concepts, paradigms, are almost nonexistent. I suspect that music has qualities both of speech and writing - partly built in, partly individually constructed - and this goes on all through one's life. There is certainly a universal and unconscious propensity to impose a rhythm even when one hears a series of identical sounds at constant intervals... We tend to hear the sound of a digital clock, for example, as "tick-tock, tick-tock" - even though it is actually "tick tick, tick tick. Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity. Music evokes emotion and emotion can bring it's memory. The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity. Even when other powers have been lost and people may not even be able to understand language, they will nearly always recognize and respond to familiar tunes. And not only that. The tunes may carry them back and may give them memory of scenes and emotions otherwise unavailable for them. I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders -- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's -- because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged. The rhythm of music is very, very important for people with Parkinson's. But it's also very important with other sorts of patients, such as patients with Tourette's syndrome. Music helps them bring their impulses and tics under control. There is even a whole percussion orchestra made up exclusively of Tourette's patients. I think there is no culture in which music is not very important and central. That's why I think of us as a sort of musical species. Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does-humans are a musical species. There is no one part of the brain which recognizes or responds emotionally to music. Instead, there are many different parts responding to different aspects of music: to pitch, to frequency, to timbre, to tonal intervals, to consonance, to dissonance, to rhythm, to melodic contour, to harmony. Much more of the brain is devoted to movement than to language. Language is only a little thing sitting on top of this huge ocean of movement. In terms of brain development, musical performance is every bit as important educationally as reading or writing. The brain is more than an assemblage of autonomous modules, each crucial for a specific mental function. Every one of these functionally specialized areas must interact with dozens or hundreds of others, their total integration creating something like a vastly complicated orchestra with thousands of instruments, an orchestra that conducts itself, with an ever-changing score and repertoire. Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation. The power of music, whether joyous or cathartic must steal on one unawares, come spontaneously as a blessing or a grace. We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination. Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination The power of music to integrate and cure. . . is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest nonchemical medication. Music has a bonding power, it's primal social cement." Oliver Sacks
Wow, I just heard about this " Age Reversal Pill that works in Dogs " by extending their " Telomeres ", I was wondering if you know anything about the promise of our dogs living 50 years or even more.
Dr. Sapolsky, what do you think are some of the likely reasons for humans being capable of "cognitive bias" (behaviourly/evolutionary)? Or do you think it is just an emergent property of consciousness that is especially visible in the modern age?
Why does my brain seemingly randomly decide to dredge up old and often embarrassing/uncomfortable memories? As if I'm not anxious enough, I don't need to recall something stupid that I did when I was a teenager.
Question for another time, WHY can’t I get a song out of my head? It happens all the time, whether it’s from watching a movie or music I chose to listen to. It’s maddening. What is the neurological/psychological reason for this? Thanks.
A recent documentary - Chimp Crazy - details the strange relationship that some people develop with chimps. Apparently, having a pet chimp was legal and quite popular, until a chimp called Travis mauled a person in 2009 and people realized that chimps have a long life and adults are large, strong and dangerous. What would you say goes on in these "chimp lovers" minds? Is it a reverse Mowgli's Story or is there something more nefarious or pathologic?
I once recorded some taps dripping because the rhythm was so nicely syncopated. There was at least two sets of drips one steady like a metronome and another beautifully syncopated. I put a drum beat to it and noticed it had a kind of implied melody to it. I tune my drums to get intervals and that helps stimulate more creativity while playing. This is a 7/4 beat with a little syncopation on the ride cymbal. ruclips.net/video/IRyu1gDz78E/видео.htmlsi=LQoQ-MI1RUaMSoQM
I disagree to some extent that beat hierarchies are universal traits between cultures. We call this isochronous beats/rhythm. In particular, in researching the music of Ghana, we see that not only do rhythms themselves not align into hierarchies of weight in many cases, but also that beat subdivisions are often given weight equally, or without regards to a hierarchical system like that of western classical music. (Composer/Music Theorist/Professor here)
I think it depends on what you mean by hierarchy - I take to broadly mean coordination between different levels of division of a pulse. If we can speak meaningfully of “subdivision”, then we are talking about rhythmic hierarchy. It doesn’t necessarily imply the entire Western metrical hierarchy of accent, but just the idea of “cycles within cycles”.
