You as far as you want to go into understanding the science of why this is important and why you can make the changes. Nd as michael says, why you have the power tohange your Brain Fitness for the better. Once again, im going to sayri fa part, and its worth are the price of admission, if this was all we wereivingyou, this whole package would be worth it, although i think youre going to love michaels book, because it gives you an insight into how onemans passion to learn how to take advantage of this emerging idea when he was a youngscientist, of brain plasticity, has turned into lifesaving tools for all ofus whoant to be healthy and engaged in the world. But i love that everyone who comes in at this level will go to your website, sign up, start taking some tests, see where you right. And then from the very first game that you play, whether you pick one of the visualne games f the auditory games, or the memory gameon youre be challenged. And thats the amazing thing. You understood that the brain likes challenge. So somehow, ratherly brillia youve built it in, and its personalized to my speed, my limits. Its always it selfadjusts to a level in which you always succeed, but never flawlessly. Because if youee sud flawlessly, it wouldnt matter to your brain, and nothing would change. So if you do anything and its easy, you can do it unthinkingly, its worthless for your brain for driving positive change. But its serious for your brain, if it matters to your brain, it youre challenged. People say, well, this is too hard. And i make mistakes. Is n, making mistakes is a good thing. You dont want to make too miny akes, you want to really try, but and you will get most of the answers right in what you do. But it has to be challengin basically you need that sweet spot in which its note too y, but you can still make progress. I love that. Can i just chime in here, michael . Sure prc. Because we have a challenge right here, that challenge is to get you over to thehone and help us earn this extra 1,000 thanks to is anonymous member of kqeds Leadership Circle. They are challenging us, they will double your gift of suppord e will send you all the elements in this package if you an get on board right now. Just take a look at this. Pbs isere you can find the latest science and information that youan use, and its all made possible because of your ongoing financial support. Become a sustainer at 6 a month or make an annual contribution at 72,nd well thank you with a dvd of the program brain secrets with dr. Michael meenich. All the secretsand insight, plus additional content that you cant get anywhere else. Or unlock your brain secrets by becoming a sustainer at 15 a month or make anannual contribution of 180, and well thank you with the breakthroughs in Brain Science collection. This integrated and complete collection includes the program dvd, as well as six other groundbreaking programs featuring dr. Merzenich and scientists from arnd the world. This sevendvd collection features all the pbs programs that revealed the incrediblev ution in neuroscience for the first time. The breakthroughs in Brain Science collection also includes the book softwired by dr. Michael merzenich, with new insights and research about the bra, as well asractical advice on how you can use the science to improve your brain. And to makera incorng brain secrets into your life as easy as possible, youll also receive a oneyear subscription to brain hq, the online Brain Training course that youll really enjoy. Play games that sharpen your brain every day, and get results. The tools in this deluxe package can improve focus, super charge memory, and help tomb cognitive decline before it happens. Get into your 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond with incredible brain health. Dont miss this uniquep tunity. The breakthroughs in Brain Science collection is not available anywhere else except on this pbs station r supporteke you. Make your contribution righ now and keep lifechanging and trusted science programming coming your way for years to come. And thank you. Thank you indeed. And ill tell you, were thanking you right now for making that gifof support if u can come in and help us earn this extra money from this anonymous member of kqed Leadership Circle, we will thank you again for that, but youll behanking us. I can tell you, once you get into that website and Start Playing these games, youre going to havef a number challenges, some of them are going to be a little frustrating, but theres something about it really does engage you. Its not like sitting back andi lo at a magazine or even doing a crossword puzzle. Theres about it, michael. Ve and one of the things you said in the documentary which kinda blue blew my mind is that acts of generosity are good for your brain health. Isnt that a nice idea . I love that idea. Mother nature was a pretty smart dame. I guess. You excise your ain, the critical machinery of your brain supports change. Its the same machinery that basically contributes to the reward you feel when you are generous. Its the same reward that you receive when you receive a gift or when youre rewarded in y behavior. But theres a difference. And the difference is, its under your control. Right. You dont have to wait until somebody gives you something, you can go out and be generous. Both in