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I'm Michael Mosley. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
As you can see, I was a blissfully happy child | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
but, although I still try to be cheerful, | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
this is now something of a mask. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:19 | |
I have a tendency to be a catastrophic thinker | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
and I think, "Oh, it's going to be terrible or I'm going to retire | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
"and I'm going to get some horrible disease or not have any money." Did that ever worry you? | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
No. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
The truth is I'm now a bit of a pessimist. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
I get stressed and I constantly fret about the future. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
So, a couple of months ago, I set out to explore | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
the latest science of personality, | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
to see if it is possible to change. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
Now, in many ways, I suspect this is going to be the hardest thing | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
I've ever attempted, but the rewards are also great. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
I want to become a warmer, more open person. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
I want to be happier and, from a purely selfish point of view, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
I also want to be able to sleep better because I'm something | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
of a chronic insomniac and when I get stressed, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
like I am frankly at the moment, I stop sleeping. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
Is that too much to ask? | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
I've set myself a very ambitious task... To change my mind. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:25 | |
What I've been trying is something that requires no drugs, | 0:01:29 | 0:01:32 | |
no expensive therapy. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
Instead, it involves a couple of unusual techniques | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
and, after seven weeks, I'm genuinely surprised | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
by what's happened. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
That absolutely made my day, thank you. Brilliant! | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Give it up for Michael, everyone! | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
So, can you really change key aspects of your personality? | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
And why might we want to? | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
This is Oxford, Ohio, a town in the American Mid-West. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:22 | |
It's not a particularly fun-looking town | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
but first impressions can be deceptive. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
I'm starting here because the people in this place have revealed | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
the extent to which the mind can affect the body. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
They've shown that what you think and how you think really matters. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:44 | |
It's a quiet - really quite unremarkable - little town, | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
and yet, back in 1975, it was the subject | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
of a really fascinating social experiment, | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
one which has been going on now for almost 40 years. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
It started when a scientist from the local university | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
came up with an ambitious plan - | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
to recruit all the over 50s in the town for a study into ageing. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:26 | |
More than 1,000 of the locals duly signed up. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
I've come to meet some of the members of that original group, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
and they are a lively lot. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
So, you guys kind of gather every morning or...? | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
You sound as though you're having a gas, I have to say. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
-Every morning except Sunday. -Who's the oldest person here? | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
-He's second, I'm 90. -You're 90? -He's 88. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
88. You going to try and make 100? | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
I don't know. I tell you, when you get to be 90, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
actually, you know, you live from day to day. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
Ken, you took part in the original study which began in '75. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
Do you remember taking part in it? | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
I vaguely remember taking part in it. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
I mean, did you know how extraordinary it was | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
that they tried to recruit pretty well everybody in this town | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
at the time, and then they followed them | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
for whatever it is, 35 years now? | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
I don't think they've been following me though, have they? | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
Secretly! | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
In 1975, volunteers filled in questionnaires, | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
looking at things like health, jobs, family | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
and attitudes towards growing older. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:41 | |
Do you worry about the future? | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
No, no, I don't worry about the future. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
I... What will come will come, and when it comes, it comes. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
But, no, no. I don't worry about it. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
If you just keep cyclically thinking bad thoughts, not good. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:59 | |
What do you see in people who are negative? | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
What do I see in them? I see an unhappy person. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:07 | |
I see a person who's more highly stressed than others. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
To be stressed all your life, it would be... | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
wouldn't be a pleasant life. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
Decades after the original questionnaires were filled in, | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
data from the Ohio study ended up at Yale University, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:27 | |
on the desk of Associate Professor Becca Levy. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:32 | |
So, what sort of questions did they ask? | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
One of the questions was, "How much do you agree or disagree | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
with the item "as you get older, you are less useful?"" | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
OK, I would say that I disagree with it | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
because I'm sure that, as I'm getting older, I'm getting more useful. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
Oh, good, very good. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
Another question that was asked was, "As you get older, | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
"are things better, the same or worse than you thought they would be?" | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
-LAUGHS -OK, I think I have no particular reason | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
for feeling negative about the future and yet I do. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:06 | |
What are you fearful of? | 0:06:06 | 0:06:07 | |
I don't know, just generally more anxious about stuff | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
but I don't know whether I'm just becoming more realistic | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
or whether the world really is a more frightening place | 0:06:13 | 0:06:19 | |
-than it once was. -Yes. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
It turned out that how you answered these particular questions | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
was a strong predictor of how long you were likely to live. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
Mental attitude was far more important than anyone had imagined. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:39 | |
What we did is we tried to find the survival patterns of everybody | 0:06:40 | 0:06:45 | |
who was in the original study, so there's something called | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
the National Death Index in the United States, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
and we found mortality information about all the original participants. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
And when Becca went through the death records, | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
she found the same thing over and over again. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
It was actually a survival advantage | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
on average of about seven and a half years | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
for those who had more positive beliefs about ageing. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
