Hunting for Hedonia (2019)

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On a cold Sunday morning, he
passed a nurse in the hallway.

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'How do I get to the
14th floor?', he asked.

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There's something
in me I do not like.

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It keeps making me do
things I don't want to do.

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I don't want to be me anymore.

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You said they told you you
were dead, is that correct?

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They say they can change
me into someone else

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put electrodes in my brain.

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I'm not sure I
believe them, he said.

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- Don't let me do it.
- I won't let you do it.

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The man almost jumped on that
Sunday morning 50 years ago.

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But he was drawn back
from the edge by a doctor.

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This was Robert Heath, the
psychiatrist who'd admitted him.

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We still have a feeling that
we're working in the dark.

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We actually don't
know what's going on

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and the real problem is in
understanding this thing here.

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This is perhaps the
most complicated

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organ in the whole universe.

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The brain is the central
integrator of all behavior.

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Bob was trying to focus on the

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idea that there
was a deficiency -

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an innate deficiency in
that quality of pleasure.

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And began slowly
trying to focus on

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where in the brain
that pleasurable or

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those pleasurable
areas might reside.

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Heath was on a mission.

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He was searching for the seat
of pleasure in the brain.

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He called it Hedonia.

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Hedonia means pleasure

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and searching for the
brain's pleasure center

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would later get him
into great trouble.

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So much so that he was written
out of history and forgotten.

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But 30 years later

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the idea of going into the brain

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to cure the mind arose again.

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Today, the most
ambitious neurosurgeons

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are targeting a broad
range of different

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brain diseases with
neuromodulation.

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Depression is going
to be the first

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huge public health problem

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that is addressed
with neuromodulation.

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Addiction,
obesity and opioid abuse.

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Tourette works.

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OCD works.

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If the tools are there and the
brain is our new frontier

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what are we going to discover?

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What if we could open
up the potential

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of the brain to learn
skills and facts a lot better?

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People are going to want that.

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What kind of future lies
ahead for the human mind?

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Will probing the brain
bring happiness or misery?

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We are exploring how brains and

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machines work together, right?

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The dynamic between humans and
machines is ultimately changing.

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I get into ethical quandaries...

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You can imagine all sorts
of weird applications

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that hopefully make
people uncomfortable.

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What kind of legacy would these
grand ambitions leave behind?

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There are explorers,
conquistadores

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in science, and
that's who they are.

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Some of them
discover continents,

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some of them drown in the ocean.

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It was a revolution
when the Food and Drug

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Administration in
the late nineties

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approved a new treatment
for Parkinson's disease.

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They called it Deep
Brain Stimulation.

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Instead of giving medications

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neurosurgeons would
insert ultrathin

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electrical wires into the brain

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to correct the debilitating
shaking and stiffness.

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A little bit more room there.

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Here comes the fun part.

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Most people say that's the most
painful part of the whole deal.

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Ready?
You will feel a little stick.

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I want you to breathe
in and out slowly.

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One, two, three, breathe.

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He laughs at it.

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Is that all you've got?

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Give me a second here.
I'll fix that back.

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We're going to put
a little pad behind

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your neck to make
it more comfortable.

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What kind of music do you want?

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You don't have any
early Beatles, do you?

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We have early Beatles.

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The system is simple.

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A battery under the skin
feeds a stimulator

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that delivers a current
directly to neurons.

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To find the exact spot in the
brain and the right current

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the patient has to be
awake during the operation.

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Alright,
are you ready? Loud noise!

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That drill bit stops itself
if it hits something soft.

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As long as it's pushing against
something hard like bone...

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You're having fun?

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Most people, when they
train in movement disorder

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you see somebody who is
shaking, you see a funny walk

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you see eyelids
closing too much,

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a neck twitching,
you see a tick...

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Why does that happen?
Why is this movement happening?

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The brain is amazing
and beautiful

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and the most complex
object in the known universe.

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There are a hundred
billion neurons

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each with an
average of a thousand

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connections to other neurons

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and so the complexity and
connectivity of this organ

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sort of dwarfs the kidney.

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And your brain is you.

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Your kidney is not you.

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You can take a kidney
out and you're still you.

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But if I injure
part of your brain

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I take away a part of you.

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There's still some
background at 18.6.

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The green there, that's actually

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noise out of your brain.

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It's just noise.
We often say this

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is like driving through Europe.

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As he goes through different
regions of the brain

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it's like when you
drive through Europe

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and they speak
different languages.

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In Amsterdam or the Netherlands
they speak one language.

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The border speaks a
different language,

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when they ask you
for your passport.

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You head into
Germany, guess what?

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The language changes again

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and then down to Italy
for a little wine.

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But everybody's speaking
different languages. Same thing.

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As he goes from top
to bottom here,

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he's gonna look for
different languages

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and then Dr. Barmore
on your right

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side, one of the neurologists

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is going to move your arms and
legs around with Dr. Almeida

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to see which cells are
responding to movement.

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That tells us where the motor
regions are in the brain.

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One of the amazing
things in retrospect

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about a guy like Bob Heath...

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We are talking about 1950.

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65 years ago, when he
was doing this every day.

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We calculate our coordinates
from the X-rays

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make the adjustments in the
various planes on the machine

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then we're in a position
to drill the barrel holes

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and to lower the
electrodes into place.

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Electrodes are carried down by
means of rather stiff guides

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and after they're lowered
to the proper depth

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determined by this
millimeter scale here

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we clamp the wires into
place, and turn this back up.

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After they're fixed
with a plastic button

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we're in the position to do our

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recording and to give treatment.

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And you've told me you had
these voices that troubled you.

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- Yeah.
- Tell me about those.

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Bob was trying to focus
on this bizarre syndrome

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that we're calling
schizophrenia.

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Looking for pleasure, believing

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as they did, as Bob did

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with the first few people,
who had electrodes placed

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that the septal area did seem to

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show abnormal
electrical activity

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which changed when a stimulus
was somehow placed there.

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...and we'll send you home.

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- Alright, congratulations!
- See you later.

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Good job!

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After hundreds of operations

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surgeons began to compare notes

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and something
unusual came to light.

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Once in a while

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a Parkinson's
patient would react

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strangely and surprise everyone.

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I had met this
patient, you know...

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many times, several times.

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I'd never seen her
smile before, and

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she always seemed
pretty miserable.

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As I was turning the voltage up,

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the most remarkable
thing happened.

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Michael Okun is talking to
her while we were doing this

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and he says, 'What
are you feeling?'

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As she says, I feel happy!

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We had tapped into an
interface in the brain

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between the motor and the
limbic behavioral functions.

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When we submitted
it for publication

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the response was 'No,
this can't be real.'

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Now we know, fast-forward
a couple of decades

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that this has been reproduced
all around the world.

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What looked to most surgeons
to be an odd side effect

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was really a breakthrough.

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And in 2001, this was
picked up on by an outsider.

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Neurologist Helen Mayberg

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who had long researched the
mechanisms of depression

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became the first
to try deep brain

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stimulation to understand mood.

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We'd been thinking about this
thought experiment for a while.

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The most amazing thing
about that first time

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was in fact that nobody
knew what to expect.

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So to actually have a patient

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change state in
front of our eyes

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was very emotional.
How can it not be?

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You just want nothing bad
to happen to this patient

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while you indulge
in testing an idea.

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And all of a sudden
her face changes.

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That was the moment
where I said:

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I don't know what this
is or what we are doing

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but we better figure this out

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because maybe this really
is the start of something.

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The circuitry that controls
your emotional state

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and the circuitry that
controls your ability to move -

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they're the same.

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And interwoven within that
circuitry in the human brain

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are the representations for mood

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how you feel, the
representations for emotions

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the representations
for what we call

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associated circuits,
how you think.

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You're gazing from
a window to life

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but it's impossible for
you to take part in life.

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You're just gazing through
this milky window

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and see people,
what they're doing

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what...
there is life and there...

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Just take part in life

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but I can't.

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You're like locked
in your own world.

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It's like a foggy dew

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when I try to remember
the last time I was happy

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I was lucky, I
felt these feelings.

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We have a pleasure if we
eat something really good.

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Our system really
immediately knows

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that's something good,
that's something to be repeated.

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Hedonia is one of the
key driving factors

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not only of us,
actually of all vertebrates.

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Hedonia tells you
what's good for you

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in a not so subtle way.

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And Hedonia is very
important for sex drive

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for our reproduction,
romantic love, music.

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All of these functions are no
longer there in depression.

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At this point in my life

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I wouldn't say
that it is a life.

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Life is very far away.

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I once read the expression
'cancer of soul'.

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It very likely
means what it says

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because it destroys
your soul and

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your feelings and your thoughts

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and so you're at the
point where you say:

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I can't bear the pain anymore.

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And I don't want
to live anymore.

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I'm pretty much
always depressed,

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have been since I was nine.

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I become very isolated.

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I'm like sliding down
into the bottom of a well.

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It's very, very dark...

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There's no one there.

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There's really no light.

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I feel that...

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...that I have no contribution
to make whatsoever

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that I'm basically worthless.

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So why even make the
attempt to get out?

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Many of these
patients are basically

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stuck, without options.

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They live in a purgatory
that to me is indescribable.

255
00:19:53,399 --> 00:19:55,562
They don't respond to therapy or

256
00:19:55,574 --> 00:19:57,918
any of the multitude of drugs

257
00:19:57,942 --> 00:20:00,902
they failed ECT.

258
00:20:00,927 --> 00:20:03,129
Those patients are at
the end of the line.

259
00:20:04,567 --> 00:20:07,026
I get away with it, because...

260
00:20:08,650 --> 00:20:12,276
...my husband is...

261
00:20:13,734 --> 00:20:18,942
He's a really good man.
He takes good care of me.

262
00:20:19,957 --> 00:20:22,266
As a resident

263
00:20:22,290 --> 00:20:27,376
I met a very,
very desperate patient.

264
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:29,922
He was a government
employee and he was

265
00:20:29,934 --> 00:20:32,252
afflicted with a
horrible destiny.

266
00:20:32,276 --> 00:20:35,459
He had repetitive depression

267
00:20:35,483 --> 00:20:38,960
and I met him at
his seventh episode.

268
00:20:38,984 --> 00:20:41,865
He came to the
clinic in Bern where

269
00:20:41,877 --> 00:20:44,710
I worked at the
time and he said:

270
00:20:44,734 --> 00:20:48,002
Oh, doctor. It's
depression striking again.

271
00:20:48,026 --> 00:20:51,806
Please, please,
please, don't make me

272
00:20:51,818 --> 00:20:55,710
participate in group
therapy again.

273
00:20:55,734 --> 00:20:58,626
Which I thought
was an odd thing.

274
00:20:58,650 --> 00:21:01,373
I said, OK,
I'll talk to my boss.

275
00:21:01,385 --> 00:21:04,085
I went to the boss
and the boss said:

276
00:21:04,109 --> 00:21:06,474
Oh yeah, this is a cathartic

277
00:21:06,486 --> 00:21:09,459
moment in the life
of this patient.

278
00:21:09,483 --> 00:21:13,668
He shows some aggression.
This aggression is good.

279
00:21:13,692 --> 00:21:17,751
Aggression against his
depression, we need to use it.

280
00:21:17,775 --> 00:21:20,043
He will have group therapy.

281
00:21:20,067 --> 00:21:23,478
What doesn't kill a patient
will make him stronger.

282
00:21:25,775 --> 00:21:28,918
This was a particularly
stupid statement

283
00:21:28,942 --> 00:21:33,835
because this patient hanged
himself six weeks later.

