Super Senses

### Cold Open

"Our senses are how we decode and interpret what goes on around us. Everyone's a little different. They go way beyond balance. Why do some of us see the world... and hear the world... and experience the world... differently. Why can't we fine-tune them, master them, can we even find a new sense? Can we even unleash super senses? So get ready to have some sense knocked into you... on Brain Games. This is Times Square in NYC. Sensory Overload and distractions are everywhere. It's crazy that our brains don't get overwhelmed and just shut down. But if you had to rely on the 5 basic senses in a place like this.. you wouldn't last a minute."

## Games

#### Mini-Game: Hold on Tight

Hold one foot up in the air as long as you can. Can you sense of balance really predict your age?

Result: Yes.

Why: We'll show you how.

Our senses are how we decode and interpret what goes on around us. Everyone's a little different. They go way beyond balance.

The 5 basic senses are...

* Touch/Feel
* Taste
* Smell
* Sight
* Sound

These are the 5 fundamental ways your brain receives information. These senses are your brain's control panel to the world. Combine them and you get super senses. Combine, touch, sight and sound to get balance.

Why: Does your predicted age match up? And why does it match up? Your brain changes over a lifetime and predict how old you are.

Let's play a game.

#### Mini-Game: Right Index Finger

While spinning your right foot in a clockwise direction, try to draw the number 6 from the top down with your right index finger.

Result: It's a hard game, and you probably can't do it.

Why: The left hemisphere of your brain controls the right side of your body and vice versa. The motor cortex gives instructions to only one side of the body at a time.

But how can we hack our brains and use our senses to do the unexpected?

### Episode Highlight: The Backwards-Facing Bike

We'll come back to this. We'll offer 100 dollars to anyone who can ride this bike 20 feet.

But it's time to test two basic senses.

#### Mini-Game: Fight!

Do these dots bounce off each other or pass through each other?

Result: It's hard to tell, right?

Why: One sense, sound, effects how you see the dots interact.

### SOUND

#### Experiment: The Headphones

Volunteers listen to a set of headphones and rate them.

Result: At the beginning, they pick up good vibrations. But we are controlling what they hear. What will happen with some unsavory sounds?

Result: They have a physical reaction to nothing but unpleasant noise. But Why?

Why: Sound is measured in hertz. The higher frequency equals powerful vibrations. The systems in your inner ear often trigger your Amygdala. Our brains have evolved to associate certain sounds of frequencies with stress. These sounds aren't language, but they do communicate. They're meant to trigger a biological response and is tied to ancient survival instincts.

Each of your senses alone is powerful, but combined, your senses are more powerful than you might expect.

### Episode Highlight: The Backwards-Facing Bike:

Can people ride the bike 20 feet to the money?

Result: Nope.

Why: Even if you know you have to switch directions to ride this bike, your brain in the moment can't help but react wrong. The root of this brain fail can be explained with a game.

#### Mini-Game: Pinch

Take your thumb and pointer finger on the hand you use to write with, hold them 1/4 of an inch apart. Without looking, gently touch the nails of those fingers to the tip of the index finger on your other hand? How many points of contact do you feel? Did you say 2? Now, do the same thing, but this time to your opposite forearm.

Result: You can't distinguish both fingers.

Why: Because there are far fewer nerve endings near the surface of your skin on your forearm. High concentration on your skin fingertips send info to your brain.

### TOUCH

#### Experiment: Relaxing Massage

With a blindfold on, sitting down, they get a relaxing massage. Can our expert make us question their own bodies?

#### Mini-Game: Cross the Index

Cross your index and middle finger, and now touch the tip or bridge of your nose where your fingers cross.

Result: Does it feel like you're touching two noses?

Why: This is called perceptual disjunction. Aristotle discovered this.

Back to the experiment.

Dr. Okamura stimulates movement in their arms, triggering confusion in their brains.

Result: Their noses seem to get bigger, to them at least.

Why: You don't have to keep touching your nose to know where it is because your nerve endings help. But your nerves get stimulated, and your signals get scrambled. Stimulating other nerves, crazier things happen. But it's more than just your sense of touch. This is Proprioception, or how we feel. Sensing your body position during movement.

Dr. Okamura: These sensations could cause us to feel something different of our body shape.

#### Mini-Game: The Plate of Food

Pick a plate of food. Which one has more food?

Result: Because of the smaller plate size, you misjduge the amount of food on both plates when they're the exact same on both.

So: By switching to a smaller plate size, you can consume less food and waste less, and feel like you're like eating more.

### SIGHT

#### Expirement: The Box and Rocks

Which box weighs more? They're the exact same, but could a bigger box, lead these volunteers astray? Everyone seems to think the smaller box weighs more. But this game requires more than sight and touch. Your brain requires more motor learning, sort of like muscle memory, to gauge weight.