So, something which actually increases life expectancy | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
by seven and a half years is quite a big deal, I think. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
Were you excited when you discovered it? | 0:07:17 | 0:07:18 | |
Yes, so it was a bigger advantage than we had predicted | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
so that was really exciting to look at. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
Ready? | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
Get happy! | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
One, two, three. Fine, right? | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
Becca's research has been backed by other work | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
looking into the power of optimism. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
To put her results into context, if we could cure cancer tomorrow, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
it would half as much, three to four years to life expectancy. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:53 | |
But what can you do if you're not naturally a positive, happy soul? | 0:07:53 | 0:07:58 | |
I keep on thinking that the worst is going to happen. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
It doesn't happen but, in the meanwhile, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
rather than engaging in the present and sort of being there, | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
chatting with my family, I'm sometimes staring off | 0:08:09 | 0:08:11 | |
into outer space, thinking about things | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
which will probably never occur. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
I'm also still sleeping terribly and, so, if I could do something | 0:08:15 | 0:08:20 | |
that would make that different, then I would really love to do it. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:26 | |
Over the last few years, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:35 | |
I've looked at the evidence behind the science of how our bodies work. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
I've tried a lot of different tests and procedures on myself. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:47 | |
Breathe in! Now I want to move on from the body to the mind, | 0:08:49 | 0:08:54 | |
to examine the science behind positive psychology. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:59 | |
And the first step is to find objective ways | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
to measure personality. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
Our personalities are a complex interaction of character traits | 0:09:09 | 0:09:14 | |
that affect behaviour, emotions and ultimately the lives we lead. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:19 | |
And one of THE fundamental drivers is how optimistic | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
or pessimistic we are. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
This is also one of the hottest new areas of scientific research. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
But how on earth do you objectively measure it? | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
I am 5 ft 11, I'm 168 lbs | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
and my chest size is 42 inches. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
Now these things are easy to measure | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
but what about aspects of personality? | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
Well, I've come here to Essex University, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
where they're going to probe my brain | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
and apparently they can tell me | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
whether I am fundamentally optimistic or pessimistic. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
Professor Elaine Fox is a neuroscientist | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
and one of the leading researchers in the science of optimism. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:18 | |
Now, ready? All I do is put in a small amount of gel | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
and then you'll feel it cold. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
We know that some people's brains tune in very much | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
to negative information and others tune in | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
to positive information, and what we're hoping to do, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:30 | |
we're measuring the electrical activity in your brain | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
and we're really just going to try and probe | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
and see whether your brain naturally tunes in | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
to either positive stuff or negative stuff. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
I am, I must admit, phenomenally interested | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
-to see what you discover because... -Yes, it'll be interesting, yeah. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
I would suspect that I have a bias towards the negative. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
Do you think so? Yes. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:50 | |
It may turn out that I'm a rip-roaring optimist. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
Well, it absolutely might, yes, exactly. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
It's funny because I have these conversations with my wife | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
quite frequently because she has a... I think, a kind of naturally | 0:10:57 | 0:11:02 | |
sunny disposition, and she finds it quite frustrating. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
You know, she keeps on saying, "These things won't happen." | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
-No, exactly. -"Why do you keep thinking about them? | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
"Why do you keep on talking and planning about things, | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
"which the odds on them ever, ever happening | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
"are just fantastically low? | 0:11:14 | 0:11:15 | |
"Why don't you just wait and see what happens?" | 0:11:15 | 0:11:19 | |
It's a disaster, the kids will all end up in jail. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
Embarrassingly, I can't even stop worrying | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
while they're setting this up. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:29 | |
Oh dear, there's a flashing light there. It's not good. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
It's not my bloody job, I know that. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
My eye keeps on being drawn to it and I keep on going, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
"Is that important?" | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
Don't worry about the flashing light. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
I know, it's nothing to do with me but I can't quite stop myself. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
The first part of the test involves measuring levels | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
of electrical activity on the two sides of my brain while I'm resting. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:57 | |
Surprisingly enough, studies have shown | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
that people who are prone to high levels of pessimism, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
neuroticism and anxiety tend to have greater activity | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
on the right side of their frontal cortex than the left. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:12 | |
This is known as cerebral asymmetry. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
We know it happens, we don't know why. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
Now for something more active. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
Elaine's asked me to press a button | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
when I see dots flashing up behind faces on the screen. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
At the moment, I'm just in a kind of a completely zoned-out territory. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
I have no idea. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
That was a cock-up, yeah. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
I didn't realise while I was doing it | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
that the whole point is to test unconscious biases. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
They wanted to see if my response time was influenced | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
by whether the dots appeared behind angry or behind happy faces. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:03 | |
Did that kind of go as you'd planned? | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
Yes, it did. There's the data. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
Ay-ay-ay! | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
God, this is not a good look, is it? | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
-KNOCKS -Hello, there! -Hi, Michael. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:24 | |
A couple of hours later, and my results are ready. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
The computer measured the speed that you pressed the button | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
and sometimes there was an angry face on the left hand side, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
say, sometimes a happy face on the right hand side, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
so you can see that's how quickly you responded | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
when the target appeared near the angry faces. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
It's extraordinary. My reaction times are much faster... | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
-Much faster, as you see. -..with the angry faces. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
Exactly, so when the little probes appeared where the angry faces were, | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