284
00:21:37,734 --> 00:21:40,379
This destiny impressed
me tremendously

285
00:21:40,391 --> 00:21:42,877
and I'm not against
psychotherapy.

286
00:21:42,901 --> 00:21:46,835
Psychotherapy is very
useful in every patient.

287
00:21:46,859 --> 00:21:50,375
We couldn't treat depression
without psychotherapy

288
00:21:50,399 --> 00:21:53,252
but sometimes
patients need more.

289
00:21:53,276 --> 00:21:56,056
And I like action in psychiatry.

290
00:21:56,068 --> 00:21:58,960
I like that something
is going on.

291
00:21:58,984 --> 00:22:01,596
I dislike months
and years of talking

292
00:22:01,608 --> 00:22:03,918
with patients about same thing.

293
00:22:03,942 --> 00:22:07,359
If they suffer so hard
something needs to happen.

294
00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:20,722
When I was Chief
of Psychiatry in

295
00:22:20,734 --> 00:22:23,210
New York State, the census then

296
00:22:23,234 --> 00:22:25,269
in all of the New York State

297
00:22:25,281 --> 00:22:27,942
Hospitals approached
90,000 people.

298
00:22:30,817 --> 00:22:34,626
90,000 people permanent...
quote:

299
00:22:34,650 --> 00:22:39,960
...permanently assigned
to various mental hospitals.

300
00:22:39,984 --> 00:22:42,942
It was a massive, massive thing.

301
00:22:46,026 --> 00:22:48,993
There was essentially
nothing to do

302
00:22:49,005 --> 00:22:52,085
so far as treatment
was concerned

303
00:22:52,109 --> 00:22:56,877
for some of those
who were lobotomized.

304
00:22:56,901 --> 00:23:00,210
There was electroshock

305
00:23:00,234 --> 00:23:04,585
and we would sometimes give
them two, three, four a day.

306
00:23:04,609 --> 00:23:06,944
Enough to where
they were reduced

307
00:23:06,956 --> 00:23:09,543
to slobbering pieces
of protoplasm.

308
00:23:09,567 --> 00:23:12,294
There really was no treatment.

309
00:23:12,318 --> 00:23:14,543
Those days...

310
00:23:14,567 --> 00:23:16,503
How does one put it?
Those people

311
00:23:16,515 --> 00:23:18,234
were locked up and forgotten.

312
00:23:19,775 --> 00:23:22,049
And we were all
young and vigorous

313
00:23:22,061 --> 00:23:24,151
and wishing we could do better.

314
00:23:29,483 --> 00:23:32,877
Robert Heath was making
his way in New York

315
00:23:32,901 --> 00:23:36,418
the promised land of
American psychiatry

316
00:23:36,442 --> 00:23:39,118
with a practice
on Park Avenue and

317
00:23:39,130 --> 00:23:41,918
tenure track at
Columbia University.

318
00:23:41,942 --> 00:23:44,793
He caught the eye of
an ambitious dean

319
00:23:44,817 --> 00:23:46,605
who wanted to make Tulane

320
00:23:46,617 --> 00:23:49,252
University a 'Harvard
of the South'.

321
00:23:49,765 --> 00:23:51,751
Robert Heath dazzled the dean

322
00:23:51,775 --> 00:23:54,321
and Tulane offered the young man

323
00:23:54,333 --> 00:23:56,817
the keys to a
kingdom of his own.

324
00:23:58,276 --> 00:24:04,710
Chief of both neurology
and psychiatry at just 34!

325
00:24:04,734 --> 00:24:07,067
It was unheard of.

326
00:24:13,525 --> 00:24:20,418
This would have been
the summer of 1952-53.

327
00:24:20,442 --> 00:24:22,668
If you were sitting in a room

328
00:24:22,692 --> 00:24:26,543
and you wanted to,
in your mind, conjure up

329
00:24:26,567 --> 00:24:30,043
the most magical person

330
00:24:30,067 --> 00:24:34,501
good-looking,
filled with authority

331
00:24:34,525 --> 00:24:39,085
filled with all
sorts of confidence

332
00:24:39,109 --> 00:24:42,298
who was that man?
That was Dr. Heath,

333
00:24:42,310 --> 00:24:45,002
Head of Psychiatry
and Neurology.

334
00:24:45,026 --> 00:24:48,835
First word that comes
to mind is imperious.

335
00:24:48,859 --> 00:24:51,540
Gregory Peck in kind of

336
00:24:51,552 --> 00:24:55,650
appearance.
Very glamorous and...

337
00:24:56,399 --> 00:24:57,960
...suave.

338
00:24:57,984 --> 00:25:02,585
He took me on a tour of his lab

339
00:25:02,609 --> 00:25:06,127
which I felt was really
amazing for an undergraduate

340
00:25:06,151 --> 00:25:09,585
to have him spend
time doing that.

341
00:25:09,609 --> 00:25:15,127
He started to talk about what
was going on in that lab.

342
00:25:15,151 --> 00:25:19,210
He already,
from what I could tell

343
00:25:19,234 --> 00:25:22,793
was wondering how
he might transpose

344
00:25:22,817 --> 00:25:26,027
that whole concept of behavioral

345
00:25:26,039 --> 00:25:29,085
anhedonia, lack of pleasure

346
00:25:29,109 --> 00:25:31,459
to neurophysiology

347
00:25:31,483 --> 00:25:35,459
and began slowly trying to
focus on where in the brain

348
00:25:35,483 --> 00:25:40,567
that pleasurable or those
pleasurable areas might reside.

349
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,134
He realized this
is not an emotional

350
00:25:48,146 --> 00:25:50,918
problem,
this is a brain disease.

351
00:25:50,942 --> 00:25:53,747
Most psychiatrists
looked at it as,

352
00:25:53,759 --> 00:25:56,294
'Oh well,
they have a psychotic break.'

353
00:25:56,318 --> 00:26:00,775
But Heath was trying to figure
out what happens in the brain.

354
00:26:02,525 --> 00:26:06,210
This is the old Charity
Hospital in New Orleans.

355
00:26:06,234 --> 00:26:08,410
Robert Heath went
here every day to

356
00:26:08,422 --> 00:26:10,710
walk the halls of
the third floor

357
00:26:10,734 --> 00:26:13,318
and make his rounds.

358
00:26:15,692 --> 00:26:18,411
He wanted his
psychiatric ward to

359
00:26:18,423 --> 00:26:21,335
be the most modern
in the country.

360
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,210
Today, the hospital is abandoned

361
00:26:24,234 --> 00:26:27,942
and plans are being
made to tear it down.

362
00:26:30,399 --> 00:26:33,210
They did it first with
cats, a couple of animals

363
00:26:33,234 --> 00:26:36,372
to show that there was
abnormal electrical activity

364
00:26:36,396 --> 00:26:39,396
when one put a wire down deep.

365
00:26:41,192 --> 00:26:43,877
You'd walk through the halls

366
00:26:43,901 --> 00:26:47,294
and there'd be six Rhesus
monkeys sitting in chairs

367
00:26:47,318 --> 00:26:50,146
with wooden collars
around their necks

368
00:26:50,158 --> 00:26:52,960
with wires hanging
out of their heads.

369
00:26:52,984 --> 00:26:55,781
It was a pretty
exotic thing for a

370
00:26:55,793 --> 00:26:58,543
medical student to see all that.

371
00:26:58,567 --> 00:27:02,901
But ultimately, of course,
he began using that on humans.

372
00:27:07,483 --> 00:27:13,710
That sound we are hearing now
is coming from the normal brain.

373
00:27:13,734 --> 00:27:16,516
In some ways it's
comparable to the

374
00:27:16,528 --> 00:27:19,400
distant roar of a
four-engine plane.

375
00:27:24,609 --> 00:27:27,376
This is a mentally ill patient.

376
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,109
Notice the difference in
sounds coming from his brain.

377
00:27:34,109 --> 00:27:38,418
It sounds like a plane
with its engines misfiring.

378
00:27:38,442 --> 00:27:40,984
In a way that's just
what's happening.

379
00:27:42,817 --> 00:27:46,376
A dramatic approach
to say the very least!

380
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:50,501
To insert these microelectrodes
deep into the brain

381
00:27:50,525 --> 00:27:54,168
and have them stay there
for periods of time

382
00:27:54,192 --> 00:27:56,375
to measure and stimulate.

383
00:27:56,399 --> 00:27:59,170
And we bought into
it, because they were

384
00:27:59,182 --> 00:28:01,835
new ideas - It was thrilling!

385
00:28:01,859 --> 00:28:04,173
Just the fact that
you could record

386
00:28:04,185 --> 00:28:06,376
what was going on in the brain

387
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,368
and talk to the
patient and then you

388
00:28:08,380 --> 00:28:10,418
could stimulate an
area of the brain

389
00:28:10,442 --> 00:28:14,626
and have him tell you how
it changed his feelings.

390
00:28:14,650 --> 00:28:17,026
I thought that was fascinating.

391
00:28:17,859 --> 00:28:19,526
I didn't know
whether I was at the

392
00:28:19,538 --> 00:28:21,127
frontier of American science

393
00:28:21,151 --> 00:28:23,376
and he was bringing me there

394
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,282
or I was doing
experiments on humans

395
00:28:26,294 --> 00:28:28,918
that had no right
to be going on.

396
00:28:28,942 --> 00:28:31,620
The next patient, she will be

397
00:28:31,632 --> 00:28:34,960
known as P6, with her father...

398
00:28:34,984 --> 00:28:38,543
Schizophrenia was always
Robert Heath's big passion.

399
00:28:38,567 --> 00:28:43,710
He called it 'the most disabling
disorder in all of medicine'.

400
00:28:43,734 --> 00:28:45,648
Robbing young people
of their lives

401
00:28:45,660 --> 00:28:47,376
and crippling whole families

402
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,127
with its massive stigma.

403
00:28:50,151 --> 00:28:53,918
He was sure he would succeed
in curing schizophrenia.

404
00:28:53,942 --> 00:28:56,134
And even if it is
one of the most

405
00:28:56,146 --> 00:28:58,710
complex disorders
of the human mind

406
00:28:58,734 --> 00:29:03,151
the task perfectly matched
his ambition for greatness.

407
00:29:05,192 --> 00:29:07,877
How is your mood?

408
00:29:07,901 --> 00:29:10,127
It's so hard to say.

409
00:29:10,151 --> 00:29:12,399
Tell me as best you can.

410
00:29:14,276 --> 00:29:15,463
Mediocre.

411
00:29:15,817 --> 00:29:17,470
Mediocre?

412
00:29:20,026 --> 00:29:22,751
- 60 pulses.
- Is there a difference?

413
00:29:22,775 --> 00:29:28,234
Not sure I do right now.
I feel a little wiggly and...

414
00:29:29,609 --> 00:29:32,043
90 pulses.

415
00:29:32,067 --> 00:29:34,793
- What are you laughing about?
- I don't know.

416
00:29:34,817 --> 00:29:38,543
- Are you doing something to me?
- What makes you think that?

417
00:29:38,567 --> 00:29:40,775
I have no idea.

418
00:29:42,276 --> 00:29:44,343
What in the hell are you doing?

419
00:29:44,355 --> 00:29:46,168
Tell me what you thought.

420
00:29:46,192 --> 00:29:48,793
Maybe you're stimulating
some goodie place.

421
00:29:48,817 --> 00:29:52,335
What makes you say we're
stimulating a goodie place?

422
00:29:52,359 --> 00:29:54,668
Well, I wouldn't be laughing.

