How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are

How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are - with Kevin Mitchell

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Күн бұрын

What makes you the way you are, and what makes each of us different from everyone else?
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Kevin's book "Innate" is available now: geni.us/A2DW
Neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell is interested in how human diversity and individual differences stem from how out brains are wired. In this talk, he explores the groundbreaking science behind this subject and uses examples of his own work to answer questions like- how are variations in our brain development linked to adult psychology and behaviour? And can brain development really have an impact on our personality, intelligence or sexuality?
Watch the Q&A: • Q&A: How the Wiring of...
Kevin Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin and a member of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. His book "Innate" is now available at all major book retailers.
This talk and Q&A was filmed in the Ri on 25 October 2018.
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Пікірлер: 117

@matyasgembala 5 жыл бұрын

Best 43 mins spent today. Exciting and content rich presentation. Thank you!

@tomsterling8009 4 жыл бұрын

I like how this gentleman is not trying to be loud and overexcited, no mediocre jokes either. Smooth and informative, thank you!

@johnlewis5330 2 жыл бұрын

Well said.

@spiralsun1 5 жыл бұрын

This is one of the best talks I have ever seen. The key to solving conflict on all levels. The key to our entire future is touched on in this one 45-minute talk. It’s the clearest exposition of nature-nurture I have ever seen and it’s genius. Almost every other writer or speaker I have ever seen wallows in political correctness or on a disconnected partial level. You have to look at all of it. We need to understand who we are and we have to jettison our political aspirations and all other lower brain processes to reach our true potential and to reach our highest goals. I can’t say enough about this. It’s a miracle talk. One thing I would add would be that development is a process dependent on initial conditions and genetic differences are like chaos theory in their potential to be affected wherever there are not constraints. Love this stuff. Our individual differences must be known so that we can truly understand and live in peace with each other and know our own strengths and weaknesses and what each of us must overcome our take into account to be our best selves.

@BruceNitroxpro 5 жыл бұрын

Things have changed markedly since I received a BA in experimental psychology in 1965.

@zaimahbegum-diamond1660 5 жыл бұрын

@MomoTheBellyDancer tee hee hee

@mikeyo1234 5 жыл бұрын

The conclusions are so obvious. Absolutely basic observations of people makes it obvious. Me and my brother have totally different temperaments but had the same upbringing. Also people you know hardly change over time. You're welcome.

@kjm5593 4 жыл бұрын

Mike 😂 You’re Welcome

@MrSaemichlaus 5 жыл бұрын

A well spoken and passionate speaker.

@ThinkHuman 5 жыл бұрын

Oh this is fascinating, quite a quick overview yet still very in depth.Thank you for so many interesting speakers on so many different interesting topics!

@desireisfundamental 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome presentation.

@boulderluv 5 жыл бұрын

Brilliantly presented!

@nikolaosdimitriadis15 2 жыл бұрын

So glad I have chosen his book as one of the textbooks in my introduction to neuroscience module for business students! Amazing work!

@reprogrammingmind 5 жыл бұрын

This is great, thank you for sharing.

@AliJorani 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks .. this was illuminating

@andreturnbull1259 5 жыл бұрын

Excellent, more like this please.

@Hibsclass 5 жыл бұрын

These lectures should be mandatory!

@GabrielFuentesOficial 4 жыл бұрын

One of the greats talks in the channel, for sure.

@marc.lepage 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent talk, thanks Kevin!

@sabofx 5 жыл бұрын

*Good talk!* thanx!

@FortWhenTea 5 жыл бұрын

I am a DZ twin, anyways.. what would be REALLLY intresting, is looking at MZ twins brain that are seperated from each other a birth and raised by two different families and then see how many similarities they have.

@FortWhenTea 5 жыл бұрын

spoke to soon lol woops

@dermmerd2644 5 жыл бұрын

Very good lecture

@sebastjanbrezovnik5250 5 жыл бұрын

6:00 Minutes in....100% reached. Would give two if I could. 👍👍

@valerieferrario44 5 жыл бұрын

a lot of info there. as a person who studies neuroplasticity this was very validating. thank you

@rahulranjan-05 5 жыл бұрын

Can you tell me why innate tendencies can't be changed?

@d96002 5 жыл бұрын

@@rahulranjan-05 that is the topic of this entire speech

@desidose7340 5 жыл бұрын

Wonderful lecture - the 99.9% similarity between in any two human beings still blows my mind, yet we treat each other as if we have nothing in common , sad

@TheBandScanner 5 жыл бұрын

Totally agree.

@scottdunn5197 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome!

@p.bamygdala2139 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video! I'm one of those people who loves learning new information. So that means I receive a lot of dopamine to my ACC, DMPFC, VMPFC, and other areas of the neo cortex based on novel and unfamiliar stimuli. The big question is, how can we empower others to become like that, overcome barriers and insecurities and depression, and live a life of confidence pursuing their dreams and passions, willing to explore the unknown and uncertain? (ie: skip the fears of the amygdala) I'm hoping we'll see a CRISPR-Cas9 development that will reroute dopamine and serotonin to galvanize curiosity and positive feedback for intellectual pursuits, critical reasoning, logical analysis, etc.