@@jaurisova6 I disagree because hierarchy implies that there are levels of importance, whereas some systems like the one I’m referring to, have a more egalitarian sense of beat structure. If what you mean is that a pulse is always necessarily stronger than a subdivision of that pulse, that’s also incorrect in my opinion. Hypermeter is a good example of this in all music that I know, and this could theoretically be infinite.
@@loganrutledge3610 Thanks for replying. No, I mean the opposite: rhythmic hierarchy can exist independently of a hierarchy of accent or stress. Even if the accent pattern is flexible, West African rhythm patterns have a fixed period of pattern repetition and a fixed period of subdivision. In the general case, as long as you have attacks (or accents) separated by varying times, with reference to an indivisible basic unit (subdivision), you have a rhythmic hierarchy. Maybe I’m parsing Sapolsky too much, but I took “there’s a downbeat” to mean there’s a cyclic nature to rhythm that is universal, and not that the downbeat is universally stressed.
wElL some do some do not "habituated accent " the preference for leaf shape trees spices colour of grass flowers of spring the "habituated " list piles up . ,, maN that one big rat
Evolutionary biology question that this isn’t the proper forum for, and that I don’t really expect to get an answer to, so actually what even is this really? How predictable are effects from environmental changes on physical attributes of a given species over generations of adaptation to a new environment? Like if you change what you feed a culture of some single celled guys in a dish, the next generation will eat the new food better, and so on-right? If you make the same change across multiple independent dishes, how uniform are the genetic changes? Does that answer scale to larger creatures? If you had a large baboon troupe and you took half of them to live in a radically different environment until they evolved into a subspecies of baboon, how closely could you recreate the new subspecies with members of the original troop being put through the exact same environmental change? If Dutch immigrants live in Texas for long enough and only eat local foods, will their descendants turn into Comanche?
Good question. Are you familiar with the concept of convergent evolution? But regardless, root stock split into multiple populations and placed into like environments will still express random/arbitrary variation from parent stock which are a result of low level chaos, contingency and emergence, not critical to survival, and therefore unpredictable, yet persistent. Dr. Sapolsky has a great lecture series on YT courtesy of Stanford U. They are numbered. #s 21 and 22 have been highly enlightening for me. That's how I understand it anyway. I'm open to correction
@@megageektopus Aye. Very well said. but what I wrote may have confused you. I was lumping speciation and convergent evolution as two distinct, environmentally influenced phenomenon, in trying the answer the OP's more general question.
![Baby Kia - GLOVES & DRACS (BLACK AF1s) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ajm8LeB0qQk/mqdefault.jpg)
What Dr Sapolsky says about strengthening the prefrontal cortex through hierarchical resistance to temptations, resisting for increasingly prosocial reasons, is well known in the addiction recovery community. The more prosocial the rationalization for resistance, the easier it becomes to simply not do it. Direct altruistic action, doing for others for no other reason than it feels good, seems to enhance and reenforce the process. 25 episodes!! I've watched and learned something from every single one , thanks.
You brain REMAINS subject to your "choice" or immersion within your accessible ingroup. We DESIRE social niche; this has been so evolutionarily built in that all our hormonal systems promoting parasympathetic - anabolic-dominant part of that necessary cycling - "security" and Probability of social advancement. This is the addiction that is religion, sometimes culminating in violent response to perceived violation of ingroup regulations serving an unquestioned falsely exogenous portion of our brain. Recognize the hormonal pleasure of desire and persistence to understand the artificial prosociality of an ingroup focused upon the "success" of resisting to outgrouped "other[s]: while adhering to a limited tribal "safe" ingroup.
Can you step out into the world you originally perceived, BEFORE becoming so dependent upon an ingroup, which perceives threat from all "foreign" signals?
The conservation of "security" is the inherent addiction.
The linking of natural generosity and openness to ANY specific ingroup distorts the openness to experience, falsely linking it to your, and ANY, messianic ingrouping impulse. Missionaries are the desperate, narrow-minded conservatives who descend into frenzied violent conservative response.
Having experienced the combined acquired dementias of each separate parent, as well as meeting the harsh and ubiquitous priests and ministers of religion as adult, that refusal to admit any validity other than their own social dominance, remains a continual highly unpleasant experience, for anyone who did not succumb to either alcohol or religious demented submissiveness.
@@briseboy Very informative and insightful comment. TY
@@briseboyYour first paragraph was an interesting read on spiritual and faith based recovery modalities and one I largely agree with.
You lost me after that, sorry I’m a bit on the dumb side.
I’m referring to evidence based modalities and prosocial and altruistic practices can extend to everyone in your material sphere and the world at large.