423
00:29:54,692 --> 00:29:56,366
Somehow the word
got out that what's-

424
00:29:56,378 --> 00:29:58,210
her-name had shown
this huge response.

425
00:29:58,234 --> 00:30:02,459
Everybody was running around
as if they were on dope.

426
00:30:02,483 --> 00:30:05,960
Eureka!
Look what we've discovered!

427
00:30:05,984 --> 00:30:08,681
It was like that.
This is happening.

428
00:30:08,693 --> 00:30:10,918
It looks like we've done it!

429
00:30:10,942 --> 00:30:13,375
And they went on to do
other patients of course.

430
00:30:13,399 --> 00:30:15,741
I guess you could say that I'm

431
00:30:15,753 --> 00:30:18,835
really disturbed
about feeling good.

432
00:30:18,859 --> 00:30:22,567
- Because it's foreign?
- It's completely foreign.

433
00:30:23,692 --> 00:30:26,153
So you've never felt
this way in your life?

434
00:30:26,165 --> 00:30:28,543
Felt this good in your life?

435
00:30:28,567 --> 00:30:33,626
No. I've... I've been trying
to pick out something

436
00:30:33,650 --> 00:30:36,563
trying to find
something in my background

437
00:30:36,575 --> 00:30:39,335
that I can relate it
to, but I can't.

438
00:30:39,359 --> 00:30:41,809
Does it have any
bad effects on you?

439
00:30:41,821 --> 00:30:43,399
No bad effects at all.

440
00:30:44,276 --> 00:30:46,501
If I could buy one I
would take one home.

441
00:30:46,525 --> 00:30:49,483
- You want to take one home?
- Yes. I'd be glad to.

442
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,984
It's on the dock.

443
00:31:24,442 --> 00:31:29,192
Now I can write my name
so I can read it, and...

444
00:31:31,734 --> 00:31:35,984
It seems like I can
do anything now.

445
00:31:37,525 --> 00:31:41,335
Some things a 70-year-old can't
do, but he thinks he can

446
00:31:41,359 --> 00:31:43,791
when he thinks he's
still 20 and then

447
00:31:43,803 --> 00:31:46,043
he looks in the
mirror and thinks:

448
00:31:46,067 --> 00:31:48,682
Who's that old guy
looking at me?

449
00:31:48,694 --> 00:31:51,192
I don't think he can
do this anymore.

450
00:32:16,442 --> 00:32:18,960
Essential tremor...

451
00:32:18,984 --> 00:32:20,824
As soon as you
put your hands out

452
00:32:20,836 --> 00:32:22,626
they start shaking right away.

453
00:32:22,650 --> 00:32:26,127
Now mine, I put them out

454
00:32:26,151 --> 00:32:32,109
and they just don't.

455
00:32:36,318 --> 00:32:40,942
And I feel like
almost normal again.

456
00:34:25,942 --> 00:34:32,918
Katherine, today is week
24 of the open stimulation.

457
00:34:32,942 --> 00:34:37,043
And although we will see
you next week again

458
00:34:37,067 --> 00:34:40,375
today is the primary
end point of...

459
00:34:40,399 --> 00:34:43,942
- The big day.
- Actually the big day.

460
00:34:45,026 --> 00:34:47,276
Let me just show...

461
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:54,751
Today is May 22nd.
How are you doing?

462
00:34:54,775 --> 00:34:56,984
Good!

463
00:34:58,276 --> 00:35:02,859
I am happy more than not.

464
00:35:06,650 --> 00:35:09,942
I experience joy in...

465
00:35:11,609 --> 00:35:14,034
...almost everything I do.
There's

466
00:35:14,046 --> 00:35:16,043
always something about it

467
00:35:16,067 --> 00:35:20,151
even if it's just the
fact that I'm doing it.

468
00:35:22,359 --> 00:35:25,668
I usually find...

469
00:35:25,692 --> 00:35:30,043
...some kind of joy.
I enjoy my life.

470
00:35:30,067 --> 00:35:33,751
Never have before.
Never really had a life before.

471
00:35:33,775 --> 00:35:37,734
So, it's kind of
like, you know...

472
00:35:38,817 --> 00:35:42,710
Well as Jim calls
me, Catherine 2.0.

473
00:35:42,734 --> 00:35:45,710
You improved on the old one.

474
00:35:45,734 --> 00:35:49,127
You've always had this feeling?

475
00:35:49,151 --> 00:35:53,418
Can you tell me any
more about this?

476
00:35:53,442 --> 00:35:57,376
I can't do anything.
I know everything is going on

477
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,375
but it seems like I
can't be a part of it.

478
00:36:00,399 --> 00:36:03,501
You can't be a part of it.

479
00:36:03,525 --> 00:36:06,428
You feel like you don't belong?

480
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,375
Yeah,
I didn't want to leave home.

481
00:36:09,399 --> 00:36:10,999
And it seems like the other part

482
00:36:11,011 --> 00:36:12,878
of the world was just something

483
00:36:12,902 --> 00:36:16,152
that I didn't belong in.
Some kind of a dream.

484
00:36:17,483 --> 00:36:20,960
You think you feel just as bad
now as before the operation?

485
00:36:20,984 --> 00:36:22,294
Yes.

486
00:36:22,318 --> 00:36:24,877
Now the treatment is started.

487
00:36:24,901 --> 00:36:28,085
She's receiving a very
minute amount of current.

488
00:36:28,109 --> 00:36:31,793
Actually, it amounts to only
five thousandths of an ampere

489
00:36:31,817 --> 00:36:35,043
delivered to a very
specific region in the brain.

490
00:36:35,067 --> 00:36:38,002
But I don't like to feel me.

491
00:36:38,026 --> 00:36:40,424
No,
I just want to hit something.

492
00:36:40,436 --> 00:36:42,375
You want to hit something?

493
00:36:42,399 --> 00:36:45,064
But I wouldn't feel
any different, so I

494
00:36:45,076 --> 00:36:47,673
just want to get
something and tear it up.

495
00:36:48,017 --> 00:36:51,168
You want to get
something and tear it up?

496
00:36:51,192 --> 00:36:52,792
You feel you want
to tear that up?

497
00:36:52,817 --> 00:36:56,751
Yeah. Take it, so I won't.

498
00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:59,120
Now the current has
been reduced. She is

499
00:36:59,121 --> 00:37:01,626
receiving four
thousandths of an ampere

500
00:37:01,650 --> 00:37:03,814
and is changing in behavior.

501
00:37:08,901 --> 00:37:11,335
Look at that smile
you've got now.

502
00:37:11,359 --> 00:37:16,002
Why does that make me do that?
I don't like to do that.

503
00:37:16,026 --> 00:37:19,210
You really told me off.
Remember?

504
00:37:19,234 --> 00:37:22,168
I know, but I couldn't help it.

505
00:37:22,192 --> 00:37:25,668
I didn't have any control
over it. It was just coming...

506
00:37:25,692 --> 00:37:28,835
I was just thinking things
and I couldn't help it.

507
00:37:28,859 --> 00:37:30,795
Tell me what you were thinking?

508
00:37:30,807 --> 00:37:32,626
I wanted to slap your face.

509
00:37:32,650 --> 00:37:35,668
I wanted them to cut that off

510
00:37:35,692 --> 00:37:40,942
and I was mad at you because
you wouldn't tell them to.

511
00:37:44,234 --> 00:37:46,786
I saw her and I said,

512
00:37:46,798 --> 00:37:49,793
What was the
stimulator put in for?

513
00:37:49,817 --> 00:37:54,418
And she said, I was
suicidally depressed.

514
00:37:54,442 --> 00:37:58,127
And I said, Did it work?

515
00:37:58,151 --> 00:38:01,660
And she said,
I'm alive and I'm not

516
00:38:01,672 --> 00:38:05,294
depressed.
It's what saved my life.

517
00:38:05,318 --> 00:38:09,294
I'm thinking My Lord!
This stuff really did work.

518
00:38:09,318 --> 00:38:12,918
- Hi! How are you feeling?
- Hi! I'm just fine.

519
00:38:12,942 --> 00:38:17,127
Good. How is everything at home
with that big girl of yours?

520
00:38:17,151 --> 00:38:23,043
Oh, she's just fine. She is
a handful sometimes, though.

521
00:38:23,067 --> 00:38:24,926
We're beginning to
make correlations

522
00:38:24,938 --> 00:38:26,960
between the mind
and brain activity

523
00:38:26,984 --> 00:38:29,479
and hope this will
be helpful particularly

524
00:38:29,491 --> 00:38:31,877
in treating the major
mental illnesses,

525
00:38:31,901 --> 00:38:33,543
the psychoses.

526
00:38:33,567 --> 00:38:37,168
So, in the not too distant
future it won't be necessary

527
00:38:37,192 --> 00:38:40,068
for one person
out of ten spending

528
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,835
some time in the
mental hospital.

529
00:38:42,859 --> 00:38:46,376
We in the field even dare to
hope that the mental hospital

530
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,567
will be a thing in the past.

531
00:38:57,053 --> 00:38:58,973
I remember it vividly.

532
00:38:59,942 --> 00:39:02,334
Bob's weekend place
in Mississippi.

533
00:39:02,346 --> 00:39:04,585
A small place that he'd go to

534
00:39:04,609 --> 00:39:07,474
take some people, and do some

535
00:39:07,486 --> 00:39:10,210
fishing, was called Hedonia.

536
00:39:10,234 --> 00:39:14,525
A little farm.
He called it Hedonia.

537
00:39:39,442 --> 00:39:41,873
This is where he's
talking about whether

538
00:39:41,885 --> 00:39:44,668
it's an autoimmune
disease, schizophrenia.

539
00:39:44,692 --> 00:39:46,572
So, I guess they're still

540
00:39:46,584 --> 00:39:49,276
considering that
as a possibility.

541
00:39:51,637 --> 00:39:54,152
I remember very
distinctly trying to get a

542
00:39:54,176 --> 00:39:56,626
feeling for what his
relationship was

543
00:39:56,650 --> 00:39:59,960
to his son and I never
knew, never could tell.

544
00:39:59,984 --> 00:40:02,618
He never became a presence.

545
00:40:02,630 --> 00:40:05,375
That's why I wonder
whether he survived

546
00:40:05,399 --> 00:40:11,085
because Bob Heath worked
night and day, night and day.

547
00:40:11,109 --> 00:40:13,326
The lab was open all the time,

548
00:40:13,338 --> 00:40:15,877
his lights were on all the time

549
00:40:15,901 --> 00:40:18,276
he worked every weekend.

550
00:40:41,399 --> 00:40:44,375
It's amazing coming back here

551
00:40:44,399 --> 00:40:48,501
and looking through some
of the stuff in the office

552
00:40:48,525 --> 00:40:51,751
and seeing how
much of it there is.

553
00:40:51,775 --> 00:40:56,585
And the whole concept of

554
00:40:56,609 --> 00:41:02,375
his research kind of
being lost in a way

555
00:41:02,399 --> 00:41:05,786
and then the same
sort of procedures

556
00:41:05,798 --> 00:41:09,210
that he did back in
the 60s and 70s

557
00:41:09,234 --> 00:41:14,109
are now being rediscovered
by modern physicians.

558
00:41:15,525 --> 00:41:18,720
It's like... It's all here!
He has got all

559
00:41:18,732 --> 00:41:21,668
these papers and
all these citations.

560
00:41:21,692 --> 00:41:25,459
And what happened
to all of his stuff?

561
00:41:25,483 --> 00:41:28,408
There are like
probably hundreds of

562
00:41:28,420 --> 00:41:31,276
different papers
with his name on.