@wingbull2009 4 жыл бұрын

I can't imagine CRISPR-Cas9, being an extremely wide approach to solving a tiny problem, often introducing inescapably large amounts of off-target hits, could realistically target the brain alone, let alone target a part of the brain, let alone target a single piece of circuitry, let alone a neuron within that circuitry. There is absolutely no mechanism which allows this specificity. Attempting to target just the expression of receptors in a single neuron and accidentally converting the entire brain to overexpress that type of receptor (as well as changing the rest of the cells to do so - even if they do not produce the receptor) cannot end well. Not saying that there is no other system possible in some future that COULD be extremely specific towards just a single neuron, just saying that CRISPR-Cas9 will not be that system. It fundamentally targets everything it can.

@AstroSquid 5 жыл бұрын

Great talk. I wonder about what comes first, the consciousness or the brain. Plasticity implies an external factor that has an effect on the brain, like a field you'd get from quantum field theory. Have there ever been attempts to resolve what comes first, or to show that there is an external forces behind plasticity?

@ob1keno227 4 жыл бұрын

super super interesting

@totallyspy861 Жыл бұрын

I am glad that Sir Mitchell got to conclude that the genetics predictions would never be 100% accurate , sadly he took 3/4 of the lecture talking about those innacurate stats... And the interesting facts on brain wiring not even 10min. Thats what is a perfect example of how his genetics, or let's say in a more accurate form: the way his brain was programmed act unconsciously towards his real purposes. Until he get to understand how his brain function and how to reprogram it , rewire it, that might keeps on happening. Thank you for your eloquence tho, the relevant graphics on neurotransmitters and the conclusion of your lecture: brilliant.

@tomhepz 5 жыл бұрын

Is the landscape the ball rolls down pre-determined? It seems the initial path is due mainly to genetics and decisions by the mother while you're in the womb, but looks like you can shape that landscape yourself to a certain extent past that point and only the traits of your prior development affect how you choose to shape it

@tammcd 5 жыл бұрын

He was talking about fine-scale (micro-level) probabilistic noise between genotype and phenotypic expression. Later he makes the point that (postpartum) phenotype interacts with the environment to tweak phenotype at the circuitry level.

@manubantuh4231 2 жыл бұрын

carry on please

@260bill260 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you. Very interesting and well presented. Was thinking of what you said that your weight is like 70% inherited. If that’s so , how come so much of the American population is overweight? Since we are a nation of mostly immigrants, how can that be? Thanks.

@Egg-mr7np 5 жыл бұрын

We play the game with the cards we are dealt.

@AnimeshSharma1977 5 жыл бұрын

crazy to see the highly similar correlation between IQ and Autism of Identical Twins in contrast with Fraternal ones @19:10 !

@valeriobertoncello1809 5 жыл бұрын

I'm guessing that could come down to the amount of genes involved in some phenotype like IQ or Autism. So combinations of genes influencing IQ could be a lot more than those influencing Autism, which maybe occurs if and only if just the right combination is inherited. Meanwhile the same IQ score could be achieved whith a wide variety of combinations of different genes. Anyway this is just what came to my mind. Just speculations!

@realalreves 5 жыл бұрын

What comes first, the wirering, or the experiences that wires the brain? If the wirering comes first, then do we have free will, if the wirering comes after the experiences, then are we really to blame for anything?

@armoda1057 5 жыл бұрын

they both continuously happen. your behavior can alter your neural wiring, and vice versa.

@realalreves 5 жыл бұрын

@@chromanin How do thoughts arise?

@realalreves 5 жыл бұрын

@@chromanin So if our actions can be read as impulses before they become consciously aware to us, then what is really going on? Could this be one dimensionless consciousness beyond time and energy, somehow divided up by all the systems that we can observe, such as the replicational nature of organisms in general, taught to react to these impulses and believe them to be real? Could real freedom lay beyond accepting and following thoughts and emotions, which basically are nothing but private dogmatic prisons that allow or disallow us to act a certain way.

@ordinalkirk 5 жыл бұрын

At 25:00 he discovers Chaos Theory! His graphs are nice but he excludes p values/confidence intervals. Respectfully, I think he has ignored evidence for the "nurture" part of the argument.

@DjJooze 5 жыл бұрын

15minutes in 👍👍🧠🧠

@thisaccountisdead9060 5 жыл бұрын

I'm being a bit of a downer. But we all have to do as we are told. As Albert Camus writes in "The Stranger": "..When I was a student I had lots of ambitions like that but when I had to give up my studies I learned very quickly that none of it really mattered.."

@rahulranjan-05 5 жыл бұрын

What do you mean ?