working in exercising, activities in which you are taking on new skills and challenges, and you selfreward because you know youre getting better. Or delivering the same exercise to your brain basically by spreading the joy. Right, you know . And one of the ways to spread the joy f gosh sakes is to contribute to your local pbs do,ion, which my wife and i and in fact, i know its good for me. Ts good fornow you. And youre a local hero here, having worked at ucsf f years. Absolutely. And your business that does tstanding research and has created the brain hq environment for us that wa to learn to make our brains more vibrant, happening right here in San Francisco. It is. And the work that you guys were doing and continue to do is really, youre continuing to find different ways to help peoe, whether struggling with severe issue of brain problems or challenges. But just for us, whether younre or old, and i think thats an important thing. Right. You dot have to be 87 and desperately trying to get something back. You can be any age and youre going to enjoy this and take benefit. Thats absolutely right. And people should be thinking about taking charge of their brain health, you could say, this is lifelong enterprise, but you should absolutely be thinking out it as a young adult. You reach your peak in your brainerformance and your physical brain in the average modern lif in your 20s or 30s. And then you go down very reliably, youould say in the general scheme of things, but you dont have town go you do not have to go down the slope. The changes are substantial. Over a 30year period from your 30th birthday to your 60th ou birthday,e moved a Long Distance across the normal distribution in your performance. W, think about it. Youre on your job, in your life, youre trying to n interesting person, trying to gather information that contribute to your growing understanding of things, youre trying to grow yourself, youre trying to increase the number of things thatu good at. Well, you can do that. You do not have to go down that slope. Which is all about going backward. Its all about being poorer about receiving and recording information. Do not do that. You can choose not to do that. Thats the message you are designed to be continuously plastic. A you are in charge. And this is something, you can say, why didnt we always understand this . But we do now understand this. Right. This is now a based upon a wonderful and really massive body of science. We now know this about ourselves. And what i think is important for people to unaurstand, be you, being one of the first scientists to explore the reality of brain plasticity, because obviously you grew up in a, wor grew up in a world where the brain as you were pointing out in the documentary and your book, everybody thought it was edhardw it was hardware, and you could never fix it. Ac y. That opened up such a wonderful opportunity. Dond what youve in the decade since that discovery was validated is develop technologies that go, hey, if itsplastic, iet you we can fix this. I bet you we can make you not go down that slippery slope, you st can fight agat. The creator of the universe, or mother noture, was so dumb as to give us a computer in your head. Its not as computer, i not hardwired, its not fixed. Its something moremarvelous. Its actually changing itself in a life quad rilions of moments of change, whichre changing its fundamental wiring. What that does, it differentiates us. It basically creates a unique machine, because every life life passage follows a different path. We have dfferent experiences. We acquire different skills and abilities. We acquire dferent bodies of information. Ndpefully a lot are watching pbs. Hat it does, it differentiates us, it mak each unique, something unique to us inside our skull. And we can grow it and shape it and make it better and stronger continually. What a gift. Its a tremend. S gift we ha you mention that at the end of the documentary and at the end of the book. D really think after youve read the book and looked at the documentary as i have a cole of times, you just get so filled with the excitement, and the sense of possibility. Right. So right i now, hoping youre getting that same sense of possibility, that same sense of optimism, the same sense of being able to share this with friends and family and people you love. Let them know ey dontave to just go down the slippery slope thats been defined by tradition. Science has demonstrated you can do bigger and bett and more wonderful things with your life and engage your brain in a reallyci eing way. And right now, id like you to take a look at the package we are offering y at that 15 a month level. Because i think its a tool that can help make all those changes happen for you. Take a look. Bs is where you can find the latest science and information that you can use. And its all made possible because of your ongoing financial support. Become a sustainer at 6 a month or make an annual contribution at , and well thank you with a dvd of the program brain secrets with dr. Michael merzenich. All the secrets and insights, plus adtional content that you cant get anywhere else. Or unlockra your secrets by becoming a sustainer at 15 a month, or make an annual contribution of 180, and well thank you with the breakthroughs in Brain Science collection. This integrated