563
00:41:35,318 --> 00:41:38,626
After a few positive results
in the operating room

564
00:41:38,650 --> 00:41:41,650
Heath mounted a larger trial.

565
00:41:43,234 --> 00:41:45,608
He carefully
selected 22 young men

566
00:41:45,620 --> 00:41:47,835
and women with schizophrenia

567
00:41:47,859 --> 00:41:51,210
facing a lifetime in
mental institutions.

568
00:41:51,234 --> 00:41:53,522
Several years.
You've been having

569
00:41:53,534 --> 00:41:56,002
these voices all
during that time?

570
00:41:56,026 --> 00:41:58,252
Yes.

571
00:41:58,276 --> 00:42:01,543
And what do these
voices say to you?

572
00:42:01,567 --> 00:42:05,877
- I don't answer them back.
- You don't answer them back?

573
00:42:05,901 --> 00:42:08,070
Why don't you answer them back?

574
00:42:08,082 --> 00:42:09,109
I was scared.

575
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:18,543
Heath's group worked
for two years

576
00:42:18,567 --> 00:42:20,555
operating, following up with

577
00:42:20,567 --> 00:42:22,793
the patients, gathering data

578
00:42:22,817 --> 00:42:25,499
and analyzing how the treatment

579
00:42:25,511 --> 00:42:27,650
affected each one of them.

580
00:42:29,234 --> 00:42:32,751
How long have you been working
for this engineering company?

581
00:42:32,775 --> 00:42:35,626
- 11 months.
- Do you like that job?

582
00:42:35,650 --> 00:42:39,168
Oh yes. It's not hard work.

583
00:42:39,192 --> 00:42:42,151
People are very
nice and everything,

584
00:42:42,163 --> 00:42:44,525
and I haven't been in trouble.

585
00:42:45,942 --> 00:42:48,793
How about the symptoms that
were terribly distracting?

586
00:42:48,817 --> 00:42:51,916
I don't have any
of those anymore.

587
00:42:51,928 --> 00:42:53,442
Hallucinations?

588
00:42:54,483 --> 00:42:59,459
And your rage for
impulses where you...

589
00:42:59,483 --> 00:43:03,459
Oh no, none of those anymore.

590
00:43:03,483 --> 00:43:06,793
- How are you getting on?
- I'm doing wonderful.

591
00:43:06,817 --> 00:43:11,459
I don't have any more
trouble like I did have.

592
00:43:11,483 --> 00:43:16,793
And I don't have those dreams,
I don't have those voices...

593
00:43:16,817 --> 00:43:21,168
I have more control over myself.

594
00:43:21,192 --> 00:43:23,436
It's just so much
different from the

595
00:43:23,448 --> 00:43:25,459
way I was and the way I am now.

596
00:43:25,483 --> 00:43:27,600
It's unexplainable really, you

597
00:43:27,612 --> 00:43:30,359
can't... You can't
really explain it.

598
00:43:31,109 --> 00:43:33,324
When it appeared
that the treatment

599
00:43:33,336 --> 00:43:35,294
helped half of the patients

600
00:43:35,318 --> 00:43:37,259
Heath decided to break the news

601
00:43:37,271 --> 00:43:39,210
in an invitation-only seminar

602
00:43:39,234 --> 00:43:41,875
where he presented
everything for

603
00:43:41,887 --> 00:43:44,318
a select group of leading peers.

604
00:43:45,871 --> 00:43:49,920
These men were some of the most
respected names in psychiatry

605
00:43:49,942 --> 00:43:53,252
and they did not
approve of his methods.

606
00:43:53,276 --> 00:43:55,224
They suspected that the patients

607
00:43:55,236 --> 00:43:57,376
got so much attention and care

608
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:01,543
that the apparent
effect was placebo.

609
00:44:01,567 --> 00:44:03,422
Most of the
discoverers are nerds

610
00:44:03,434 --> 00:44:05,192
by the very nature of the work.

611
00:44:06,817 --> 00:44:09,368
In contrast to the thick lenses,

612
00:44:09,380 --> 00:44:12,043
the dirty shirt, and you know...

613
00:44:12,067 --> 00:44:14,543
Bob was the anti-nerd.

614
00:44:14,567 --> 00:44:19,710
First, he was a great tennis
player, a great golfer

615
00:44:19,734 --> 00:44:23,960
absolutely at home
with himself socially.

616
00:44:23,984 --> 00:44:26,501
He was very good
at raising money

617
00:44:26,525 --> 00:44:30,335
and it was usually a sort
of charismatic interaction

618
00:44:30,359 --> 00:44:32,352
with a wealthy family or a

619
00:44:32,364 --> 00:44:35,043
foundation or
something like that.

620
00:44:35,067 --> 00:44:37,396
He was one of these
guys you couldn't

621
00:44:37,408 --> 00:44:39,376
stay away from. He was just...

622
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:41,877
How can I put it?
A temple of charisma.

623
00:44:41,901 --> 00:44:48,085
The kind of guy, I think, that
many other academic people

624
00:44:48,109 --> 00:44:53,294
from what I've seen
around, would wish they were.

625
00:44:53,318 --> 00:44:55,741
Some of them, I
know, were waiting

626
00:44:55,753 --> 00:44:57,960
for him to win the Nobel Prize.

627
00:44:57,984 --> 00:45:00,076
That's how highly he
was thought of in

628
00:45:00,088 --> 00:45:02,294
those days.
Oh yes, that's a Nobelist.

629
00:45:02,318 --> 00:45:04,360
He put together neurochemistry,

630
00:45:04,372 --> 00:45:05,459
neurophysiology.

631
00:45:05,483 --> 00:45:09,751
And I think some of
them hated Bob for that.

632
00:45:09,775 --> 00:45:14,085
I think it's the simplest,
most primitive kind of thing

633
00:45:14,109 --> 00:45:18,984
that happens with we human
beings. It's called jealousy.

634
00:45:22,942 --> 00:45:25,949
I fell in love with
him, actually.

635
00:45:25,961 --> 00:45:28,918
That's the simplest
way to say it.

636
00:45:28,942 --> 00:45:33,335
I wanted to become him,
which was common. Not uncommon.

637
00:45:33,359 --> 00:45:38,192
He was so charismatic
and mysterious in a way.

638
00:45:39,318 --> 00:45:43,002
In spite of his apparent
confidence, I got the feeling

639
00:45:43,026 --> 00:45:49,026
that he was working
at being right.

640
00:45:57,276 --> 00:46:00,376
We know a lot about how
the brain works now

641
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:03,323
and we know a
lot more about what

642
00:46:03,335 --> 00:46:06,127
deep brain stimulation is doing.

643
00:46:06,151 --> 00:46:08,953
I would say,
the days of 'we don't

644
00:46:08,965 --> 00:46:11,459
really know what we are doing

645
00:46:11,483 --> 00:46:15,168
but it obviously
works', is an exaggeration.

646
00:46:15,192 --> 00:46:17,210
But I certainly
wouldn't say that

647
00:46:17,222 --> 00:46:19,294
we are extremely sophisticated

648
00:46:19,318 --> 00:46:22,626
and we understand every
aspect of what we are doing

649
00:46:22,650 --> 00:46:25,650
because that's not true either.

650
00:46:28,026 --> 00:46:30,861
You're doing a
procedure in the most

651
00:46:30,873 --> 00:46:33,668
important part of the human body

652
00:46:33,692 --> 00:46:36,100
that controls emotions,

653
00:46:36,112 --> 00:46:39,650
decisions, cognition,
everything.

654
00:46:42,567 --> 00:46:45,751
And we're still investigating
Gilles de la Tourettes

655
00:46:45,775 --> 00:46:48,741
obsessive-compulsive
disorder, epilepsy,

656
00:46:48,753 --> 00:46:51,501
depression and other
severe illnesses

657
00:46:51,525 --> 00:46:53,717
where there is a chance and

658
00:46:53,729 --> 00:46:56,692
hopefully it will
help some patients.

659
00:48:05,483 --> 00:48:09,252
We started a study on
obsessive-compulsive disorder

660
00:48:09,276 --> 00:48:11,918
and the day

661
00:48:11,942 --> 00:48:18,626
that our study went on to
the NIH website, she called us.

662
00:48:18,650 --> 00:48:21,877
She had contamination fears.

663
00:48:21,901 --> 00:48:25,960
She knew that this
was illogical.

664
00:48:25,984 --> 00:48:29,210
When her husband goes
out to the store

665
00:48:29,234 --> 00:48:32,002
he has to buy all
of the groceries

666
00:48:32,026 --> 00:48:33,879
and then there
is a transfer that

667
00:48:33,891 --> 00:48:35,960
happens at the door
of their garage

668
00:48:35,984 --> 00:48:39,168
where he opens the cereal
box and pours the cereal...

669
00:48:39,192 --> 00:48:40,872
Just like in an
operating room, when

670
00:48:40,884 --> 00:48:42,418
you transfer
something sterilely.

671
00:48:42,442 --> 00:48:44,639
...pours the cereal
into her sterile

672
00:48:44,651 --> 00:48:46,960
container and then
enters the house

673
00:48:46,984 --> 00:48:48,737
and then throws away the dirty

674
00:48:48,749 --> 00:48:50,835
containers from
the grocery store.

675
00:48:50,859 --> 00:48:53,764
He comes home from
work and because he

676
00:48:53,776 --> 00:48:56,793
has been out in a
contaminated world

677
00:48:56,817 --> 00:49:00,626
he has to go through
decontamination procedures

678
00:49:00,650 --> 00:49:04,335
to get into his own home,
or his wife can't handle it.

679
00:49:04,359 --> 00:49:06,663
So he literally
drives his car to the

680
00:49:06,675 --> 00:49:09,335
garage, closes the
door, strips naked

681
00:49:09,359 --> 00:49:13,210
takes a shower in the
bathroom at the entrance

682
00:49:13,234 --> 00:49:17,335
and then is allowed by his
wife to come into the house

683
00:49:17,359 --> 00:49:19,668
naked and clean.

684
00:49:19,692 --> 00:49:22,109
But to make a long story short,

685
00:49:22,121 --> 00:49:24,294
I have pictures of her now

686
00:49:24,318 --> 00:49:26,847
riding horses with her daughter

687
00:49:26,859 --> 00:49:29,459
and she really
got her life back.

688
00:49:29,483 --> 00:49:33,053
For OCD at least
it's become clear

689
00:49:33,065 --> 00:49:36,543
that it's the posterior border

690
00:49:36,567 --> 00:49:40,668
posterior superior border
of the nucleus accumbens

691
00:49:40,692 --> 00:49:45,668
where we get our most
potent beneficial effect.

692
00:49:45,692 --> 00:49:48,610
The nucleus accumbens
is the final common

693
00:49:48,622 --> 00:49:51,585
pathway for pleasure
in the human brain.

694
00:49:51,609 --> 00:49:54,501
It lights up in the
functional MRI scanner

695
00:49:54,525 --> 00:49:57,626
when you give someone chocolate

696
00:49:57,650 --> 00:50:01,085
or if you tell someone
to have a sexual fantasy

697
00:50:01,109 --> 00:50:04,918
or you give a drug
addict his drug of choice.

698
00:50:04,942 --> 00:50:07,583
That's the part
of the brain that

699
00:50:07,595 --> 00:50:10,483
lights up most
reliably with reward.

700
00:50:17,650 --> 00:50:20,487
He looked like a
sweet blond boy, but

701
00:50:20,499 --> 00:50:23,375
he was confined in
a mental hospital

702
00:50:23,399 --> 00:50:26,567
heavily drugged
and tied to a bed.