An example of this hierarchical rationale might be:
I don’t want to do this substance because
legal consequences
negative emotional and physical health
negative impact on interpersonal relationships,
negative impact on relationship with society/ humanity
Negative impact of trade of said substance
Not wanting to engage in any blatantly harmful activity or behavior whatsoever
Wanting to engage in humanistic behavior that benefits others, no in group association necessary.
Sorry if my language was triggering.
Sounds like you prefer the path of the Ubermench , raw logic and reason and it sounds like you have the brain to walk that path. Good luck ❤
This is really relevant to me too. Thanks for your comments!
@@Amethyst_Friend Thanks for saying so, I find Dr. Sapolskys work carries a message of great hope, moving us farther away from questions of morality and highly supportive of evidence based solutions to a plethora of maladaptive vexations. Our neural plasticity allows us to alter and in some cases reverse deep neurosis and the maladaptive default thinking, that drives many of these vexations. Good luck on your path whatever that may be ❤ btw, your playlists are awesome!
Loved all 25. When they get posted, I have to stop whatever I’m doing and watch.
There’s nothing I can do.
Oh my God! The informative storytelling of the music, nature's rock musicians, dance. The hidden science that connects all living creatures, Pain and problems with the pre-frontal cortex. I hung on every word.
I just love the dog being a dog and the brainiacs going on endlessly with their brainiacisms.
Silver anniversary episode wishes to Father and Offspring Sapolsky ❤ Looking forward to see these talks go on to 500+ episodes 😊
Music as cheesecake brought back a childhood memory. When I was a teenager I used to play piano at this restaurant and one day I was playing this improvisational piece and the owner/chef came out from the back and said "What you were playing, that was some Chicano cheesecake". I had no idea what that meant, but he gave me a slice of New York cheesecake so that was pretty swell. Free cheesecake!
Thanks for sharing 😀
learned guitar at 50 , nine yrs later I'm competent . love this show😂😂😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Ending this video with an epic detailed analysis of the hyrax’s song was something we didn’t expect, but definitely “deserved” :)
Good morning sir Sapolsky
Shahid from India
Neural plasticity is fascinating.
'use it or lose it' is very true of both muscles, and neurological groupings relative to certain skills or actions.
I have been thinking on this lately and have come to realize that changing pre-established neurological structures being an 'energy intensive' process is core to why people are unlikely to change their beliefs.
once we believe we posess knowledge (once we have the cognative closure of feeling we 'know' something) and once we have created robust neuronal networks to this effect, the process of unlearning or relearning becomes daunting and hostile first and foremost because of the reality that restructuring/rewiring is psychologically and metabolically intensive.
This is a very interesting point , people recovering from SUD and other intensive Therapeutic interventions, frequently have rapid weight gain, it’s referred to as substance shifting and primarily considered a self soothing behavior, which in part it is, but what you mentioned here definitely adds more dimension and nuance to the problem.
More focused metabolic support during intense neurological changes could be very useful for individuals going through such rigorous reordering of their thought processes.
Great observation! Thank you 😊
@@megageektopus great insight on my insight!
that was a brilliantly interesting session on your special occasion. Many thanks indeed, from one of Prof Sapolsky's converts to neurobiology. PLEASE keep your discussions going... I love them.
This is the best series ever
Very much appreciated!
2 SAPOLSKYS!!! DEUCES WILD (let’s go!!) also WOO!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, so wonderful! English is not my language and sometimes I have to listen twice what you say and you speak a little too fast! But all what you says is so interesting! Pain killers help with emotional pain !
I just LOVE these videos ❤❤❤❤❤❤
This is so profoundly generous. Thank you both for this platform
omg you just totally described rhythm music theory!!! rock n roll is ... ba ba ba ... bababa ..kind of like a baby crying haha 😂😂😂😂😂 The sax guy from Bill Haley and the Comets did this and boom ! American Rhythm and Blues is based on this!!
I'm really enjoying Dr. Sapolsky's monologues, don't get me wrong. But more dialogue between the two would be even more delightful. I'm wondering why Offspring Rachel doesn't engage much with these thoroughly engaging ideas.
Fair question. I'd say but could be one or more of many reasons. One might be that Rachel is supposed to be the interviewer. As such, less is more. On the other hand, she could well add some value with a few well placed questions, or interjections. I have to assume she's quite familiar with his work and ideas.
I get you wrong
She does sometimes a little bit. I agree that it could be more.