you were actually much, much faster, so... | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
That is, OK, that is extraordinary. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:52 | |
I had absolutely no idea that was going on at all. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
Exactly, it's a little probe into your mind showing us | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
your brain is just slightly faster because you were already there. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
Your attention has gone to the angry face immediately, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
so when you react, because you're already there, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
you're a little bit faster. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
But Elaine has found something else which is a bit more unsettling. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:13 | |
The first part of the test, where they measured my brain activity | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
at rest, revealed I have nearly three times more activity | 0:14:17 | 0:14:22 | |
in the right frontal areas than the left. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
This suggests a brain that is even more tuned to the dark side | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
than I thought. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:31 | |
I would have been surprised if your machine had decided | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
that I was a raging optimist, because that isn't true. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
But I'm also not clinically depressed either. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
That's what it shows. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
I incurred a bit on the negative side, but not extraordinarily. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
I think that's exactly... It's on the negative side of the spectrum. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
I'm now wondering if Elaine is simply being diplomatic, | 0:14:51 | 0:14:55 | |
and if my results are rather worse than she's suggesting, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
or is that just paranoia? | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
So, that test has shown what I guess I've always believed, | 0:15:02 | 0:15:06 | |
that I have a fundamentally negative filter and that makes me | 0:15:06 | 0:15:11 | |
prone to pessimism, anxiety and also sometimes neuroticism. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:17 | |
It colours my relationships and also affects how I react to the world. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:23 | |
# Sometimes I go out by myself... # | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
A brain that is hyper-aware of things that can go wrong leads | 0:15:32 | 0:15:37 | |
to increased stress and anxiety, and it's more than just a state of mind. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
It's powerfully connected to how your body responds. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
I've come to this karaoke bar to sing - badly - | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
in front of 100 strangers. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
I'm here to demonstrate what happens to your body | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
when you allow negative thoughts to dominate your mind. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
# ... over, Valerie. # | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
# So now you're back from Outer Space | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
# I just walked in here to find you here | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
# With that sad look upon your face... # | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
My body is really screaming at me, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:18 | |
this is a really, really bad idea because my pulse is running | 0:16:18 | 0:16:22 | |
at around 120, my mouth is dry and I've got a faint tremor. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
Areas of my brain that deal with fear and threat have kicked in. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:32 | |
These evolved to ensure survival | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
but today it's not a sabre-toothed tiger that's terrifying me, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
it's just a little sing-along. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
I mean, it's sort of odd | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
because you'd imagine somebody who makes a living out of | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
appearing in front of a camera would feel quite comfortable, but I don't, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
I don't feel remotely comfortable about doing anything like this | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
and I can see the whites of everyone's eyes | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
and that fills me with horror. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
Will you please welcome the next singer? | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
Mr Michael Mosley! | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
# First I was afraid, I was petrified | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
# Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side... # | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
The first bit of the song is OK because I just have to shout | 0:17:20 | 0:17:25 | |
but when the music kicks in, I'm stuffed. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
Before I came on, I was thinking, what happens if I freeze? | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
And that thought became self-fulfilling. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
I've totally shut down. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
Now this is obviously a highly unusual situation | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
but it certainly demonstrates the power of negative thoughts | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
to influence human physiology. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
After the pleasures of karaoke, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
I'm in Boston, Massachusetts, where engineers have invented | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
a discreet way of measuring that most elusive of things - | 0:18:14 | 0:18:18 | |
our emotions. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
It's a device created by Professor Ros Picard, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
who runs the media lab here, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
and it's something you can wear day and night. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
So, Ros, I've got these wrist bands. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:32 | |
What exactly are they doing? | 0:18:32 | 0:18:33 | |
You need to think about this sort of, as like a new kind of | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
wearable microscope that lets you look inside your body | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
and see some things that previously you couldn't, couldn't see. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
How interesting! So, essentially, you're using these | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
to read emotions that people | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
cannot necessarily express or don't even know they're experiencing? | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
That's right, and sometimes they're full of surprises. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
Oh, you're tantalising me. You're doing very well. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
OK, are you wearing a pair or is that just a big, snazzy watch? | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
Yeah, this is just a prototype of a future version that's coming out. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
OK, great. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
The wrist bands can monitor someone's emotional state | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
by detecting minute changes in the electrical conductivity | 0:19:09 | 0:19:14 | |
and temperature of the skin. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:16 | |
These are driven by the so-called autonomic nervous system. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
And I'm being monitored even while we talk. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
Why not just rely on people filling in questionnaires? | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
Why do you need technology? | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
Oh, goodness! People just will say the darndest things | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
on questionnaires, right? | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
They'll think that they're happy, "Of course I'm happy," you know, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
and, finally, you know, 20 samples later, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
they realise they're miserable, all right? | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
We find that the body often tells you | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
there's a change in your state well before your mind recognises | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
that change, so even if you're trying really hard to be truthful | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
on a questionnaire, usually your awareness of what's going on | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
lags quite a bit behind. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
OK, you've been wearing these wrist bands the whole time | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
we've been interacting, and now I'll take them off | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
and we're going to take a look at your data. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:08 | |
OK, and you can do it that fast? | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
Oh, yes, it's very quick. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
It's not often you get to see a chat going on | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
and also see at the same time what's going on inside you. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
The readings are higher when I'm excited or anxious, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