@thisaccountisdead9060 5 жыл бұрын

@@rahulranjan-05 Albert Camus' "The Stranger" tells the fictional story of a man who essentially gets sentanced to death for not conforming to societal norms - it's a more modern day form of the story of how the philosopher Socrates was sentanced to death for the same crime. So when Kevin Mitchell says that our environment/nurture only increases our differences rather than flatterning them out. I think he is missing a sociology perspective. In which we tend to conform to societal norms (whether we like to or not?).

@rahulranjan-05 5 жыл бұрын

@@thisaccountisdead9060 Kevin Mitchell said that Innate tendencies is due to genetics and development. And the nature only amplifies these tendencies. For example,a person with innate tendency to be Lazy may overcome his laziness but this tendency makes it hard to experience workaholic attitude.Thus tendency being amplied. But I think the tendency of workaholic may reside there waiting for a triggering experience,if we can have self control to overcome the laziness,then this workaholic tendency may develop. What I find rubbish is he says we cannot overcome the tendency we have.

@thisaccountisdead9060 5 жыл бұрын

@@rahulranjan-05 Well I don't think anyone can overcome being homosexual for example. But Existentialism is an attitude. And so is the opposite attitude of being a Reactionary. I'd speculate that Existentialism focuses more on Dorsal brain activity (parts of the brain concerned with position and movement - for example while doing hobbies). While Reactionary attitudes focus more on Ventral brain activity (parts of the brain concerned with emotion and face-to-face communication). I think there is also a problem when presenting objective facts without historical context - for example the whole race and IQ controversy when people discount the effect of racism on people's stress levels which can then effect cognitive ability.

@rahulranjan-05 5 жыл бұрын

@@thisaccountisdead9060 well you can overcome homosexuality ,but it's hard because this tendency reinforces it,if somehow you override this innate tendency than you can be new you.Kevin is too strict in his views about the research he has done even though it is in childish phase.This type of ego will not work dude.

@kharyrobertson3579 5 жыл бұрын

Thought provoking but I tend to disagree with his conclusions though his data and analysis seem relevant and accurate.

@celtgunn9775 5 жыл бұрын

My daughter gave birth to fraternal twins on January 3rd. A boy and a girl. They were about 3 weeks early. 10 days in the NICU and Harvey is doing just fine now. 😊 So proud of my daughter.

@sebastjanbrezovnik5250 5 жыл бұрын

If someone starts with..... It is my honor to stand here behind this desk... Already get 99% of a thumb up. Some presenter resently seen on RI behind that desk I recon don't even know anything about the history there.

@tomcampbell1049 5 жыл бұрын

Schema"s molecular

@stevefromsaskatoon830 5 жыл бұрын

What % of Royal Institution viewers are stoned?

@canyoupleaserunfast 5 жыл бұрын

well, surely mr Kevin Mitchel needs to familiarize himself with some of the neuroscience research on Trauma and CPTSD and situations where lack of nurture from an early age blocks development of many personality traits, and highly aids development of anxiety, depression etc...that diminish after successful recovery. doesn't sound weird to you? he ignores amygdala, insula, the vagus nerve, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems that all play role in how you feel and act. it was an interesting watch and maybe it only looked and compared people who were raised on love, and not on survival and that's only half of us.

@NetAndyCz 5 жыл бұрын

4:02 I rather disagree there, I was told that the few cells we start with do not differ from each other, either can end up as "head end" or "tail end" and if they are separated you will get twins. The differentiation of cells in humans happen much later unlike some primitive nematodes where each division is governed by DNA only (and not the environment) so that each division has always the same result. Also while our genes are important, who we are is defined by the environment so much, the language, the education, the nurture we receive...

@NetAndyCz 5 жыл бұрын

@boson96 The thing is that the environmental data are hard to control in those studies. The environment in Australia and Southern US has lots of things in common and even when twins grow up on the opposite sides of the Earth, much of their environment is the same. They do not get to experience changes to the brain that happen to people speaking tonal language, nor do they get the "inner compass" that have people who do not know left and right, only cardinal directions (unless they are brought up by aborigines in Australia). And if they live in family that likes instant food and fast foods it does not quite matter where they live or what are their genes they are likely to end up obese. It is easy to measure genetic distance of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, but to measure environmental distance is much harder.

@recklessroges 5 жыл бұрын

"Humans are monogamous" Which of the types of monogamy, (emotional, sexual, social, structural) do you believe most humans are? (Because the divorce rates in the UK would suggest that the majority are not all four of these.)

@florinapostoiu 5 жыл бұрын

This guy knows... a lot about how we get here and about how a human machne is working on auto-pilot, but seem to know nothing about what is possible when you stand up and delete aut-pilot. He si the best exemple for an... "expert"!

@cosmicwakes6443 5 жыл бұрын

We are not just passive objects of evolution. We also play a part in our development. Labour is the primary factor in our evolution. Our development is dialectical and not mechanistic.