703
00:50:27,901 --> 00:50:31,252
His parents found Robert Heath
while searching for a way

704
00:50:31,276 --> 00:50:33,811
to get their son out of hospital

705
00:50:33,823 --> 00:50:36,252
and give him some kind of life.

706
00:50:36,276 --> 00:50:39,210
David was obviously retarded.

707
00:50:39,234 --> 00:50:44,418
I don't know what his IQ is,
but it's probably around 70.

708
00:50:44,442 --> 00:50:48,501
He was incarcerated in the
state mental hospital

709
00:50:48,525 --> 00:50:50,873
because of his violence. He

710
00:50:50,885 --> 00:50:53,835
could not be around
other people.

711
00:50:53,859 --> 00:50:55,919
He was considered
the most violent

712
00:50:55,931 --> 00:50:58,418
patient ever in a
state mental hospital.

713
00:50:58,442 --> 00:51:00,793
That's saying a lot.

714
00:51:00,817 --> 00:51:03,441
It was a mental
health counseling

715
00:51:03,453 --> 00:51:06,459
appointment for
David and his family.

716
00:51:06,483 --> 00:51:09,052
I remember we were
just all sitting

717
00:51:09,064 --> 00:51:11,418
like this in the waiting room

718
00:51:11,442 --> 00:51:16,168
and he... it was directed...
and just into the wall.

719
00:51:16,192 --> 00:51:19,751
I'm gonna kill her... And
everybody heard it. Everybody!

720
00:51:19,775 --> 00:51:23,626
The doctors come running
out and they took him.

721
00:51:23,650 --> 00:51:27,692
And my mother cried and
cried and cried and cried.

722
00:51:31,901 --> 00:51:34,088
From that day on,
it was the beginning

723
00:51:34,100 --> 00:51:35,918
of him in and out of the home

724
00:51:35,942 --> 00:51:37,960
and being taken
for periods of time

725
00:51:37,984 --> 00:51:41,168
or then eventually the
confinement into Mandeville.

726
00:51:41,192 --> 00:51:45,002
When he's home I'm always
definitely afraid

727
00:51:45,026 --> 00:51:48,376
that he'll harm someone
away from the house.

728
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:50,861
We all know that
he self-inflicts

729
00:51:50,873 --> 00:51:52,400
wounds upon himself.

730
00:51:55,859 --> 00:52:00,418
Heath used a new version
of his brain pacemaker.

731
00:52:00,442 --> 00:52:02,710
Donald Richardson
was the surgeon

732
00:52:02,734 --> 00:52:06,294
who implanted the device
in David's cerebellum.

733
00:52:06,318 --> 00:52:09,710
From the back of his neck it
would send gentle pulses

734
00:52:09,734 --> 00:52:12,342
through to the damaged emotional

735
00:52:12,354 --> 00:52:14,626
structures in David's brain.

736
00:52:14,650 --> 00:52:17,405
After he got over
the surgery and

737
00:52:17,417 --> 00:52:19,960
the stimulator was adjusted

738
00:52:19,984 --> 00:52:22,525
he was able to leave
the mental hospital

739
00:52:22,537 --> 00:52:24,835
and move back home
with his parents.

740
00:52:24,859 --> 00:52:30,751
He got a job working in a Burger
King or some place like that

741
00:52:30,775 --> 00:52:32,501
cleaning up

742
00:52:32,525 --> 00:52:38,399
and was totally pacified.

743
00:52:39,192 --> 00:52:41,655
Do you remember how
you felt when you

744
00:52:41,667 --> 00:52:43,918
were doing all of that fighting?

745
00:52:43,942 --> 00:52:46,326
Do you remember
the fight when you

746
00:52:46,338 --> 00:52:48,835
attacked your dad
and your mother?

747
00:52:48,859 --> 00:52:51,210
Yeah, I remember that.

748
00:52:51,234 --> 00:52:55,375
That seems to be
under control again.

749
00:52:55,399 --> 00:52:58,459
You know, it was hard for them

750
00:52:58,483 --> 00:53:02,918
to see such great pain
and suffering and to know

751
00:53:02,942 --> 00:53:06,775
that he has been helped.

752
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:10,155
What do you think about it,
David?

753
00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:11,225
You've done good!

754
00:53:11,249 --> 00:53:15,551
Only doctor Heath
took care of me.

755
00:53:15,903 --> 00:53:17,036
Well, we tried.

756
00:53:17,650 --> 00:53:19,343
You tell Dr. Richardson... you

757
00:53:19,355 --> 00:53:21,501
planted a real
good device in him.

758
00:53:21,525 --> 00:53:24,543
Tell him what happened
in Washington DC.

759
00:53:24,567 --> 00:53:27,459
Security guards grabbed
me out of the line.

760
00:53:27,483 --> 00:53:30,270
What line?
Where was I taking you?

761
00:53:30,282 --> 00:53:32,501
I was in The White House.

762
00:53:32,525 --> 00:53:35,710
- And what happened?
- A service guy came and...

763
00:53:35,734 --> 00:53:39,734
Why did they pull you out
and what did they do to you?

764
00:53:40,901 --> 00:53:45,318
Thought you had a
knife or bomb on you?

765
00:53:52,067 --> 00:53:56,710
You put it on AM and turn it as
low frequencies as it will go

766
00:53:56,734 --> 00:54:03,775
and you pick up the magnetic
output from the stimulator.

767
00:54:06,525 --> 00:54:10,942
Did you hear it? That was it.

768
00:54:14,734 --> 00:54:19,151
Burp. It only stimulates for
very short periods of time.

769
00:54:19,901 --> 00:54:22,704
Everything is going
great and Heath

770
00:54:22,716 --> 00:54:25,710
is enjoying the
best of all worlds

771
00:54:25,734 --> 00:54:29,276
until the arrival of the 1970s.

772
00:54:33,234 --> 00:54:35,960
The counterculture
was booming then.

773
00:54:35,984 --> 00:54:39,376
It was a time for
ripping down authorities.

774
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:43,335
Popular art and films like 'One
Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'

775
00:54:43,359 --> 00:54:47,942
show mental institutions
in a new and crude way.

776
00:54:49,192 --> 00:54:52,918
The public mood is turning
against all of psychiatry.

777
00:54:52,942 --> 00:54:55,781
And the exclusive
privileged world

778
00:54:55,793 --> 00:54:58,501
of doctors is being questioned.

779
00:54:58,525 --> 00:55:01,501
This turmoil reaches Congress

780
00:55:01,525 --> 00:55:05,418
where Ted Kennedy puts
psychosurgery on trial.

781
00:55:05,442 --> 00:55:08,459
Heath is summoned
to explain his work.

782
00:55:08,483 --> 00:55:11,326
Rivals in his
field accuse him of

783
00:55:11,338 --> 00:55:14,210
being the devil in a white coat.

784
00:55:14,234 --> 00:55:19,918
I was very embarrassed for
Dr. Heath. I didn't realize...

785
00:55:19,942 --> 00:55:22,558
...really the
antipathy most of the

786
00:55:22,570 --> 00:55:25,085
field of that time
had for Heath.

787
00:55:25,109 --> 00:55:27,609
He had...

788
00:55:28,650 --> 00:55:34,043
...overly blessed his luck.

789
00:55:34,067 --> 00:55:38,877
The Gregory Peck of the 1950s
becomes a crazy mad scientist

790
00:55:38,901 --> 00:55:41,918
planting electrodes
in people's brains

791
00:55:41,942 --> 00:55:45,043
turning them into
human pincushions.

792
00:55:45,067 --> 00:55:47,252
People had the idea
that he just stuck

793
00:55:47,264 --> 00:55:49,168
electrodes in everybody's head.

794
00:55:49,192 --> 00:55:53,918
This also happened, remember

795
00:55:53,942 --> 00:55:58,359
at a very strange political
time in this country.

796
00:55:59,359 --> 00:56:02,002
And as one goes along in time

797
00:56:02,026 --> 00:56:08,002
one begins to realize how
important sociopolitics is.

798
00:56:08,026 --> 00:56:10,191
Not just in the
way countries are

799
00:56:10,203 --> 00:56:12,567
run, but in the
way science is done.

800
00:56:13,234 --> 00:56:16,008
Kennedy asks: Is
this not opening

801
00:56:16,020 --> 00:56:18,252
the door to mind control?

802
00:56:18,276 --> 00:56:20,043
Yes or no?

803
00:56:20,067 --> 00:56:23,375
Heath does what he can but
when they're done on the Hill

804
00:56:23,399 --> 00:56:25,210
psychosurgery is dead.

805
00:56:25,234 --> 00:56:29,543
And Robert Heath who spoke
against lobotomy in the 1950s

806
00:56:29,567 --> 00:56:33,026
is now being cast
as a lobotomist.

807
00:56:33,942 --> 00:56:36,918
To Heath it's all
a waste of time.

808
00:56:36,942 --> 00:56:39,918
He went back to the lab
to continue his work.

809
00:56:39,942 --> 00:56:43,984
He saw the upheaval
as a minor blow.

810
00:56:45,192 --> 00:56:49,734
But what came out next
would change everything.

811
00:56:52,775 --> 00:56:55,467
In his quest for pleasure it was

812
00:56:55,479 --> 00:56:58,775
natural for Heath
to study sexuality.

813
00:56:59,859 --> 00:57:02,168
Experiments were
carried out in the lab

814
00:57:02,192 --> 00:57:06,276
where he would measure
sexual arousal in patients.

815
00:57:09,775 --> 00:57:12,661
And then an
opportunity arose that

816
00:57:12,673 --> 00:57:16,067
played right into his
hunt for pleasure.

817
00:57:16,859 --> 00:57:19,459
A young man was
admitted and diagnosed

818
00:57:19,483 --> 00:57:22,751
as chronically
suicidal and depressed.

819
00:57:22,775 --> 00:57:25,874
During therapy he
disclosed how he

820
00:57:25,886 --> 00:57:29,543
wanted to be free of
his homosexuality.

821
00:57:29,567 --> 00:57:34,043
At the time homosexuality
was registered in the DSM

822
00:57:34,067 --> 00:57:37,459
the list of mental illnesses.
It was a time

823
00:57:37,483 --> 00:57:39,604
when parents took
their sons to get

824
00:57:39,616 --> 00:57:41,793
shock treatment to
their testicles

825
00:57:41,817 --> 00:57:45,418
if they had
homosexual tendencies.

826
00:57:45,442 --> 00:57:48,418
Heath offered the
young man treatment.

827
00:57:48,442 --> 00:57:51,305
He saw an opportunity
to see if he could

828
00:57:51,317 --> 00:57:54,294
change the brain's
pleasure preferences.

829
00:57:54,318 --> 00:57:59,085
I myself... I'm gay, as
I think I mentioned to you.

830
00:57:59,109 --> 00:58:03,626
And Bob knew it, we
didn't talk about it.

831
00:58:03,650 --> 00:58:07,459
Because you don't talk about
things like that particularly.

832
00:58:07,483 --> 00:58:10,600
I'm sure there
were people around

833
00:58:10,612 --> 00:58:14,210
that...
would have wanted to do that.

834
00:58:14,234 --> 00:58:16,877
I wouldn't want to do it now.

835
00:58:16,901 --> 00:58:23,002
I probably might have
wanted to do it then

836
00:58:23,026 --> 00:58:25,525
but...

837
00:58:27,067 --> 00:58:31,459
It's a different time
and different ways.