and lower when I'm calm. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
It's what Ros calls my arousal level. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
All right, what we have here is four signals. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
The red is your right side, the blue is your left side. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:39 | |
This is my left side and my right side. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
So, first of all, we're seeing that your baseline arousal | 0:20:42 | 0:20:45 | |
is higher than mine during this social interaction. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:50 | |
So, the wrist bands show I'm more aroused than Ros | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
but am I stressed or just excited? | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
As with the brain test I did earlier, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
the thing Ros is interested in is, which side of my body | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
is showing more activity? | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
There's clearly higher response on my right wrist than my left, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
and research suggests this can be linked to my amygdala, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
a part of the brain which evolved to deal with fear and threat. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:18 | |
Now, most arousing experiences activate both of them | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
but certain kinds of experiences, like social phobia, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
or threat-type situations, we would expect for a right handed person, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
the right one to be activated more. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
How interesting! So, that is absolutely compatible with somebody | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
who feels mildly socially phobic and is an uncomfortable situation? | 0:21:34 | 0:21:39 | |
That is what we would expect. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:40 | |
Wow! And that is quite tiring, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
I imagine, looking at that to sustain that sort of level of peak? | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
It's work. Being around people can be hard work. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:51 | |
Thank you, it's been absolutely... It has been genuinely fascinating. Thank you. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:57 | |
# I'd rather go on the road | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
# Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
# I'd rather go on the road | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
# Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah | 0:22:08 | 0:22:09 | |
# I'd rather go on the road | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
# Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah... # | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
Ros's emotional microscope has certainly exposed | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
the sort of feelings that most of us try to hide. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
And I was really surprised because I thought I would be the cool one | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
and she would be the nervous one, | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
but actually it turned out to be the absolute other way round. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
I didn't actually feel nervous | 0:22:32 | 0:22:33 | |
but clearly my system was firing on all cylinders. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
And these levels of heightened anxious arousal are something | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
I want to change, not least because it has probably contributed | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
to making me a chronic insomniac for the past 20 years. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
OK, oh, dear. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
I've had a spectacularly bad run of nights recently. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:06 | |
Up at about sort of 4 o'clock last night. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
You can probably see the bags under the eyes. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
And, um, let's see how tonight goes. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:17 | |
I hope it's better than last night. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
Good night! | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
Yeah, it's 4:30am and I'm wide awake. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
Lots of thoughts racing through my head | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
and so I thought I'd get up and sit around a bit. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
I'm going to try two different techniques, which have been shown | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
to reduce negativity and stress. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
To learn more about the first technique, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
I've come back to Essex University. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
Professor Fox's brain test measured my levels of pessimism | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
but being a very positive person herself, she's convinced that | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
not only can she help me, but we'll see changes in my brain. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:07 | |
She introduces me to cognitive bias modification - CBM. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:12 | |
Basically, it's very simple. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
If you just press 'start' there, you'll see an array of faces. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
Now, your task is simply to click on the happy face. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
-OK, OK, happy. -Yeah, and then just keep going, basically. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
Blimey, it's quite difficult to find them, isn't it? | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
Yeah, so just find a happy face. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
There have been many studies of CBM involving several thousand people. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:35 | |
The idea is you reduce your unconscious negative bias | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
by training yourself to seek out the positive. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
OK, whoo! | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
No, he's not down there. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
Let's go across down there. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
I simply have to spot the smiley faces. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
How hard can that be? | 0:24:56 | 0:24:58 | |
You think when you look at it, it's going to be dead easy but... | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
That's right, it's more difficult than you imagine | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
and it shows us how distracting the negative faces can be. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
I do actually like the smiley faces, you know, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
and yet I'm obviously drawn to the dark side. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
Yes. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
Your brain has obviously got into a habit of looking | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
on the negative side of things, so what we're trying to do really | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
with this cognitive bias modification is to really try to break that habit. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
The majority of people who have been studied | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
showed a significant reduction in their negative bias. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
I have to say if it works, then the beauty of this is | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
you can absolutely see you can just do it on your computer at home. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
Absolutely, and that's the idea. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
What we're hoping eventually is that people can almost use this | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
as a little top-up. It's like, you know, if you feel | 0:25:39 | 0:25:41 | |
you're in a particular negative mood, you can do ten minutes of this | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
and you know it can kind of just boost that bias. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
OK, I remain sceptical but I will certainly, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
I will certainly give it a go. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
Elaine set it up so I can do this at home three times a week. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
Where is it? Sometimes it's really, really annoying, | 0:26:01 | 0:26:04 | |
I just can't find them. Aha! OK. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
Yeah, I'm on a roll. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
I'm just kind of letting my unconscious do the work | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
and, ideally, I just kind of don't even think about it. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
I have absolutely no idea whether this is helping | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
but I'm not convinced I'm actually getting any faster. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
Where are you, where are you? Ah! | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
It looks incredibly simple. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
But there is evidence it will combat anxiety, though not depression. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:39 | |
# Suddenly, I'm hit | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
# It's the starkness of the dawn | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
# And my friends are gone | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
# And my friends won't come | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
# So, show me where you fit... # | 0:26:54 | 0:26:58 | |
One of the things that undoubtedly adds to my feelings of anxiety | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