I think we shouldn't forget that he is used to talking in front of a lot of people or a camera and she is probably quite new to it.
Totally enjoy your discussions and sharing. Thank you so much for this.
Insights into rhythm just blew up my mind. It's so much more than the naked eye can see. Might start with mating, but if you extend, it's about fitting into society, job, and so on...
Awesome episode.
Sapolsky and Rick Rubin would be a phenomenal podcast/conversation episode
How can I pay attention to anything he’s saying when I’m distracted by the cuteness of the dog, sitting there like another person listening.
As always, fascinating. Dear Mr Sapolsky and The Beautiful Offspring, hehe.. Would you mind to spread your magnificent wisdom in the realm of platform X? I guess, that will be a tremendous amount of impact if your wisdom will be at X. Thank you :)
Thank you! Very interesting about music, dancing, rhythm…love how much Dr S knows about music, gasped at the rock hydrax’s performance!…love this show so much; learn a ton
Ulises Reveles (Virginia / Mexico). Dear Professor Sapolsky,
I respectfully disagree with your notion that there isn’t a “little person” inside us who defines who we are and provides us with metacognition. You assert that metacognition is nothing more than a delusion created by our brains, a mere outcome of neural networks. However, I believe this perspective overlooks an essential aspect of our human experience.
It's akin to saying that the brain doesn't actually "see" because it's enclosed in the skull, shrouded in darkness, and only processes electrical impulses from the eyes. Yet, this processing is precisely what we define as "seeing." In the same way, this so-called "little person"-even if it’s a product of neural processes-is in fact our very essence. It’s what makes us recognize ourselves as independent individuals, with dreams, goals, illusions, and emotions.
I believe this "little person" is central to our identity and consciousness, not just a byproduct but a vital component of what it means to be human.
Thank you for sharing. Always enjoy your discussions. Enjoy learning. Have intended to comment occasionally recently but sometimes time and tide get the better of me. It's a brave new world with the dog who keeps me more than busy at times. Also the state of affairs in the world takes energy and time. More later -
great stuff! The information on the prefrontal cortex,music and the auditory cortex has pointed me in a new direction for understanding my tinnitus a bit better.Thanks.(I've sent you a question)
Very interesting. Thanks and greetings from Denmark.
In continuation of the talk about the plasticity of the brain and your previous section about the characteristic of autism with fewer "long firing neurons", the 80/20 principle, - I have a question.
Can autism be modified by exercises sometime in the future? Perhaps by influences that enforce neuron pathways across the brain.
By building a bridge between isolated islands, traffic will begin to increase between the islands.
If the brain is plastic, perhaps autism and other problems should not be considered static conditions?
I'm an IT geek, not a scientist, - but this question has haunted me for a long time. Robert Sapolsky must be the perfect man to ask. 🙂
Wonderful!
Q.1 advice about "training PFC into auto-pause before judgement/decision" quite reminds of self-stop described by Orwell. People in dictatorships like Russia learn to detect and stop their unapproved, dangerous thoughts - even before they become cohesive in their heads 🚫. Q.2 is great too - so maybe folk medicine of heavy drinking after very unpleasant social situations - helps mostly through analgesic effects. Alcohol may numb pains of the rejection, insult and grief. But you can just try strong dose of acetaminophen, ibuprofen etc. No morning hangover 😄
I loved this!! 😄 Thanks!!
would love to see what was in the cut at the start when you mentioned the comments.
Please discuss Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) , formerly called "Conversion Disorder." I have noted treatment is far more advanced in Europe.
Thank you for your work, brilliant!!
Safolsky you like a teenager and confident if i have you like a student its straight to my road to the PhD and the kabbalah relation with the genetics and human beings and the other podcasts of rabbi coach and i saw you we appeal like a sex appeal its an open question and thanks to my divine mother and where my place on Stanford ptinceton and keep going for humanity and new earth new era you have your place on the board and you ask the real question and the truth
You guys are the best!!!!!!
I've been waiting for years for an excuse to hyperfixate on music theory without feeling guilty for ignoring my other hobbies
that just wonderful "boB" (motivating habituated concept its the same emotion is as you know its why migrant can kill native animals with joy ) some people can read a book and have a full insight into a mechanism other having details but still feel the need to inflict pain an some innocent creature reminds me of the movie "brute force " and the Munzies of this world sticking pines in helpless flies
Banger!