838
00:58:31,483 --> 00:58:35,751
In those days they thought that
homosexuality was a pathology

839
00:58:35,775 --> 00:58:37,605
that should be treated like any

840
00:58:37,617 --> 00:58:39,668
other kind of
psychiatric disorder.

841
00:58:39,692 --> 00:58:44,151
Unfortunately the psychoanalysts
were the worst about that.

842
00:58:45,775 --> 00:58:49,418
I knew that he had
turned his interest

843
00:58:49,442 --> 00:58:52,326
but I didn't realize he had gone

844
00:58:52,338 --> 00:58:55,252
so far as to do
a clinical study.

845
00:58:55,276 --> 00:58:59,668
Electrodes were implanted in
the young man's pleasure center.

846
00:58:59,692 --> 00:59:03,543
He had a remote control and
could stimulate himself.

847
00:59:03,567 --> 00:59:07,127
He used it when watching
heterosexual porn

848
00:59:07,151 --> 00:59:11,543
and after a while he
was ready to meet a woman.

849
00:59:11,567 --> 00:59:15,751
A 21-year-old
prostitute was hired.

850
00:59:15,775 --> 00:59:19,501
The young man and the woman
would be alone in the lab

851
00:59:19,525 --> 00:59:22,246
with Heath and his
technicians recording

852
00:59:22,258 --> 00:59:24,609
from his electrodes
in another room.

853
00:59:25,775 --> 00:59:28,702
The young man had
intercourse with

854
00:59:28,714 --> 00:59:31,335
the woman for the first time.

855
00:59:31,359 --> 00:59:33,525
The results of the study proved

856
00:59:33,537 --> 00:59:36,168
successful, but no one is sure

857
00:59:36,192 --> 00:59:40,043
what became of the
young man after the study.

858
00:59:40,067 --> 00:59:43,418
The research was published
in a scientific journal

859
00:59:43,442 --> 00:59:45,002
but when it later reached the

860
00:59:45,014 --> 00:59:46,734
public, the reaction was brutal.

861
00:59:50,359 --> 00:59:53,210
Heath faced intense criticism.

862
00:59:53,234 --> 00:59:57,918
Times had changed and new
voices celebrating diversity

863
00:59:57,942 --> 01:00:01,109
were on the rise.

864
01:00:04,234 --> 01:00:06,380
You can insert an
electrode and do

865
01:00:06,392 --> 01:00:08,835
stimulation to either
block or drive.

866
01:00:08,859 --> 01:00:11,159
So, if you do MRI on
me and I'm in love

867
01:00:11,171 --> 01:00:13,585
with you and my wife
says no good

868
01:00:13,609 --> 01:00:15,372
let's put an
electrode to block that

869
01:00:15,384 --> 01:00:17,168
area,
so I'm not in love with you.

870
01:00:17,192 --> 01:00:19,710
This is the consequence.
We never went that far.

871
01:00:19,734 --> 01:00:22,376
It's unethical, it's not needed.

872
01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:27,375
This tool it's too valuable
to be used for these issues.

873
01:00:27,399 --> 01:00:30,569
You can have atom
energy to drive

874
01:00:30,581 --> 01:00:33,585
boats and to get electricity

875
01:00:33,609 --> 01:00:37,626
and you can have it to
make a bomb. Same thing.

876
01:00:37,650 --> 01:00:40,579
A fool with a tool
is still a fool.

877
01:00:40,591 --> 01:00:43,960
Maybe you have heard
that quote before.

878
01:00:43,984 --> 01:00:46,050
So, I'm beginning
to get a little bit

879
01:00:46,062 --> 01:00:48,294
worried and a little
bit uncomfortable

880
01:00:48,318 --> 01:00:51,877
because we're going to put
something into the brain

881
01:00:51,901 --> 01:00:55,459
and we're going to change
somebody's personality.

882
01:00:55,483 --> 01:00:59,210
The personality changes,
people become more impulsive

883
01:00:59,234 --> 01:01:02,710
and that's probably going to
change somebody's personality.

884
01:01:02,734 --> 01:01:04,605
They are going to
seem a lot more

885
01:01:04,617 --> 01:01:07,043
impulsive in the
akumenang.com

886
01:01:07,067 --> 01:01:09,418
and in casinos.

887
01:01:09,442 --> 01:01:11,308
So, that's changing personality,

888
01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:13,085
if we make you more impulsive.

889
01:01:13,109 --> 01:01:15,877
Some people may change the
character of their personality

890
01:01:15,901 --> 01:01:18,376
how friendly they are,
whether they're angry.

891
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:20,678
We published a number
of years ago in

892
01:01:20,690 --> 01:01:22,960
the National
Institutes of Health

893
01:01:22,984 --> 01:01:26,375
that we commonly would
make people angry,

894
01:01:26,387 --> 01:01:29,210
with certain targets
in the brain.

895
01:01:29,234 --> 01:01:32,877
That could be interpreted
as a change in personality.

896
01:01:32,901 --> 01:01:34,976
I knew there would be a
change, but not

897
01:01:34,988 --> 01:01:37,127
that I would be
clobbered over the head.

898
01:01:37,151 --> 01:01:40,252
I got louder and more dramatic

899
01:01:40,276 --> 01:01:45,585
and if it's something that
is disturbing the situation

900
01:01:45,609 --> 01:01:48,901
then I start to get angry.

901
01:01:50,234 --> 01:01:53,375
No filter, no filter whatsoever.

902
01:01:53,399 --> 01:01:56,127
I don't have one.

903
01:01:56,151 --> 01:02:01,918
I just say whatever
comes into my head.

904
01:02:01,942 --> 01:02:05,282
I don't even stop to
think if it's going

905
01:02:05,294 --> 01:02:08,501
to hurt somebody. It's just oh!

906
01:02:08,525 --> 01:02:12,043
And I don't hesitate
to talk anymore, so...

907
01:02:12,067 --> 01:02:16,793
- Would you have surgery again?
- Yes.

908
01:02:16,817 --> 01:02:20,400
Yes! Absolutely,
there is no question.

909
01:02:23,109 --> 01:02:26,901
It's a resounding
yes, because...

910
01:02:28,483 --> 01:02:30,877
...it saved my life.

911
01:02:30,901 --> 01:02:33,292
I probably would
not be alive right

912
01:02:33,304 --> 01:02:35,376
now, if I hadn't had surgery.

913
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:37,960
Every psychiatric treatment

914
01:02:37,984 --> 01:02:41,877
be it medication, be
it psychotherapy, changes

915
01:02:41,901 --> 01:02:44,413
factors of emotion
and cognition,

916
01:02:44,425 --> 01:02:46,918
which are parts of
personality too.

917
01:02:46,942 --> 01:02:51,793
And if it wouldn't do that it
wouldn't be worthwhile to do it.

918
01:02:51,817 --> 01:02:55,585
So yes, personality is changing

919
01:02:55,609 --> 01:02:59,859
has to change, when we talk
about emotion and cognition.

920
01:03:25,650 --> 01:03:29,078
Many people don't
want to have something

921
01:03:29,090 --> 01:03:32,043
to do with illness, depression.

922
01:03:32,067 --> 01:03:35,252
They want to push it away.

923
01:03:35,276 --> 01:03:38,793
It means weakness,
illness is weakness.

924
01:03:38,817 --> 01:03:43,400
You are not a full
member of society.

925
01:03:44,609 --> 01:03:49,650
So, everything that is weak...

926
01:03:52,775 --> 01:03:58,234
...perhaps reminds oneself
of their own weakness.

927
01:04:08,650 --> 01:04:12,376
Perhaps there is a possibility

928
01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:15,877
a very, very good possibility

929
01:04:15,901 --> 01:04:19,585
to live again

930
01:04:19,609 --> 01:04:24,626
and to be healed
or to get better.

931
01:04:24,650 --> 01:04:27,942
It's not the end.

932
01:04:30,234 --> 01:04:35,085
I try not to put too
much stress on it

933
01:04:35,109 --> 01:04:38,109
because I don't want to be...

934
01:04:41,234 --> 01:04:44,399
...too much disappointed.

935
01:04:46,525 --> 01:04:50,026
But for me it's...

936
01:04:51,442 --> 01:04:58,294
...the last possibility
that I could return to life.

937
01:04:58,318 --> 01:05:04,442
I could feel good
feelings again.

938
01:05:06,942 --> 01:05:12,609
I could see sunlight again
with feelings in my heart.

939
01:05:23,775 --> 01:05:24,918
Otherwise

940
01:05:24,942 --> 01:05:28,192
I will go on as a living dead.

941
01:05:39,692 --> 01:05:42,296
Most of the human
trials that I've

942
01:05:42,308 --> 01:05:44,877
been involved with were people

943
01:05:44,901 --> 01:05:50,335
who had just miserable
lives with no hope.

944
01:05:50,359 --> 01:05:55,376
And we offered them hope

945
01:05:55,400 --> 01:05:59,085
and not just oh,
we hope this might work

946
01:05:59,109 --> 01:06:02,751
but we had strong reasons to
believe that it would work

947
01:06:02,775 --> 01:06:04,862
with enough evidence to convince

948
01:06:04,874 --> 01:06:06,835
an institutional review board:

949
01:06:06,859 --> 01:06:09,668
Hey! This is worth trying!

950
01:06:09,692 --> 01:06:13,168
I would say I'm probably
on the aggressive side

951
01:06:13,192 --> 01:06:16,751
in terms of moving to
human clinical trials.

952
01:06:16,775 --> 01:06:20,338
And so,
obesity and opioid abuse are

953
01:06:20,350 --> 01:06:24,210
the two biggest public
health problems

954
01:06:24,234 --> 01:06:27,418
crises really,
in United States right now.

955
01:06:27,442 --> 01:06:30,710
And this one application
of neuromodulation

956
01:06:30,734 --> 01:06:35,793
has the potential to make a
huge difference in that domain.

957
01:06:35,817 --> 01:06:38,239
If we can do that,
I think that's

958
01:06:38,251 --> 01:06:40,585
going to be a huge game changer.

959
01:06:40,609 --> 01:06:43,865
Maybe we could fix it with some

960
01:06:43,877 --> 01:06:47,668
new molecular tool
down the line.

961
01:06:47,692 --> 01:06:51,168
Am I going to stop what I'm
doing until someone does that?

962
01:06:51,192 --> 01:06:53,501
Sorry that bothers you.

963
01:06:53,525 --> 01:06:57,168
Let me introduce you
to a sick person.

964
01:06:57,192 --> 01:06:59,566
Given that what we have is safe,

965
01:06:59,578 --> 01:07:02,442
available and is
working, I'll take it.

966
01:07:13,109 --> 01:07:16,399
What if we were soon
able to modulate

967
01:07:16,411 --> 01:07:19,294
every aspect of the human mind?

968
01:07:19,318 --> 01:07:21,662
This would open a
door to manipulate

969
01:07:21,674 --> 01:07:23,877
things that we consider sacred

970
01:07:23,901 --> 01:07:27,359
and essential to who we are.

971
01:07:28,442 --> 01:07:30,335
What if, for example

972
01:07:30,359 --> 01:07:32,452
you could take away the pain of

973
01:07:32,464 --> 01:07:34,817
traumatic memories
with an electrode?

974
01:07:35,650 --> 01:07:41,085
The veteran was part of the
initial attack on Iraq

975
01:07:41,109 --> 01:07:44,276
which was in 1991.

976
01:07:45,483 --> 01:07:48,901
He was working in a tank.

977
01:07:49,567 --> 01:07:54,501
This battle lasted
all day and all night.