Result: They're the same size.

Why: When you first pick up the box, you think the larger one will be heavier so you apply more force so it makes it feel lighter. In other words, you motor systems know it requires the same force to lift each box, but the cognitive part of your brain refuses to accept that result and it thinks the smaller box is heavier.

But let's look at a surprising result.

When two weightlifters tried the experiment, they had a different reaction. Their extra experience lifting weights helped them sense the weight as exactly the same. So practice makes perfect.

### Episode Highlight: The Backwards-Facing Bike:

As people continue to try, no one can get past it. To explain, is Dr. Andy Murray.

Why: Think of a riverbed. Initally, water flows randomly. And then it forms a path and it flows smoother and faster. When you learn a new motor skill, the pathways are random and have to learn over time how to make a path to the win.

#### Mini-Game: Word Search

Unscrammble the words on screen.

Result: Doing a task a couple times, your brain carves a path for the task.

So: The best person to take on the bike is the one who has been doing it for years.

Charles Hearn had the backwards bike for two weeks to rewire his motor memory.

#### Mini-Game: Scented

Look at 5 scents. Then recall them

Result: Were you able to recall them and even smell it?

So: Unlike touch, sight, and sound, your sense of smell is unique. The limbic system has access to the hippocampus and amygdala. This helped you remember the order.

#### Mini-Game: Add up to 15

Every row, column and diagonal must add up to 15, but this is brain games. You must fill in the missing numbers and keep track of how long we give you to solve the puzzle.

Result: If you solved the puzzle, good work. But we gave you 15 seconds to slove the puzzle, but it felt like a lot less.

Why: Mentally stimulating or challenging tasks make time past faster.

#### Mini-Game: Fasten Up

How long does this clip last?

Result: They're both the same length.

Why: Even though the faster clip should change your sense of time, the first clip seems longer than the first one.

Marc Salem is tricking people at times square by stopping their watches. But he's only experiencing what he wants us to.

#### Episode Highlight: The Backwards-Facing Bike:

Charles Hearn explains that learning the bike was hard, and he had to get used to it. Can he get across?

Result: YES!!!

How: Charles has re-programmed part of his brain to learn how to ride the backwards-facing bike. But will Charles be able to ride his old bike?

Result: It fails him after only a few feet.

Why: This is Neuroplasticity. Researchers find that our ability to learn and relearn are linked to the cerebellum and updates pathways. But Charles will regain this skill quickly.

Can we go beyond our five basic senses?

#### Mini-Game: Green vs Red

Look at these dots and tell if any change.

Result: Rounds 1 and 3 had change. Now if we ask you which dots changed, that may be too much for your brain to handle.

Why: Most people can't tell why the image changes, but they know it did. Did you sense something you didn't actually see?

Is that a sixth sense? Marc Salem has developed Micro-observation to read minute details of body language and attitude. By getting people to tell a white lie, he can see who's telling the truth. The must draw something within 15 seconds and they must all lie about it. Then mark must identify who's lying. Jason will play along. Play along and tell who is lying?

Marc caught Jason's head swivle to watch the other players. Can you find any other clues?

According to Marc, this super sense can be learned by anyone who pays attention. People walk through life not seeing everything.

After Marc sees a head swivle, he identifies the liar again.

And when Marc catches the final liar, he notices that the liar looked him in the eyes because they're uncomfortable and wanted power over Marc. Even when she knew what was going on, she couldn't help herself.

#### Mini-Game: Smile Up

Who's the happiest?

Result: You identified it.

What makes one smile happier than another?

One smile is of pure enjoyment, called the Dunchenne smile. Muscles contract around the eyes to create a genuine smile. Other smiles conceal or express different types of emotions.

Now, can Marc tell what the last person drew without looking?

Result: Yes! But how?

Using his power of micro-observation, he's able to sense whatever's on your mind. Everybody can learn this, but something bigger requires a bigger stage.

### Game: Mind-Meld

Zener cards, or ESP cards, are different shapes. Now look at them. Can Marc guess what the crowd felt was feeling and which card they felt deepened them?

Result: YES!

So: Marc's choice matches the choice of over half our fans in times square.

How: Marc can't tell you everything.

As we have seen, the brain may not telepathically communicate brain-to-brain, but your internal guidance system commands some pretty incredible missions each and every day, to help us with superhuman feats, believing the impossible, making sense of the avalanche of input layered into every facet of our world. Your "auto-pilot" is a pretty accomplished navigator. Don't forget to enjoy the ride.

## List of Experts

* Dr. Alison Okamura(Stanford University)
* Dr. Andy Murray
* Charles Hearn
* Marc Salem(Mentalist)