discovered i. subscribe to the documentary. the human brain is thought to be the most complex organ in the natural world and it has over 85000000000 neurons. and a newborn baby actually has an even higher number. throughout and early childhood and the brain continues to develop as does the memory. to even the most powerful computers can't match the human brain in many respects but computers are being taught to read brain activity allowing human beings to control them merely

with the power of thought. well come to you tomorrow today with an exploration of the human brain and the world of thought. our brains are constantly working take fish and for example we see football a shot to the right. the ball is our range. our eyes take in what we see that information is passed by the optic nerve to other parts of the brain in the form of electrical signal. these signals can pass through the brain's neurons at a speed of up to 120 meters a 2nd. at the connection linking one iran to another the signal has to bridge a tiny gap known as the synoptic left before continuing on. there is no one central location. in the brain or

a thought is developed we think by an entire network of neurons distributed across the brain. so detecting a single thought isn't easy but computers are learning to do just that. getting ready to play a very special computer game one that doesn't require the use of your hands a game that soley powered by you saw. there 1st so it's really interesting to try this out for myself and when i think that in 5 or 10 years time we could be turning the album of the lights on and off at home like this it's pretty amazing stuff not to respond is this the future we've come to the sensory motor system to slap a e.t.h. institute in syria switzerland scientists here are studying how humans and machines can interact the video games are connected to the monitor via

a headset that can read their brains an electrical signals to those on this device consists of an electrode which is a conductor that can detect changes in frequency very well if we think about wanting to carry out of particular movement that triggers electrical activity in the brain just small differences in frequency that can be measured by this electrode. right now the electrode can only detect 2 commands concentration which causes the characters to speed up and relaxation which slows them down the players have to respond deliberately. when i want to concentrate i try to solve mathematics problems in my mind. alphabet in reverse to relax i'll close my eyes for a moment and try to just brief deeply sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. technology is still quite basic but the game shows what's already possible in the realm of brain computer interfaces perhaps we'll soon be able to control our electrical

devices at home with our minds. cleena has a different goal for years he's been exploring how humans and machines can interact for medical purposes. for example if people with paraplegia could control this robotic exoskeleton with their thoughts they could once again become mobile. but the technology is still in its early stages these emergency its release would have to be very reliable and safe see exoskeleton must stop for example when the patient wants it to as yet it's still difficult to achieve that reliability to become a major global players such as facebook envision a huge market for this technology and a pumping billions into its development why if you could type directly from your brain. instead of typing you could just sync your messages directly into your smartphone facebook wants to make this future vision a reality in just

a few years. a kind of brain controlled typewriter already exists researches at stanford university have developed a system whereby people can think letters into a computer this enables locked in paralyzed patients to communicate with the outside world. and eat all you need to do is a mandarin moving your right arm for example to the water. on a keyboard and all slide out to the teeth and in addition to that we're also able to detect when you wish to so what about what are you patients can type up to 40 letters and minutes but in order to use the technology they have to have an electrode implanted into their brain. they also need an alphabet table to choose the letters with their eyes and. this system would not be useful as an everyday

tool for people without such disabilities from your brain. and there's a new. the major problem that stands in the way of widespread. one think that on people constantly think of other things they get distracted and you might also be driving a car at that moment or walking through these processes overlap in the brain without making it almost impossible to pull a text message out of your mind as things stand right now and also to. scientists from the university of freiburg researching how to separate the various processes going on in the brain tonio balland philip k. my i use e.g. waves to make these processes visible this shows the difference between moments of high concentration and chaotic everyday situations. here here you can see these classic e.g. alpha waves they appear when our test subject just closes his eyes so now i'll

shake your head a bit my business. then be strong waves appear. you know not spend it's a hindrance if we want to get to the actual information that the brain is thinking because this disruption distorts the whole thing and for months you went on. to filter the correct thoughts from the chaos they use a deep learning process in which the computer recognises brain activity on the basis of e.g. wave patterns that it is all ready. to teach the system these patterns test subjects are asked to repeatedly make a movement in this case raising the right tom the computer now learns that the brain wave pattern created represents the desire to move one's right arm regardless of who the end user is. the scientists have taught this robot how to recognize a specific commands. using only his thoughts the test subject asks the

robot to fetch him a drink. the robot recognizes the specific brain wave pattern and carries out the task. for. a reason to celebrate or perhaps about the scientists are also concerned about the potential implications of their work because it can only function if machines are taught to read neural activity data and this is very risky after all what might happen if corporations like facebook had access to the brain activity data of millions of people. when it comes of huge amounts of brain activity data were stored in one location for the benefit of learning processes it might be that more very relevant information could be gleaned for example of group level one from you could distinguish between gender or ethnic background all things that we don't know

at the moment but it would make sense to think about how to effectively protect this data before simply handing it over and consider whether such systems should even be given to consumers in. the past to brain control devices has already been paved even if they exist mainly in research and development at the moment facebook as well as other companies are in the starting blocks in the race to conquer afterthoughts with their technology. in. the human brain is likely to remain a source of fascination many of its inner workings are still a mystery but scientists have been able to debunk some of the myths surrounding the brain. one involves. a dios mozart who lived from 17. 562-7918 study from the 1990 s. claim that listening to his music could make you smile especially his analysis for