978
01:07:54,525 --> 01:07:58,877
If you type in on the Internet
highway of death

979
01:07:58,901 --> 01:08:03,002
you get images of this and...

980
01:08:03,026 --> 01:08:05,400
Sorry, I didn't expect this.

981
01:08:07,399 --> 01:08:11,375
It's a long highway of littered
tanks and bodies and vehicles

982
01:08:11,399 --> 01:08:16,877
and pieces of this and that,
blown up and it's horrifying.

983
01:08:16,901 --> 01:08:20,751
What happened is that after
the battle the next day

984
01:08:20,775 --> 01:08:26,442
he and his unit were sent to
do a kind of damage assessment.

985
01:08:27,399 --> 01:08:30,210
And that's when the most
traumatic experience

986
01:08:30,234 --> 01:08:34,210
that basically changed
this man's life occurred.

987
01:08:34,234 --> 01:08:40,817
He just saw these dismembered
and charred bodies.

988
01:08:41,859 --> 01:08:48,252
And, there's one particular
image of a corpse

989
01:08:48,276 --> 01:08:50,298
that was blackened
and scarred and

990
01:08:50,310 --> 01:08:52,335
the man he describes has one eye

991
01:08:52,359 --> 01:08:56,335
partly coming out of his head.

992
01:08:56,359 --> 01:09:00,567
There were flies, you
know, it was hot.

993
01:09:05,151 --> 01:09:07,285
You think that the
most traumatic thing

994
01:09:07,297 --> 01:09:09,543
is that people are
trying to kill you

995
01:09:09,567 --> 01:09:13,960
but the most traumatic thing

996
01:09:13,984 --> 01:09:16,901
is killing other people.

997
01:09:32,942 --> 01:09:37,501
Within weeks after that he
began having nightmares

998
01:09:37,525 --> 01:09:41,543
of this charred corpse that
would actually envelop him

999
01:09:41,567 --> 01:09:44,418
and he would
experience it, feel it.

1000
01:09:44,442 --> 01:09:48,210
He would wake up screaming
and sweating and he would...

1001
01:09:48,234 --> 01:09:50,461
The only thing he
could think of to

1002
01:09:50,473 --> 01:09:52,751
get rid of it was
to take showers.

1003
01:09:52,775 --> 01:09:55,067
Cold showers.

1004
01:09:57,442 --> 01:09:59,702
And he'd spend like
two hours in the

1005
01:09:59,714 --> 01:10:02,210
shower to wash the
contamination off

1006
01:10:02,234 --> 01:10:03,918
and try to get back to sleep.

1007
01:10:03,942 --> 01:10:06,066
He'd only sleep
again for like an

1008
01:10:06,078 --> 01:10:08,252
hour and then be woken up again.

1009
01:10:08,276 --> 01:10:11,960
He suffered with this
for more than 20 years.

1010
01:10:11,984 --> 01:10:14,109
Every day.

1011
01:10:18,192 --> 01:10:20,912
During the surgery
he experienced

1012
01:10:20,924 --> 01:10:23,817
positive images
from his childhood.

1013
01:10:26,026 --> 01:10:28,418
He described these
wonderful scenes

1014
01:10:28,430 --> 01:10:31,002
from his homeland, very colorful

1015
01:10:31,026 --> 01:10:35,276
and he could smell
fresh bread being cooked.

1016
01:10:39,483 --> 01:10:42,835
He'd say, Oh wow,
that feels good, Dr. Koek.

1017
01:10:42,859 --> 01:10:44,942
Leave it there! Don't change it.

1018
01:10:48,318 --> 01:10:51,343
Four to five months
after initiation

1019
01:10:51,355 --> 01:10:53,918
he stopped having nightmares.

1020
01:10:53,942 --> 01:10:58,751
And he's had a total of
three since then so that's...

1021
01:10:58,775 --> 01:11:00,567
...15 months ago.

1022
01:11:17,567 --> 01:11:21,085
I still take medication, I
still need some medication.

1023
01:11:21,109 --> 01:11:26,168
So, I tried to stop,
but I couldn't.

1024
01:11:26,192 --> 01:11:29,835
Too many things were going on.

1025
01:11:29,859 --> 01:11:32,552
I was angry, I was upset a lot.
I just

1026
01:11:32,564 --> 01:11:35,501
didn't feel right,
so I went back on it.

1027
01:11:35,525 --> 01:11:38,710
So, medication still
makes a difference.

1028
01:11:38,734 --> 01:11:41,019
Chemically something is going on

1029
01:11:41,031 --> 01:11:43,459
in there that needs to tweaked.

1030
01:11:43,483 --> 01:11:48,835
And whatever area of the brain
that's getting electrified

1031
01:11:48,859 --> 01:11:51,400
it's quieted the bad stuff.

1032
01:11:58,525 --> 01:12:01,877
It was literally like
being blind for 54 years

1033
01:12:01,901 --> 01:12:04,543
and somebody turned
the switch on

1034
01:12:04,567 --> 01:12:08,877
and the whole world is
there and you could see it.

1035
01:12:08,901 --> 01:12:12,918
Wow! OK, I've been in
a coma for 54 years

1036
01:12:12,942 --> 01:12:16,775
and I'm awake and there is
some cool stuff out here.

1037
01:12:47,901 --> 01:12:50,960
Heath was always a believer
in his technology

1038
01:12:50,984 --> 01:12:55,877
despite the heavy criticism
from his peers and the public.

1039
01:12:55,901 --> 01:13:00,043
It turned out he was not alone.

1040
01:13:00,067 --> 01:13:05,483
In 1977, The New York
Times drops a bomb.

1041
01:13:06,234 --> 01:13:12,067
The CIA's cold war
MKULTRA program is outed.

1042
01:13:19,525 --> 01:13:22,085
On top of the Vietnam atrocities

1043
01:13:22,109 --> 01:13:24,975
it now looks like
government agencies

1044
01:13:24,987 --> 01:13:27,650
are in the business
of brainwashing.

1045
01:13:42,442 --> 01:13:47,418
In the shadow of Watergate this
is the time for disclosure.

1046
01:13:47,442 --> 01:13:51,234
And thousands of secret
documents surface.

1047
01:13:53,067 --> 01:13:55,294
Heath's name is on them.

1048
01:13:55,318 --> 01:13:58,250
I think he became
totally seduced by

1049
01:13:58,262 --> 01:14:01,626
two very,
very attractive motivations.

1050
01:14:01,650 --> 01:14:04,501
One was a great deal of money

1051
01:14:04,525 --> 01:14:08,418
that the government
offered them to do that work.

1052
01:14:08,442 --> 01:14:14,192
And two, their belief often
that they were being patriots.

1053
01:14:15,483 --> 01:14:19,585
That this was good and
valuable to the country.

1054
01:14:19,609 --> 01:14:23,376
Heath was testing a new
drug, Bulbocapnine

1055
01:14:23,400 --> 01:14:27,375
a drug the Russians
were also testing.

1056
01:14:27,399 --> 01:14:29,388
This was not a drug
that you wanted

1057
01:14:29,400 --> 01:14:31,168
to test on regular patients

1058
01:14:31,192 --> 01:14:34,835
so Heath used inmates
from Angola Prison

1059
01:14:34,859 --> 01:14:38,168
the so-called Alcatraz
of the South.

1060
01:14:38,192 --> 01:14:41,168
He himself called it
a horrendous place.

1061
01:14:41,192 --> 01:14:44,043
- Don't you want to talk to me?
- No.

1062
01:14:44,067 --> 01:14:47,501
- Why won't you talk to me?
- I'm tired.

1063
01:14:47,525 --> 01:14:51,168
Tired of me talking to you?
Or are you angry at me?

1064
01:14:51,192 --> 01:14:55,168
The results were inconclusive.
Then the CIA asked him

1065
01:14:55,192 --> 01:14:59,859
to use his electrodes to do
work on the brain's pain system.

1066
01:15:01,151 --> 01:15:04,375
Inflict pain to patients
for the military?

1067
01:15:04,399 --> 01:15:07,210
This was where he drew the line.

1068
01:15:07,234 --> 01:15:10,877
If I had wanted to be a
spy, I would have been a spy.

1069
01:15:10,901 --> 01:15:12,776
I'm a doctor and I practice

1070
01:15:12,788 --> 01:15:15,585
medicine, he told
The New York Times.

1071
01:15:15,609 --> 01:15:19,501
But it was too late. He had
already fallen from grace.

1072
01:15:19,525 --> 01:15:23,626
Maybe that's the story of
pioneers, real pioneers

1073
01:15:23,650 --> 01:15:27,793
that don't just wanna be smart

1074
01:15:27,817 --> 01:15:33,483
but can walk into territory
that nobody else could or would.

1075
01:15:48,109 --> 01:15:51,793
I think in history, frankly

1076
01:15:51,817 --> 01:15:54,335
there have always been people

1077
01:15:54,359 --> 01:15:59,168
with original, unique ideas

1078
01:15:59,192 --> 01:16:03,085
and then rarely, when it works

1079
01:16:03,109 --> 01:16:05,835
become enormous heroes.

1080
01:16:05,859 --> 01:16:11,501
Those who fail almost
inevitably are seen as monsters.

1081
01:16:11,525 --> 01:16:14,376
They were doing this
for their own egos

1082
01:16:14,400 --> 01:16:20,002
they are monomaniacally
pursuing this direction

1083
01:16:20,026 --> 01:16:23,168
and they should be called
out for what they are.

1084
01:16:23,192 --> 01:16:29,376
These almost sadistic creatures
using patients as guinea pigs.

1085
01:16:29,400 --> 01:16:32,318
I think ultimately that's
what happened to Bob.

1086
01:16:33,775 --> 01:16:37,877
And monomaniacal would probably
be the last word in the world

1087
01:16:37,901 --> 01:16:39,469
that I would ever use to

1088
01:16:39,481 --> 01:16:41,710
describe a person
like Bob Heath.

1089
01:16:41,734 --> 01:16:43,543
The irony is of course

1090
01:16:43,567 --> 01:16:49,234
almost every idea he's had is
going to turn out to be true.

1091
01:16:57,442 --> 01:17:02,543
There is an odd cloud

1092
01:17:02,567 --> 01:17:06,252
that has tainted the legacy

1093
01:17:06,276 --> 01:17:09,736
that resulted from
a few experiments

1094
01:17:09,748 --> 01:17:13,399
and lines of research
that he conducted.

1095
01:17:17,734 --> 01:17:21,793
Family members are concerned
that the negative things

1096
01:17:21,817 --> 01:17:25,197
that have kind
of been allowed to

1097
01:17:25,209 --> 01:17:28,376
be swept under the rug by time

1098
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,173
be brought back out, because

1099
01:17:31,185 --> 01:17:34,376
no objective story of his career

1100
01:17:34,400 --> 01:17:38,710
his research, could leave
those out and be legitimate.

1101
01:17:38,734 --> 01:17:40,960
You've got to include that.

1102
01:17:40,984 --> 01:17:46,085
Because that was the truth.
It actually happened.

1103
01:17:46,109 --> 01:17:50,067
So, as long as they
know the full story...

1104
01:17:56,400 --> 01:18:00,376
Maybe Robert Heath was
too far ahead of his time.

1105
01:18:00,400 --> 01:18:04,252
Culture changes and today our
perspectives on the brain

1106
01:18:04,276 --> 01:18:07,710
are radically different
than 50 years ago.

1107
01:18:07,734 --> 01:18:10,300
What used to be
frightening is now

1108
01:18:10,312 --> 01:18:12,817
for some an exciting
opportunity.