"My impression is that a sense of rhythm, which has no analog in language, is unique and that its correlation with movement is unique to human beings. Why else would children start to dance when they're two or three? Chimpanzees don't dance.
Darwin speculated that “music tones and rhythms were used by our half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship, when animals of all kinds are excited not only by love, but by strong passions of jealousy, rivalry, and triumph” and that speech arose, secondarily, from this primal music.
There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.
The power of music, narrative and drama is of the greatest practical and theoretical importance. ... We see how the retarded, unable to perform fairly simple tasks involving perhaps four or five movements or procedures in sequence, can do these perfectly if they work to music.
Very young children love and demand stories, and can understand complex matters presented as stories, when their powers of comprehending general concepts, paradigms, are almost nonexistent.
I suspect that music has qualities both of speech and writing - partly built in, partly individually constructed - and this goes on all through one's life.
There is certainly a universal and unconscious propensity to impose a rhythm even when one hears a series of identical sounds at constant intervals... We tend to hear the sound of a digital clock, for example, as "tick-tock, tick-tock" - even though it is actually "tick tick, tick tick.
Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Music evokes emotion and emotion can bring it's memory. The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity.
Even when other powers have been lost and people may not even be able to understand language, they will nearly always recognize and respond to familiar tunes. And not only that. The tunes may carry them back and may give them memory of scenes and emotions otherwise unavailable for them.
I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders -- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's -- because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged.
The rhythm of music is very, very important for people with Parkinson's. But it's also very important with other sorts of patients, such as patients with Tourette's syndrome. Music helps them bring their impulses and tics under control. There is even a whole percussion orchestra made up exclusively of Tourette's patients.
I think there is no culture in which music is not very important and central. That's why I think of us as a sort of musical species. Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does-humans are a musical species.
There is no one part of the brain which recognizes or responds emotionally to music. Instead, there are many different parts responding to different aspects of music: to pitch, to frequency, to timbre, to tonal intervals, to consonance, to dissonance, to rhythm, to melodic contour, to harmony.
Much more of the brain is devoted to movement than to language. Language is only a little thing sitting on top of this huge ocean of movement. In terms of brain development, musical performance is every bit as important educationally as reading or writing.
The brain is more than an assemblage of autonomous modules, each crucial for a specific mental function. Every one of these functionally specialized areas must interact with dozens or hundreds of others, their total integration creating something like a vastly complicated orchestra with thousands of instruments, an orchestra that conducts itself, with an ever-changing score and repertoire.
Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation. The power of music, whether joyous or cathartic must steal on one unawares, come spontaneously as a blessing or a grace.
We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.
Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination
The power of music to integrate and cure. . . is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest nonchemical medication.
Music has a bonding power, it's primal social cement."
Oliver Sacks
Wow, I just heard about this " Age Reversal Pill that works in Dogs " by extending their " Telomeres ", I was wondering if you know anything about the promise of our dogs living 50 years or even more.
Dr. Sapolsky, what do you think are some of the likely reasons for humans being capable of "cognitive bias" (behaviourly/evolutionary)? Or do you think it is just an emergent property of consciousness that is especially visible in the modern age?
Choices exist, then!
shapeshifters there? the being on the left has changed remarkably after the transition from the first question to the first answer 😊
❤❤❤
Why does my brain seemingly randomly decide to dredge up old and often embarrassing/uncomfortable memories? As if I'm not anxious enough, I don't need to recall something stupid that I did when I was a teenager.
Haha, my brain was doing exactly that just now! Have you asked the question via the link, I'd love to get the Sapolsky take on this too?
_"It sounds flooded: __24:46__ Try holding the accelerator down while turning the key to START."_ - j q t -
“Can I have more please”….
Any ideas on where one could just be in a bathtub of M&Ms? Asking for a friend.
Question for another time, WHY can’t I get a song out of my head? It happens all the time, whether it’s from watching a movie or music I chose to listen to. It’s maddening. What is the neurological/psychological reason for this? Thanks.
It would be great if you set timestamps in the video with questions etc.
A recent documentary - Chimp Crazy - details the strange relationship that some people develop with chimps. Apparently, having a pet chimp was legal and quite popular, until a chimp called Travis mauled a person in 2009 and people realized that chimps have a long life and adults are large, strong and dangerous. What would you say goes on in these "chimp lovers" minds? Is it a reverse Mowgli's Story or is there something more nefarious or pathologic?
On the music question, I wonder if it has anything to do with human development in the womb being exposed to heart beat rhythm.