is my tendency towards self-absorption. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
I'm rarely enjoying the moment, being in the present. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
Instead, I'm off worrying about the past and stressing about the future. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
This is a very common problem and it's making a lot of us miserable. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:26 | |
So, I'm off to find out more about a second technique that may help. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:32 | |
I feel like I've got caught in the sort of negative rut | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
of ruminating, and I've spent a lot of time now visiting labs, | 0:27:37 | 0:27:43 | |
learning about the science of the brain but, oddly enough, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
where I'm going now in search of solutions is to visit a former monk. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:52 | |
Followers of different religions have practised meditation | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
for thousands of years. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
There are, of course, many different ways of doing meditation, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
including secular versions. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
Tonight's teacher, Andy Puddicombe, was once a Buddhist monk. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:20 | |
He now teaches a modern take on an old idea. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:24 | |
Now, take a moment to think who here struggles with sleep. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
Quite a few of you, right? | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 | |
When you've gone to bed and you really need to sleep, OK, | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
what's the temptation? | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
To try a little bit harder, right? | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
And then you start to get a little bit tense | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
because you're not falling asleep, so you try even harder, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
and then you realise that you're trying too hard to get to sleep | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
so you try not to try to get to sleep, so there's a time | 0:28:51 | 0:28:56 | |
and a place for stepping back and saying, you know what? | 0:28:56 | 0:28:58 | |
It's not about effort. Meditation's the same. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:01 | |
You can't force a state of relaxation. | 0:29:01 | 0:29:04 | |
This is a treat, it's not a chore, OK? | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
This is YOU taking ten minutes out of your day to do nothing, | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
nothing at all. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:15 | |
It's such a rare opportunity. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
Ten minutes out of my day is not a huge commitment. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:22 | |
So, I'm certainly interested enough to want to find out more. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:27 | |
I'm a chronic insomniac, I wake at 3 in the morning | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
and I have loads of thoughts racing through my head. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:34 | |
I have spent 15 years looking at sleep. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
I have made, you know, at least three programmes on sleep. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
I know pretty much everything there is to know about sleep | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
but it doesn't make any difference. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
The science that's coming out is showing that actually even ten, | 0:29:45 | 0:29:49 | |
15, 20 minutes a day, that's enough to make not only | 0:29:49 | 0:29:52 | |
a psychological difference but a physiological difference as well. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
Over the past 20 years, | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
there have been lots of studies of varying quality into the benefits | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
of meditation, which have produced rather conflicting results. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:09 | |
But, recently, there have been more rigorous studies, | 0:30:09 | 0:30:12 | |
involving brain scanners and these have allowed scientists | 0:30:12 | 0:30:16 | |
to see what's happening inside the meditating brain. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
There is evidence of changes in the brains of long-term meditators. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:25 | |
Even novices doing it for just eight weeks showed some differences. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:31 | |
In one study, there was increased grey matter in areas | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
involved in emotional regulation, | 0:30:37 | 0:30:39 | |
and increased activity in the left pre-frontal cortex | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
that deals with positive emotions. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
It's early days, but the evidence is certainly mounting | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
that regular meditation can lead to physiological changes. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:54 | |
If it is THAT easy, why haven't more people done it? | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
Yeah. And this is the thing. I wouldn't say it's easy. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
I'd say the idea is easy, OK? | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
The application, like anything, it's like losing weight, | 0:31:04 | 0:31:07 | |
going to the gym. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:09 | |
We still need to actually do it | 0:31:09 | 0:31:10 | |
and we have to do it on a daily basis to see the results. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:13 | |
There is nobody I know who wouldn't benefit from being more present, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:17 | |
having a greater sense of calm, a greater sense of clarity, | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
and, ultimately, a greater sense of contentment in life. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:22 | |
-Is six to eight weeks enough? -It is enough, yeah. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
You could actually see changes possibly in my brain pattern | 0:31:25 | 0:31:28 | |
-in six to eight weeks? -Absolutely. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
So, it's time to give it a go myself. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:34 | |
I'm going to try and calm my brain down by simply focusing | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
on my breathing and being less distracted by my negative thoughts. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:43 | |
Oh! And I have to try and stay awake. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
I'd like you to begin by just noticing | 0:31:53 | 0:31:55 | |
the weight of the body on the chair | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
and just starting at the top of the head, | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
I'd like you to just gently scan down through the body, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
just noticing which parts of the body feel relaxed | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
and which parts feel perhaps a little tense or tight in some way. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
Then, if thoughts arise, that's perfectly normal. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
Allow thoughts to come and go. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
As soon as you realise the mind's being distracted, | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
just gently bring the attention back again. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
And, in your own time, when you're ready... | 0:32:35 | 0:32:37 | |
You can just gently open the eyes again. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:43 | |
OK, so how many of you feel better | 0:32:45 | 0:32:49 | |
than you did ten minutes ago? | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
OK. It's amazing. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
There's a tangible thing happening here. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
We train the mind, we will be more present, | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
our mind will wander less, we'll get less stressed | 0:33:02 | 0:33:05 | |
and we're less likely to go down those routes, those habitual paths | 0:33:05 | 0:33:09 | |
of stress, of anxiety, of sadness, whatever your thing may be. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:14 | |
That was good actually, because I wondered | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
whether I would be able to get into any sort of a state, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
and I feel a little bit heavy-limbed | 0:33:28 | 0:33:30 | |
but I also feel perhaps a little bit | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
more relaxed than when I went in, | 0:33:33 | 0:33:35 | |
and I veer wildly between optimism | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
and pessimism, so that part of me thinks that I'm going to manage | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
to do this and part of me thinks it's simply going to be too hard. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:47 | |
But, at the moment, the optimist is winning out. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:52 | |
To give this a decent chance of working, I have to commit | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
to doing it every day, building up from ten to 20 minutes. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:08 | |
And I'm going to combine it with cognitive bias modification. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:14 | |
In seven weeks, I'll get my brain re-tested | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