2 pianos in team a chance. at gannett huge public interest and became known as the mozart effect but the results of the study could never be reproduced the mozart effect is a myth. still music that we enjoy can stimulate the brain and have a positive effect on us. one of the was in the rock asked about another commonly held misconception concerning the brain. do people really only use 10 percent of their brain. then surely telep a theory or telekinesis would be no problem if people could finally access 100 percent of their brain power. like lucy in the film of the same name. while the rest of us bumble along at a pivoting 10 percent. but that's a myth that is more hollywood the reality. using only 10 percent of the organ that

consumes the most energy would be a huge evolutionary disadvantage. even asleep we use far more than a 10th of our brain. no one knows exactly where the persistent 10 percent myth comes from it's been misattributed to many people including albert einstein at my heart back to a misunderstanding of a theory posited by psychologist william james and the student boris cedars. the cedar sun was a child prodigy. at 18 months reportedly could read a newspaper. later it was claimed that he had an i.q. of 254000000 james then said in a lecture people only meet a fraction of the full mental potential. but he said not. thing about 10 percent or part of the brain remaining unused. pop culture has also helped to perpetuate the

myth. of course some areas of the brain may be more active than others but none are completely idle if they can't receive stimuli they'll find another job to do. for example in blind people the visual centers of the brain can adapt to help process or tree signals. but brain cells tend to atrophy if their own news. quite apart from conscious decision making the brain has plenty to do filtering impressions regulating breathing controlling reflexes hunger and thirst and much more besides. the fact is only people who suffer real brain damage can no longer use certain parts of their brain. the rest of us can access all of those billions of brain cells. the brain of

a newborn baby possesses many more new runs than that of an adult while in the womb the brain grows at an average rate of $250000.00 neurons per minute. but it's still not fully did that the brain initially develops many more semesters than it actually means it was hard to comprehend the world and to remember. babies are curious and attentive ringback but can they watch somebody do something remember it and then do it themselves that is imitate a simple action. 6 months old and she's observing closely. you can pull off the toys here and shake it like a rattle. after a brief pause it's layers turn she's clearly noted the trick with the ear. that

shows she's developed some memory for a sequence of events. but that's only one of many stages in the development of memory. psychologists at frankfurt university tested $1000.00 children extensively over a period of 5 years. they wanted to find out what stages children go through until they develop the ability to remember events from their own past and then go on to have an autobiographical memory. the ability to recognize oneself is a prelude to being able to remember things from one's past can recognise herself yet . the task is to wipe away the mark on her face with the help of america system that is it a mark. why don't. mark touches her face she recognised herself in the mirror not all children can do that at one and a half. benjamin tries to wipe the mark off the mirror instead.

pant cut i think now finds the image in the mirror up setting. look wipe it away you'll yes it's a bit older. than mark away keep it on you'll use recognizes himself in the mirror but he's still got a way to go to develop an autobiographical memory. is all to be. biographical memory is the queen of disciplines within memory and it requires many different components which children don't have when they 1st arrive on the planet. the ability to remember past events is one of those components you leave us recognises himself in the mirror and on screen what's that up there. it's a bit of red tape there where is it. can't you lose connect the past situation he

sees in the video to the present that would be sensational as you would your sister rather young about now when for what to do what do you see the red thing is kind what is it you can you give it to me. when you take it off the video off grab a fan and listen to the earth doesn't just require him to recognize who's there on the screen the strip of paper was attached to his head a few minutes earlier he also has to understand i existed a few minutes ago and i remember that happening so the paper might still be there only then can you look for it on his own head. by the time therefore most children can complete this task with that they're already much closer to having a full autobiographical memory. remembering an experience is the next stage. tony a sex scene from 2 years earlier. do we still have this

straight yeah. we took those cars and drove them along the street right now because the situation he also talks about other adventures without any video prompt knows that was there was this i said to light but didn't get away in time and it went off. tony had to work hard to reach this stage and lest we forget here's the video to prove it. times how good is your memory what did you wear to that party one month ago a red dress or was it the blue one. what did you eat something healthy. or fast food. are you sure maybe you got it wrong. did you have an argument with your friend. well one thing