I once recorded some taps dripping because the rhythm was so nicely syncopated. There was at least two sets of drips one steady like a metronome and another beautifully syncopated. I put a drum beat to it and noticed it had a kind of implied melody to it. I tune my drums to get intervals and that helps stimulate more creativity while playing.
This is a 7/4 beat with a little syncopation on the ride cymbal. ruclips.net/video/IRyu1gDz78E/видео.htmlsi=LQoQ-MI1RUaMSoQM
Do other non-opioid analgesics also relieve emotional pain, or is it special to acetominophen?
Brubeck: Time Out Time Further Out
Where do one submit questions??🎉
How can you tell whether you are a rhythm guy or melody guy?
I disagree to some extent that beat hierarchies are universal traits between cultures. We call this isochronous beats/rhythm. In particular, in researching the music of Ghana, we see that not only do rhythms themselves not align into hierarchies of weight in many cases, but also that beat subdivisions are often given weight equally, or without regards to a hierarchical system like that of western classical music. (Composer/Music Theorist/Professor here)
I think it depends on what you mean by hierarchy - I take to broadly mean coordination between different levels of division of a pulse. If we can speak meaningfully of “subdivision”, then we are talking about rhythmic hierarchy. It doesn’t necessarily imply the entire Western metrical hierarchy of accent, but just the idea of “cycles within cycles”.
@@jaurisova6 I disagree because hierarchy implies that there are levels of importance, whereas some systems like the one I’m referring to, have a more egalitarian sense of beat structure. If what you mean is that a pulse is always necessarily stronger than a subdivision of that pulse, that’s also incorrect in my opinion. Hypermeter is a good example of this in all music that I know, and this could theoretically be infinite.
@@loganrutledge3610 Thanks for replying. No, I mean the opposite: rhythmic hierarchy can exist independently of a hierarchy of accent or stress. Even if the accent pattern is flexible, West African rhythm patterns have a fixed period of pattern repetition and a fixed period of subdivision. In the general case, as long as you have attacks (or accents) separated by varying times, with reference to an indivisible basic unit (subdivision), you have a rhythmic hierarchy.
Maybe I’m parsing Sapolsky too much, but I took “there’s a downbeat” to mean there’s a cyclic nature to rhythm that is universal, and not that the downbeat is universally stressed.
that doggie though
Manatees
I got rhythm, I got music ...
Was it not Bela Bartok, a Hungarian?
this rhythm solo is for sapolsky: ruclips.net/video/HMapzev3FNs/видео.html
All living dont sing only the air.
wElL some do some do not "habituated accent " the preference for leaf shape trees spices colour of grass flowers of spring the "habituated " list piles up .
,, maN that one big rat
Attend a WASP wedding and you’ll find not everyone has rhythm.
I do not have to attend to find that fact out***I just have to look in the mirror maybe if a practice I could change my fate
Evolutionary biology question that this isn’t the proper forum for, and that I don’t really expect to get an answer to, so actually what even is this really? How predictable are effects from environmental changes on physical attributes of a given species over generations of adaptation to a new environment? Like if you change what you feed a culture of some single celled guys in a dish, the next generation will eat the new food better, and so on-right? If you make the same change across multiple independent dishes, how uniform are the genetic changes? Does that answer scale to larger creatures? If you had a large baboon troupe and you took half of them to live in a radically different environment until they evolved into a subspecies of baboon, how closely could you recreate the new subspecies with members of the original troop being put through the exact same environmental change? If Dutch immigrants live in Texas for long enough and only eat local foods, will their descendants turn into Comanche?
Good question. Are you familiar with the concept of convergent evolution? But regardless, root stock split into multiple populations and placed into like environments will still express random/arbitrary variation from parent stock which are a result of low level chaos, contingency and emergence, not critical to survival, and therefore unpredictable, yet persistent. Dr. Sapolsky has a great lecture series on YT courtesy of Stanford U. They are numbered. #s 21 and 22 have been highly enlightening for me.
That's how I understand it anyway. I'm open to correction
Convergent evolution is the industry term for eventually everything becomes crabs, right?
@@kevincfoss Exactly :)
@@megageektopus Aye. Very well said. but what I wrote may have confused you. I was lumping speciation and convergent evolution as two distinct, environmentally influenced phenomenon, in trying the answer the OP's more general question.
Correct, I was confused my bad
I thought my brain was playing tricks when Offspring Sapolsky suddenly morphed into Safi at the start! 🦮