to see if I've really managed to change my mind. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
OK. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
But, while I do that, there's a deeper question I'm grappling with. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
Where does a tendency towards being optimistic or pessimistic, | 0:34:44 | 0:34:49 | |
calm or anxious, come from? | 0:34:49 | 0:34:53 | |
I was a happy child, carefree even. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
So, yeah, there I am. | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
I'm not... Don't know if I've ever seen this. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
It doesn't ring a bell. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
OK, so this is definitely the Philippines because I was there | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
when I was about, between the age of two and five. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:12 | |
And there's my mother, right. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
She looks ludicrously young, my mother. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:21 | |
I asked her about how she remembered ME from childhood | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
and she said that I was uncomplicated, | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
that I got on with things, I seemed to be open and friendly and, looking | 0:35:28 | 0:35:34 | |
at this footage, it certainly looks like I had a happy childhood. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:39 | |
Just on a swing, rocking to and fro. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
There are lots of pictures of us here. There aren't really any pictures of my father here. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:49 | |
There are pictures of my mother, but my father was always working. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
He was never really around in our childhood - very little. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:56 | |
In terms of personality, my father was a jovial extrovert, | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
while my mother was a bit more uncertain and reserved. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
Like everyone, I came to be who I am today through some combination | 0:36:06 | 0:36:11 | |
of the genes I inherited and the events I've experienced | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
throughout my life. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:16 | |
Oh, dear! | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
I feel I am so utterly different to what I must have been like | 0:36:21 | 0:36:26 | |
at the age of three or so. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:28 | |
I look so cheerful. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
There are a lot of rather big theories | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
about how personality comes about | 0:36:40 | 0:36:42 | |
but I'm in search of cutting edge science. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
I'm starting at St Thomas's Hospital in London | 0:37:04 | 0:37:07 | |
where, for many years, a research unit has been analysing | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
and probing a very special group of people - twins. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:16 | |
Twins are one of nature's wonders. | 0:37:16 | 0:37:19 | |
Identical twins share the same DNA. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
They often dress the same, | 0:37:22 | 0:37:24 | |
look the same, | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
laugh at the same jokes. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
And so, hundreds of twins have been scrutinised to understand | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
the subtle interplay of nature and nurture. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
I just think it's absolutely wonderful, I must admit, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
being surrounded by identical twins. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:45 | |
Professor Tim Spector has studied twins for over 20 years. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:49 | |
The first and most obvious question I want to ask | 0:37:49 | 0:37:53 | |
is, when it comes to your personality, | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
how much is inherited directly from your parents? | 0:37:55 | 0:38:00 | |
Twin studies have told us | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
that personality has a heritable component, and they tell us | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
that generally 40 to 50% of personality, | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
of differences between us in personality, | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
are due to genetic factors and the rest, either random, | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
or due to environment. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:15 | |
Tim spent the early years of his career investigating | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
what made identical twins uncannily similar. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
Then he changed the focus of his research, | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
began to wonder why identical twins are not always identical. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:32 | |
Three years ago, I just changed my mind. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
Because twins don't get the same disease, | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
don't die of the same things, it can't just be genes alone | 0:38:36 | 0:38:40 | |
and let's look at the differences between identical twins | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
and that could probably tell us MORE than why they're similar. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
That's great about being a scientist rather than a politician - changing your mind. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:49 | |
You can change your mind and no-one stops voting for you, that's right. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:53 | |
Tim wanted to find out how people who are born with the same DNA | 0:38:56 | 0:39:02 | |
can end up very different. | 0:39:02 | 0:39:05 | |
I've come to meet a particularly unusual pair of identical twins, | 0:39:13 | 0:39:18 | |
Debbie and Trudi. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
Oh! LAUGHS | 0:39:21 | 0:39:23 | |
Oh, dear! I've obviously got dirty fingers there. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
I'm wiping them off. Oh, what's she found? | 0:39:28 | 0:39:30 | |
Like all identical twins, Debbie and Trudi were born with the same DNA. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:36 | |
Have you noticed that your trousers are a different colour? | 0:39:36 | 0:39:41 | |
You've got brown trousers on. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:42 | |
No, you're the one in the yellow coat with the brown trousers. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
I've got blue trousers on with a white coat. That's you! | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
-No. Oh, yes, that's me. -Yes, that's definitely you, look. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:53 | |
They shared the same environment for the first 20 years | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
of their lives, went to the same schools, had the same friends. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:03 | |
-THEY LAUGH -I think that's brilliant. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
-You just couldn't coordinate, could you, really? -No, not really. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
We were cute, weren't we? | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
You are cute, honestly. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:15 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
You might expect them, like most other sets of identical twins, | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
to have similar personalities. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:23 | |
You can see we're just, you know, happy. Happy, happy, happy. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:31 | |
-You look jolly children. -We were. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:33 | |
And that's possibly because we never felt that we were on our own. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:37 | |
We only ever needed each other. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
Well, let's put it this way, anybody throughout our lives who | 0:40:39 | 0:40:43 | |
got in the way of that relationship didn't last. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:45 | |
Scary! | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
The twins are still extremely close and spookily similar in many | 0:40:48 | 0:40:53 | |
respects, but these days, there is a critical difference. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:57 | |
Unlike her twin, Debbie has developed clinical depression. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:02 | |
If I had met you at 16, would you have been able to predict | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
-which of you would have become depressed? -No. -No. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
-Would you have said either of you would become depressed? -No. -No. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
No. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:14 | |
Today, Debbie and Trudi have come to St Thomas's Hospital for tests. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:28 | |
They're part of a group of what is known as discordant twins | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
that Tim is studying. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:35 | |
How can twins who share the same DNA | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
and the same life experiences end up being so different? | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
Tim thought it must be because something had happened | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
to their DNA, so he began looking for differences. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:52 | |
Because, surprising though it may seem, our genes aren't fixed. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:05 | |
They can change. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:10 | |
As we go through life, all our genes are changing constantly. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