and complete collection includes the program dvd, as well as six other groundbreaking programs,ng fea dr. Merzenich and scientists fromheround world. The sevendvdollection features all of the pbs programs that rreealed the ible revolution in neuroscience for the first time. The breakthroughs in Brain Science collection also includes the book softwired by dr. Michael merzenich. With new insights and research about t brain, as well as practical advice on how you can use the science to improve your brain. And to makeai incorporating b secrets into your life as easy as possible, youll also reive a oneyear subscription to brain hq, the online Brain Training course that youll really enjoy. Play games that sharpen your brain every da and get results. The tools in this deluxe package can improve focus, super charge memory, and help to combat cognitive decline before it geo your 70s, 80s, 90s, and ihappens. Beyond, with incredible brain health. Dont miss this unique opportunity. The breakthroug in Brain Science collection is not available anywhere else except onthis pbs station for supporters like you. Make your contributionw right and keep lifechanging and trusted science programming coming your way for years to come. And thank you. Yes, thank you for your gift of support. Le at whateverl you choose to make it, if you can afford it, we really appreciate it. But i hope y can come in at that 15 a month level, becausen the tools the package that was just outlined arely re an extraordinary way to enhance your life atwhatever stage of life you are in. And you know what i love about the whole thing, what i love about talking to you,michael, because youve lived your whole life with these brilliant people like yourself, thinking about this, you just dont take fatalism. You dont fall into that groove that i think we all life gives you ai permi to, im n, i dont have to do thanksgiving i this anymore, i dont have the chops for that. Youre saying, no, no, no. And people gradually become more constrained and stereotyped in theirvi be because theyre basically not continuing to enrich and elaborate. Theyre trying to simplify things, theyre doing it deliberate three, can y deliberately, that . U believe deliberately elaborate your life, deliberately acquire new ability, take on new challenge live life again as if it matters. Grow your vitality. Change things if you dont like them. Work on new abiliti thatan change your repertoire of things. Make yourself more interesting. Yes. I mean, there are also kinds of ways thatan you both give yourself a happy and morein fulfilife and advantage your health. And thats the wonderful thing about it. Because our brain is plastic, baseball it enables all of this. And the same way that even if youre in, as i am, a 67yearold body, if i choose to lose ten pounds and build up more upper body strength, can that. Yeah, i can really do that. But thers a path. Of course. If i choose that path, i can do it. And what youre arguing and i think is more novel and harder for people to understand because if theyre your or my age, we didnt grow up in a world where people were offering up this opportunity. We tnk if we have good one, we have a good one. Because we stillperate functionally, we havent really lost it. We think were fine. Well, we are fine from the point of view of being able to feed ourselves and tie our shoes, but if we look at the performance ability of the brain,it might be far poorer. So if you go to brain hq, go to the progress and you calibrate yourself, say, how am i doing in relation to other people of mye you say, im doing just as well as any other 70yearold. Well, let me tell you, you better get to work. Ctecause yoully want to be performing like the average 30 or 40yearold. Rifht. And you are, that means that your brain is operating as if its substantially younger. That means that it should be substantlly more resilient to what otherwise could be foggy in life. Why wouldnt you want to be operating more like a 30 or 40yearold . Im with yo but right now, i want you to operate with some enthusiamnd g on over to the phone. Were getting down to the left few minutes of our ti with dr. Michael merzenich. And its the last couple of minutes ive got ur attention, d the last couple of minutes i have, i hope, to challenge you to make this gift of support to kqed and get these marvelous tools coming you way. I want you to take one more look at all the oingsng your way for the 15 investment in publicdc brting. Take a look. Pbs is where you can find the latest science and information at you can use. And itspo all madssible because of your ongoing financial support. Become a sustainer at 6 a month or make an annual contribution at 72 and well thank you with a dvd of the program brain secrets with dr. Michael merzenich. All the secrets and insight, plus additional content that you cant get anywhere else. Or unlock your brain secrets by becoming a sustainer at 15 a nth or make an annual contribution of 180, and well thank you with the breakthroughs in Brain Science collection. Thisntegrated andomplete collection includes the program dvd, as well as six other groundbreaking programs, featuring dr. Ze mernich and scientists from around the world. The sevendvd collection rogramss all of the pbs that revealed the incredible revolution in neuroscience forr the f time. The