1109
01:18:14,151 --> 01:18:18,501
DARPA, or the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency

1110
01:18:18,525 --> 01:18:20,227
invests in breakthrough

1111
01:18:20,239 --> 01:18:22,877
technologies for
national security.

1112
01:18:22,901 --> 01:18:26,668
The agency that gave us
the Internet and GPS

1113
01:18:26,692 --> 01:18:29,230
has now invested
70 million dollars

1114
01:18:29,242 --> 01:18:31,960
in research of deep
brain stimulation.

1115
01:18:31,984 --> 01:18:35,501
10% of the 22 million
American veterans

1116
01:18:35,525 --> 01:18:37,655
that fraction, live with

1117
01:18:37,667 --> 01:18:40,751
neuropsychiatric
kinds of conditions.

1118
01:18:40,775 --> 01:18:42,841
So we asked the
question, is there

1119
01:18:42,853 --> 01:18:44,751
something we can do about this?

1120
01:18:44,775 --> 01:18:48,751
Can we develop new knowledge
and new technology

1121
01:18:48,775 --> 01:18:54,234
in order to solve this problem
of neuropsychiatric illness?

1122
01:18:56,775 --> 01:19:01,668
Treatment also opens up to the
possibility of enhancement.

1123
01:19:01,692 --> 01:19:06,067
Treating memory disorders
is one of DARPA's ambitions.

1124
01:19:07,859 --> 01:19:09,786
In Philadelphia Michael Kahana's

1125
01:19:09,798 --> 01:19:11,960
group is working with patients

1126
01:19:11,984 --> 01:19:14,654
to gather data trying to

1127
01:19:14,666 --> 01:19:18,375
understand how
memory is created.

1128
01:19:18,399 --> 01:19:23,192
To them, memory is the key
to understanding the brain.

1129
01:19:24,276 --> 01:19:28,002
Memories are what
make us who we are.

1130
01:19:28,026 --> 01:19:32,121
They are everything for us.
Our knowledge,

1131
01:19:32,133 --> 01:19:35,026
our experience, our identity.

1132
01:19:38,067 --> 01:19:42,376
My grandmother became kind
of my nanny as a child

1133
01:19:42,400 --> 01:19:44,398
and she had some profound life

1134
01:19:44,410 --> 01:19:46,585
experiences for example in WW2.

1135
01:19:46,609 --> 01:19:48,752
She never talked about them, she

1136
01:19:48,764 --> 01:19:50,835
never said anything about them.

1137
01:19:50,859 --> 01:19:52,994
I never heard about them.
But they

1138
01:19:53,006 --> 01:19:55,459
determined how she
reacted to things

1139
01:19:55,483 --> 01:19:59,329
then I find,
with my children here, how

1140
01:19:59,341 --> 01:20:03,043
many years later,
half a century later

1141
01:20:03,067 --> 01:20:05,360
that I'm reacting
to them in ways that

1142
01:20:05,372 --> 01:20:07,835
my wife or other people
may find strange.

1143
01:20:07,859 --> 01:20:09,886
Why am I reacting that way?
Because

1144
01:20:09,898 --> 01:20:11,585
of something in her memory.

1145
01:20:11,609 --> 01:20:13,580
And I don't even
know what it is,

1146
01:20:13,592 --> 01:20:15,960
right? It's just
carried through time.

1147
01:20:15,984 --> 01:20:21,585
I actually believe that we carry
around vastly more memories

1148
01:20:21,609 --> 01:20:23,798
detailed memories
of our past, than

1149
01:20:23,810 --> 01:20:26,002
we have an access
to at any one time.

1150
01:20:26,026 --> 01:20:29,418
Sieg Heil.

1151
01:20:29,442 --> 01:20:33,127
It's one small step for man.

1152
01:20:33,151 --> 01:20:36,002
Any second now
the Berlin Wall...

1153
01:20:36,026 --> 01:20:38,583
Some day people will
consider elective

1154
01:20:38,595 --> 01:20:40,901
restoration of
their own thoughts.

1155
01:20:44,442 --> 01:20:46,937
I know people will
find that scary, but

1156
01:20:46,949 --> 01:20:49,375
that's for other
people to figure out.

1157
01:20:49,399 --> 01:20:52,710
Today with my devices, I'm
recording my life in a way

1158
01:20:52,734 --> 01:20:55,241
because I'll just
have somebody infuse

1159
01:20:55,253 --> 01:20:57,751
it back through a
chip into my brain

1160
01:20:57,775 --> 01:21:01,002
when I can't have
those memories myself.

1161
01:21:01,026 --> 01:21:04,514
All technologies
across the board

1162
01:21:04,526 --> 01:21:08,127
can be used in a
variety of ways.

1163
01:21:08,151 --> 01:21:11,877
They could either be used
for good or be used for ill.

1164
01:21:11,901 --> 01:21:16,877
And that's a fundamental
property of technology.

1165
01:21:16,901 --> 01:21:20,002
In an age when both
sides have come to possess

1166
01:21:20,026 --> 01:21:22,679
enough nuclear
power to destroy the

1167
01:21:22,691 --> 01:21:25,252
human race several times over...

1168
01:21:25,276 --> 01:21:28,571
In order to stay
ahead of understanding

1169
01:21:28,583 --> 01:21:30,751
that technology deeply

1170
01:21:30,775 --> 01:21:32,722
we have to see all of the angles

1171
01:21:32,734 --> 01:21:34,626
and ask all of those questions.

1172
01:21:34,650 --> 01:21:39,442
We've got to understand the
technology in a very deep way.

1173
01:21:47,734 --> 01:21:51,751
You get better at it. And the
risk gets lower and lower

1174
01:21:51,775 --> 01:21:54,543
and a predicted benefit
gets higher and higher

1175
01:21:54,567 --> 01:21:57,668
and then the calculation
starts to blur.

1176
01:21:57,692 --> 01:22:00,187
Plastic surgery didn't arrive on

1177
01:22:00,199 --> 01:22:03,043
the scene as an
esthetic surgery.

1178
01:22:03,067 --> 01:22:04,951
I don't mean to
disappoint anyone.

1179
01:22:04,963 --> 01:22:06,960
It came because people had burns

1180
01:22:06,984 --> 01:22:08,787
and people needed
reconstructions

1181
01:22:08,799 --> 01:22:10,210
and people had accidents.

1182
01:22:10,234 --> 01:22:14,668
And then maybe it's OK to do
an operation to make someone

1183
01:22:14,692 --> 01:22:19,418
who has a normal
nose, have a pretty nose.

1184
01:22:19,442 --> 01:22:22,793
And at some point we're
going to do operations

1185
01:22:22,817 --> 01:22:25,005
to take people
who are essentially

1186
01:22:25,017 --> 01:22:27,375
normal and make them
function better.

1187
01:22:27,399 --> 01:22:30,376
Make their brains work better.

1188
01:22:30,400 --> 01:22:32,739
It's not a question
of if we're going

1189
01:22:32,751 --> 01:22:35,043
to do that,
but when that happens.

1190
01:22:35,067 --> 01:22:36,660
It's not going to
be about putting

1191
01:22:36,672 --> 01:22:38,375
wires in people
and changing them.

1192
01:22:38,399 --> 01:22:41,210
It will be a subsection
that will develop

1193
01:22:41,234 --> 01:22:44,459
and I'm not even going
to call them out by name.

1194
01:22:44,483 --> 01:22:47,600
It will be AI,
because that technology

1195
01:22:47,612 --> 01:22:49,901
is way beyond what we can do.

1196
01:22:59,775 --> 01:23:04,793
Is the brain more than just
a high-powered computer?

1197
01:23:04,817 --> 01:23:08,918
If a computer did simulate a
whole lifetime of experience

1198
01:23:08,942 --> 01:23:10,516
would we discover that the

1199
01:23:10,528 --> 01:23:12,668
computations that the brain does

1200
01:23:12,692 --> 01:23:15,877
are just not
possible for computers?

1201
01:23:15,901 --> 01:23:18,474
Or maybe we would
discover that it's easy.

1202
01:23:18,486 --> 01:23:20,751
I don't know.
It's a great mystery.

1203
01:23:20,775 --> 01:23:25,960
Today, when I hear a lot
people talking about AI alone

1204
01:23:25,984 --> 01:23:30,168
I think they're missing a
bigger part of the story here.

1205
01:23:30,192 --> 01:23:35,252
We're exploring how brains and
machines work together, right?

1206
01:23:35,276 --> 01:23:37,148
I think the dynamic
between humans

1207
01:23:37,160 --> 01:23:39,252
and machines is
ultimately changing.

1208
01:23:39,276 --> 01:23:43,376
It will certainly change human
behavior in fundamental ways.

1209
01:23:43,400 --> 01:23:46,020
Limbic circuits are
the most powerful

1210
01:23:46,032 --> 01:23:48,626
circuits that
control our behavior.

1211
01:23:48,650 --> 01:23:51,454
And if we take
someone who is doing

1212
01:23:51,466 --> 01:23:53,835
this in a normal way

1213
01:23:53,859 --> 01:23:56,710
and we turn him into
someone who is up here

1214
01:23:56,734 --> 01:24:00,901
their fundamental
behavior is going to change.

1215
01:24:01,942 --> 01:24:05,650
And we would have to adjust
to a whole new normal.

1216
01:24:15,984 --> 01:24:18,271
The commercial interest
is maybe at the

1217
01:24:18,283 --> 01:24:20,626
top of the list of
what I worry about.

1218
01:24:20,650 --> 01:24:22,716
And if it's not done
in an ethical way

1219
01:24:22,728 --> 01:24:24,960
and the steps aren't
taken correctly...

1220
01:24:24,984 --> 01:24:27,587
If somebody jumps the
gun, it can ruin

1221
01:24:27,599 --> 01:24:30,252
it for everybody else
that comes after.

1222
01:24:30,276 --> 01:24:35,375
The ethics become important.

1223
01:24:35,399 --> 01:24:40,585
When is it OK to do that? Who
should have an access to that?

1224
01:24:40,609 --> 01:24:44,376
Should it be wealthy people?

1225
01:24:44,400 --> 01:24:46,946
We have to make the
decisions right, keep

1226
01:24:46,958 --> 01:24:49,501
the train on the tracks
and move forward.

1227
01:24:49,525 --> 01:24:51,083
And we can be more than

1228
01:24:51,095 --> 01:24:53,585
incrementally a
step at the time.

1229
01:24:53,609 --> 01:24:55,835
We can take some leaps

1230
01:24:55,859 --> 01:24:57,817
but if we're just
going to capture

1231
01:24:57,829 --> 01:24:59,793
that multi-billion dollar market

1232
01:24:59,817 --> 01:25:01,496
I think we have already seen,

1233
01:25:01,508 --> 01:25:02,901
we could destroy ourselves.

1234
01:25:04,901 --> 01:25:07,828
We have entered a
new landscape with

1235
01:25:07,840 --> 01:25:10,859
great promises and
tempting horizons.

1236
01:25:12,109 --> 01:25:16,276
But we're also in
unknown territory.

1237
01:25:17,109 --> 01:25:19,543
The trail to discovery is open

1238
01:25:19,567 --> 01:25:21,874
and scientists with pioneering

1239
01:25:21,886 --> 01:25:24,567
minds are blazing
it at high speed.

1240
01:25:27,318 --> 01:25:31,026
How do we steer our
course into the future?

1241
01:25:32,483 --> 01:25:37,234
What will we find on our
journey into the brain?

1242
01:25:38,692 --> 01:25:43,067
And are we ready for
whatever that might be?