As we age, some of them are being switched on, some of them | 0:42:16 | 0:42:18 | |
are being switched off. And we think that these are actually | 0:42:18 | 0:42:21 | |
reflecting things like our environment and the lives we've led. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:26 | |
They're like a marker of our lifelines in a way. | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
This process is known as epigenetics, and I think it is one | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
of the most exciting developments in modern medicine. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:39 | |
Life events can change the activity of our genes, | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
so it seems at some point in Debbie's adult life, changes | 0:42:42 | 0:42:46 | |
to genes in her brain made her more vulnerable to bouts of depression. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:50 | |
So with somebody like Debbie and with Trudi, | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
did you actually find differences in their DNA? | 0:42:55 | 0:42:58 | |
We did, and when we looked at a larger | 0:42:58 | 0:43:02 | |
group of 30 of our twins, where one was depressed and one wasn't, | 0:43:02 | 0:43:06 | |
we saw certain genes coming up time and time again. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:10 | |
We identified about five or six that were clearly different, | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
particularly in areas like the hippocampus, which we know are very | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
important in anxiety and depression, where a lot of the emotions are. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
I have to say, I find it mind-boggling. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
Well, that's the exciting bit of science, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
and the fact that we're only able to do this in the last | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
couple of years because of the amazing advance in technology. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:30 | |
We all know that stressful, emotional events, like a death or | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
a separation, can trigger depression, but what scientists now | 0:43:36 | 0:43:40 | |
believe is they can also change the behaviour of our genes. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
This raises the enticing possibility that | 0:43:46 | 0:43:49 | |
if your genes can be switched one way, then maybe, just maybe, | 0:43:49 | 0:43:53 | |
they can also be switched back the other way. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 | |
Well, we used to say we can't change our genes, but we now know | 0:44:01 | 0:44:05 | |
there are these many mechanisms that can switch them on and off, | 0:44:05 | 0:44:08 | |
and suddenly we're regaining control, if you like, of our genes. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:12 | |
I like the idea of regaining control, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:21 | |
and that encourages me to keep going at mindfulness and CBM. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:26 | |
It's quite charming, really, because you just kind of | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
have grown to know them a little bit, these faces. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:35 | |
My seven weeks are almost up, | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
and I've got one more neuroscientist to meet. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
'An inspiring guy who's been working on the puzzle of genes and personality for a decade. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:58 | |
'Professor Michael Meaney has been able to do pioneering work | 0:44:58 | 0:45:02 | |
'thanks to a unique collection.' | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
Wow! This is quite a lot of brains. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
-It's impressive, isn't it? -It is, yeah. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
This is the Quebec Brain Bank. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
It takes an enormous amount of organisation, | 0:45:15 | 0:45:18 | |
and it was something that started with just an idea, right, of could we collect brains? | 0:45:18 | 0:45:22 | |
Each of these 3,000 brains once contained a unique personality, | 0:45:22 | 0:45:28 | |
a unique set of memories and experiences, and each | 0:45:28 | 0:45:33 | |
is accompanied by a biographical record about the individual. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
This is the great virtue of this particular bank, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:40 | |
is they use a process referred to as forensic phenotyping, so what | 0:45:40 | 0:45:44 | |
they're doing in fact is to go back and interview family members | 0:45:44 | 0:45:48 | |
and to find out as much detail as possible about the developmental | 0:45:48 | 0:45:52 | |
history of the individuals as well as their level of pathology. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
Michael set out to identify the precise areas in the brain | 0:46:02 | 0:46:06 | |
where anxiety is controlled, but with billions of cells | 0:46:06 | 0:46:10 | |
in an average brain, it would have been an impossible task. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:15 | |
So he turned to a group of small, furry mothers to help - rats. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:21 | |
He started by looking at the long-term effect on baby rats | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
of good or bad maternal care. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
What does maternal love or affection look like in a rat, then? | 0:46:33 | 0:46:38 | |
It's essentially licking, we think. It's tactile stimulation. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:42 | |
It's what you do when you hold an infant, when you caress an infant. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:46 | |
It's physical contact between the mother and the offspring. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
What surprised us is the variation, that there are really some | 0:46:49 | 0:46:53 | |
mothers who lick two, three times as frequently as do other mothers. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
-So there you see. -Ah, OK, little baby rats. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:01 | |
Little baby rats. And what the mother's doing in the course of her nursing of the offspring | 0:47:01 | 0:47:05 | |
is to lick individual pups, which you can see right there. | 0:47:05 | 0:47:08 | |
And it turns out that the pups that are reared by mothers who lick | 0:47:10 | 0:47:14 | |
more frequently grow up to develop more modest responses to stress. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:18 | |
Michael found that the amount a baby rat was licked influenced | 0:47:20 | 0:47:24 | |
the activity of the gene that protects the rat | 0:47:24 | 0:47:27 | |
later in life against stress and anxiety. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
This was a clear epigenetic effect | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
and was similar to what happened to the twins. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
Something in the baby rat's brain had been modified by its life | 0:47:37 | 0:47:41 | |
experience, but did this change also affect the next generation? | 0:47:41 | 0:47:47 | |
Have you reared them through generations to see | 0:47:50 | 0:47:53 | |
if the pups who were the offspring of low-licking mothers | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
themselves become low-licking mothers? | 0:47:56 | 0:47:58 | |
Yes, the great female rat nightmare comes true. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:01 | |
They become their mothers. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
And so really what you have is a situation in which you can | 0:48:03 | 0:48:06 | |
-transmit these differences across multiple generations. -Right. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:10 | |
I must admit, I'd never thought about neurotic, anxious rats before. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:13 | |
-You can start now! -MICHAEL LAUGHS | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
And what's striking is the changes in the rats' genes | 0:48:16 | 0:48:20 | |
brought on by maternal care were detectable in their brains. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:25 | |
What you're looking at here are sections of a rat brain, | 0:48:25 | 0:48:30 | |
and in particular what we're interested in is the hippocampus. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:33 | |
And the hippocampus is associated with stress, emotion and memory? | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
Exactly, all three. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:38 | |
So we now have to find the molecules within the hippocampus that | 0:48:38 | 0:48:41 | |
control the stress response, and we find a particular molecule | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
known as the glucocorticoid receptor. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
It turns out that the number of these crucial receptors they found | 0:48:47 | 0:48:51 | |
in a rat's brain could be predicted by their mother's behaviour. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:55 | |
Better mothering led to more receptors. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
And what you find then is that the mothers who licked their offspring | 0:48:59 | 0:49:03 | |
more, produce offspring who then show more modest response to stress. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:09 | |
-How very satisfying. That must have been rather exciting... -It was, it was. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
I find this work stunning and ever so slightly disturbing. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:27 | |
A clear link between the amount of maternal affection a baby rat | 0:49:27 | 0:49:32 | |
receives with changes in its genes and in the anatomy of its brain. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:37 | |
But is this true of humans? | 0:49:39 | 0:49:40 | |
This is where Michael's collection of human brains proved invaluable. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:47 | |
He studied the brains of people who'd suffered from extreme anxiety, | 0:49:47 | 0:49:52 | |
and he found the same changes as in the rats. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:56 | |
By looking at their childhood records, he could also tell | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