breakthroughs in Brain Science collection also includes e book softwired by dr. Michael merzenich. With newts insig and research about the brain. As well as practical advice on how you can use the science to improve your brain. And to make incorporating brain as easyinto your life as possible. Bull also receive a oneyear subscription tain hq, the online Brain Training course thatoull really enjoy. Play games that sharpen your brain every day, and get results. The tools in this deluxe package can improve focus, super charge memory and help to combat cognitive decline before it happens. Get into your 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond with incredibleain health. Dont miss this unique opportunity. The breakthroughs in brain reience collection is not available anywelse, except on this pbs station for supporters lke you. Make your contribution right now and keep lifechangin and trusted science programming coming your way for years to come and thank you. It is a really incredible package. So ch science is packed in to the tools that youre going to have here. It really is. It really is a brilliant opportunity for you to do something generous and nice for your favorite publicon televi station and to do something absolutely brilliant for yourself. And its amazing tomi me, ael, that you get a chance to do this, that you had the vision to see, once you saw that the brain was indeed plastic and not this hardwired computer, that you saw opportunities to help children become better students, to he old people stay young and vital, people with otherbr n difficulties, to find ways to work around using t plasticity of their brain. It must have been an exciting way to spendee t or four decades, and youre still doing it. Ive always thought that the public paid me basically to operate as auniversitybased researcher and im a Public Servant and really to me, its about delivering help to people in need. And the world is full of people in need. One of the things thatee everyo is to understand that they can be better, safer and healthera g althier, if they Pay Attention to whats happenstairs. And for this children and adults, people of all ages. I keep saying his, and i know its redundant, but i thinc the sci is interesting, we get that our brain is plastic,u what is what you have added to this in such a richnd extraordinary way are all of these tools that say, because its plastic, if you do these exercises on a reguls, bas you can own the future of your brain. Right, exactly. Thats exactly right. And thats eciting. Beautifully put. It is. Take charge. Take charge. And so what, in one sense, if i was trying to capture this for its an incredibly hopeful set of tools and a hopeful process that one can engage in. C rse it is. And as were moving forward, understanding how to manageh ou lth so that we can have a longer life, so that our brain basically is effective as operationally long as our physical body, sowe that end life well and not badly, this is what its all about, and hopefullyfxtend that because were taking good care of everything. Right, right. Were getting ver close to the end of our time here, about a minute left before i have to say goodbye. Any final thought youd like to share with people ou there . F theyve stuck with us th long, theyre obviously intrigued by the notion. My wife and i areustaining donors of kqed. I the first thing i would say, kqedis a wonderful resource in this region, of course. But the whole point of this progrhim of course is to s,out your brain for gosh sa take brain health seriously. And think about personal growth. Jus think about the fa that you have this asset, you have this gift. Take advantage of the gift. You know, dont waste it. I love it. With that, dr. Michael merzenich, what a treat to have you on the air again. Ank youo much. And before we move on, id like to take ament to thank you if you made a pledge along with our anonymous member of kqeds Leadership Circle who issued that dollarar for dohallenge grant for this intermission. Lets also give another well deserve thank you to our reliable friends who sign up as kqed individual volunteerso lend a hand during these fund raisers. Wed like to exprestoour gratitudood eggs for donating delicious, local baked goods and peakseason berries from their marketplace, the Crystal GeyserWater Company for providing sparkling spring waters and tejava premium iced o teas f volunteers, the fruit guys. Com, delivering fresh fruit of offices, world centric, mpostable products and zero waste solutions, and western messenger, immediate bay area delivers since 1979. Ppg thanks to all of them for their gifts of t. Were grateful to everyone who made a contribution to help the important local mission of communitysupported kqed. Special thanks to make a day restaurant and Catering Company in north beach San Francisco for providing meals to ourte vols. [music] [announcer] explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyonehrough contributions to your pbs stion from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more, pbs. The people who give the money er to make miogers neighborhood are the people who contribute to this and other. And. Captioning made poenible by u. S. Departmt of education its a Beautiful Day in t s neighborhood a Beautiful Day for a neighbor would you be mine . Could you be mine