is clear on them rings are not always as reliable as we'd life. we all have minor lapses of memory from time to time we find ourselves thinking i could have sworn i put the keys on that shelf. after an anxious search we eventually find them. on the desk. or minds play games on us and london based forensic psychologist julie assured says it happens far more often than we realise. i like to compare memory to a we could be a pain inch you can alter it but so can others and i like the analogy because it describes how flexible our memories are and how they can undergo massive changes in everyday life as well as an extreme situation and explains at what cost of an uncle . in experiments sure has brought 70 percent of participants over the course of 3

interviews to have memories of a crime they never committed. and they remember it in all its complexity as if it really happened at its highest you know give details emotional details where you think that can't possibly be a phone's memory and it sounds as if this person really did it. mattered self declared perpetrators and victims can turn out to be nothing of the sort it happens time and again. in germany in 2004 a man admitted to chopping up his fiance's father and feeding him to dogs he said the victim's family helped him carry out the gruesome deed. but 5 years later the police found the man's car in the danube river and inside they found the corpse of the allegedly butchered would be father in law all in one piece. the

year after my name and the fact the more you question someone the more their memories can change and that is important for police investigation methods. as merely it means that we have to take into account that repeated interrogate. can lead to a suspect adding misinformation to their memories misrepresenting things in a very major way. in australia or in 1975 a woman was raped and then gave investigators a very detailed description of her attacker he was soon found and arrested but he had a water tight alibi he was doing a live interview at the time of the rape so if he could not possibly be the rapist why was the woman so sure he was seen on t.v. with that of the rapist. mentioned. people who were involved in the criminal justice system like police officers and lawyers often say that they would

recognise a false confession or a false memory when they encountered one once. but that's not true these situations are incredibly difficult to understand for everybody so we can see if someone is lying and we can't see if someone has a false memory that that led to a nightmarish situation for a man in the united states in the 1990 s. while undergoing psychotherapy his adult daughter suddenly came to believe that she had been sexually abused by him for many years she said that had resulted in 2 pregnancies and she had tapped to abort the foetuses with a wire coathanger. but then it emerged that the woman had never been pregnant much less had any abortions she was in fact still a virgin. juliet schor also consults as an expert on criminal

cases and provides training to the police. her primary aim is to teach investigators to avoid suggestive questions that can elicit false memories. shore says it can happen very fast. as one can get. if you think the person you are talking to you know small and even knows more about you and your life than you do then you can soon start thinking yes what if that is what happened on the what if can quickly turn into a. perhaps consume become a yes that is what happened. false memories can lead to false statements and to terrible miscarriages of justice. incidentally studies show that we're much more likely to notice negative things then positive ones that make sense from an evolutionary point of view allowing us to recognize problems and dangers and to resolve them but it can also prevent us from shrugging off things

that aren't important. however we can retrain ourselves for example by taking time to remember the good things that we are happy about. many things are known to have a very good memory and those social animals like most primates including humans then there are social predators that hunt in packs studies suggest the brain can reveal how sociable and lives dolphins for example have been shown to be extremely social animals but other species also appear to be more selfless than we realized. it's well known that parents are pretty small birds but i think also helpful to each other. is an african gray and lives in laurel park zoo on 10 a river in the community islands she and her friends have been helping the marks bronx institute for ornithology with an experiment about social intelligence and

cooperative ness. the parents quickly learn that they can exchange a token for food. but in this experiment bella has a problem she can't swap her tokens for a treat because the window is closed instead she hands them over to her friend kimmy kimmie then swaps the tokens for food through her window bella gets nothing this generosity without any immediate favor in return surprised even the researchers because until now such behavior had only been observed among some green apes and humans. in the 2nd experiment the parents are given a choice. a blue token means only one of them gets a treat a white token earns them both a snack they soon work it out and choose white which benefits both birds even

though the other one has done nothing to earn or treat him. parents are evidently helpful and not envious. the researchers think this has to do with parents live longer now the way. they prefer solidarity to selfishness. if help what is right why are great but even if you have. to have a size question that you've always wanted on fit we're happy to help out send it to us as a video text ovoid smell if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you can all just ask. and for most stories about the world of science visit us on our website on twitter and facebook. that's all for this edition of tomorrow today join us again next time for more

fascinating stories from science and technology tell better stay healthy and stay curious.

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early. hours of the morning. the pros will or the loser. in those all. solo's swollen we're. using low verbs loosely. is no use known lolo for the good. work using the murder. of her parents. couldn't sleep. her killers.

play. this estate over the news live from berlin meon mas military steps up the pressure but protesters are on to target pro-democracy activists are defiant to me and signs that a crackdown could be imminent the army since vehicles to patrol the streets and cuts internet across the country also coming up shining a light on russia's political crackdown flashlight protests are held across the country to show support for interests of intellects saying of almaine and also says being in cresent embracing classy way bought and.