if they had reported receiving good or bad maternal care. | 0:50:02 | 0:50:08 | |
Maternal care is actually a major influence, | 0:50:08 | 0:50:12 | |
and perhaps the pre-eminent influence in defining how we respond | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
to stress. So it's not only true for a rat, it's true of our own species. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
So if I respond badly to stress events, | 0:50:19 | 0:50:21 | |
and we all have stress events in our lives, it could be | 0:50:21 | 0:50:24 | |
because I have low levels of glucocorticoid in my brain? | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
It could very well be. | 0:50:28 | 0:50:30 | |
So the reason I'm a terrible insomniac could be, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
I could blame it on my mother not licking me enough? | 0:50:32 | 0:50:35 | |
-You can try. -MICHAEL LAUGHS | 0:50:35 | 0:50:37 | |
When you put the research on twins together with Michael's work, | 0:50:44 | 0:50:49 | |
it adds up to a really powerful new way of being able to study | 0:50:49 | 0:50:53 | |
the forces that shape our personality. | 0:50:53 | 0:50:56 | |
Personality is not just something we are born with, | 0:50:57 | 0:51:02 | |
but something that is subtly shaped and modified throughout our lives. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:06 | |
And that thought that we are quite flexible makes me feel cheerful. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:14 | |
Maybe the meditation and the CBM are starting to work after all. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:22 | |
-VOICE ON TAPE: -'Meditation benefits those around you as well.' | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
My wife, Clare, certainly seems to think something's happened. | 0:51:29 | 0:51:34 | |
Given that you've been under quite a lot of stress recently, | 0:51:34 | 0:51:36 | |
actually, you seem to have been sleeping better. | 0:51:36 | 0:51:42 | |
And you've certainly not... | 0:51:42 | 0:51:44 | |
You've dealt with the stress, I think, amazingly calmly. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:49 | |
Whether that's meditation, I don't know, but I think... | 0:51:49 | 0:51:53 | |
..I think it's helped. I do think it's helped. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:58 | |
What do you think? | 0:51:59 | 0:52:01 | |
SHE LAUGHS Hiding! | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
It's results day and I'm feeling uncharacteristically optimistic. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:19 | |
It's been a really stressful few weeks | 0:52:19 | 0:52:21 | |
and I have been working a great deal, but I've been sleeping better | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
than I have for ten years and I'm feeling quite good. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:28 | |
But will the machines agree? | 0:52:28 | 0:52:29 | |
'Although I feel better, I also want some concrete proof. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:40 | |
'Have I actually changed my brain?' | 0:52:40 | 0:52:42 | |
Hello, Michael, welcome back to the lab. How are you? | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
I'm going to stay in this position, I think. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:48 | |
Yes, we're gunging you up again. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
So as well as the smiley faces, | 0:52:50 | 0:52:52 | |
I've also been doing mindfulness meditation. | 0:52:52 | 0:52:54 | |
I have to say, that is more challenging, just sitting there, | 0:52:54 | 0:52:59 | |
-not doing anything, sort of just listening to your breath. -Yes. | 0:52:59 | 0:53:04 | |
Certainly, when it came to the kind of 20 minutes, I would | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
find myself sneaking a look at my watch after about 16 minutes. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:10 | |
Just doing it was so not what I normally spend my life doing. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:14 | |
OK, do you feel any more positive? | 0:53:14 | 0:53:16 | |
I think I do, actually. I'm feeling... I feel more cheerful. | 0:53:16 | 0:53:19 | |
First, the team measure my cerebral asymmetry while I'm resting. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:32 | |
Seven weeks ago, I had nearly three times more activity | 0:53:32 | 0:53:35 | |
in my right frontal cortex than my left one, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
which was a striking indicator of pessimism. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:42 | |
Next, I'm repeating the test with the faces, to see | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
if my reaction times have changed. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
Seven weeks ago I was much quicker to hit the button | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
when an angry face appeared. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:57 | |
Will that still be true? | 0:53:57 | 0:53:59 | |
I'm vaguely conscious there are faces appearing, but... | 0:53:59 | 0:54:02 | |
..couldn't tell you. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
It's actually completely impossible to tell how you're doing on this. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:10 | |
So, have seven weeks of mental training made any measurable difference to my brain? | 0:54:13 | 0:54:18 | |
-Great, moment of truth, then. -Yes, exactly, yes. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:22 | |
OK, well, we've got the results here, and as you can see here, the blue... | 0:54:22 | 0:54:26 | |
'First, I get the results for my reaction times to the face test.' | 0:54:26 | 0:54:30 | |
Seven weeks ago, my reactions to the happy faces were much slower | 0:54:30 | 0:54:34 | |
than the angry ones, but this has now reversed. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:38 | |
I'm much quicker to react to happy faces. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:42 | |
This suggests I may be noticing the positive more in my everyday life. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
And now you can see this has flipped completely. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:48 | |
-You're now faster when there was a happy face, compared to... -So it really has made a difference. | 0:54:48 | 0:54:53 | |
I'm amazed. I'm just impressed that it comes up with the results. | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
-Yes, and again... -You're measuring things which are unbelievably subtle and speedy, aren't they? | 0:54:56 | 0:55:00 | |
Well, they really are, and if we look at the reaction times, | 0:55:00 | 0:55:03 | |
it's milliseconds, so we're not talking about huge differences. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
-It's not seconds, it's milliseconds. -Yeah, thousands of. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:08 | |
So you consciously wouldn't really be aware of that, | 0:55:08 | 0:55:11 | |
but actually, in brain time, that's actually quite meaningful. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:14 | |
'Mine is just one result but it fits in with studies which | 0:55:14 | 0:55:18 | |
'suggest that this technique can reduce negative bias and anxiety. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:24 | |
'And the changes in my cerebral asymmetry are also fascinating.' | 0:55:24 | 0:55:30 | |
The activity in my right frontal cortex has significantly reduced, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:34 | |
which suggests a shift towards a positive mental state. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:38 | |
And my suspicion is, even though we can't really separate them, | 0:55:38 | 0:55:42 | |
my suspicion would be that this is more driven by the mindfulness | 0:55:42 | 0:55:46 | |
meditation, because there's a lot of evidence showing that with | 0:55:46 | 0:55:49 | |
these measures, mindfulness is very powerful and very effective. | 0:55:49 | 0:55:52 | |
So, initially, you were showing a very typical pattern of pessimist. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
Now you're showing a much more typical pattern of an optimist, | 0:55:56 | 0:55:58 | |
so it looks like your brain has shifted in a slightly more optimistic direction. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:02 | |
-So you really can change your mind? -Yes, you can, and it's not easy. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:06 | |
'I am pleased, but the real challenge is to keep on doing it.' | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
Fantastic. That's absolutely made my day. Thank you, brilliant. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:15 | |
I shall go off and celebrate now. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:17 | |
I'm absolutely delighted and also I'm frankly astonished | 0:56:19 | 0:56:23 | |
that in just seven weeks you can see that much change. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
I set out to see if it's possible to change my mind, | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
and I think I may well have done it. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
I am absolutely thrilled. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:34 | |
MUSIC: "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival | 0:56:35 | 0:56:39 | |
I started out wanting to be less anxious and more optimistic. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:45 | |
I discovered that life events can lead to deep, long-lasting | 0:56:48 | 0:56:52 | |
and measurable changes in our brains. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:55 | |
# I see the bad moon a-rising... # | 0:56:55 | 0:56:57 | |
But I've also discovered that our personalities are more | 0:56:57 | 0:57:01 | |
malleable than many of us think. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:02 | |
Negative thoughts can dominate your life. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:10 | |
But I certainly have found something to be cheerful about again. | 0:57:13 | 0:57:17 | |
# I see the bad moon a-rising | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
# I see trouble on the way | 0:57:24 | 0:57:27 | |
# I see earthquakes and lightnin' | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
# I see bad times today | 0:57:34 | 0:57:37 | |
# But don't go around tonight | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
# Well, it's bound to take your life | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
# There's a bad moon on the rise. # | 0:57:44 | 0:57:45 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:57:45 | 0:57:48 |