Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech
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0:09 - 0:11Wow! That was great!
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0:11 - 0:14My name is Audrey
and I'm a neuroscientist at Caltech. -
0:14 - 0:18And I want to tell you
about what I work on here at Caltech. -
0:18 - 0:20So, what I work on in my lab
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0:20 - 0:22is, we actually study sleep.
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0:22 - 0:23Let me ask you a question:
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0:23 - 0:25If you want to study the brain,
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0:25 - 0:26do you want to look at it
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0:26 - 0:28where it's kind of enclosed
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0:28 - 0:30in a skull you can't see through?
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0:30 - 0:33Or do you want to see it
in a transparent box? -
0:33 - 0:35I think it's a transparent box!
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0:35 - 0:37So, one thing that's really good
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0:37 - 0:41is that we actually have this
already in nature. -
0:41 - 0:43We have a brain in a glass box.
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0:43 - 0:44We have something where we can see
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0:44 - 0:48straight through an organism
and see their brain. -
0:48 - 0:50What we can do
is zoom in on their brain -
0:50 - 0:52and look at these neurons.
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0:52 - 0:54What I'm showing you here
are neurons, -
0:54 - 0:57and each one of them
is a different color. -
0:57 - 0:59They're neurons in Technicolor.
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0:59 - 1:02These neurons are hypocretin neurons.
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1:02 - 1:05Does anyone know anybody with narcolepsy?
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1:05 - 1:07Have you guys heard of narcolepsy?
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1:07 - 1:09Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder
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1:09 - 1:13where you're always kind of sleepy,
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1:13 - 1:15and when you get stimuli that excite you,
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1:15 - 1:18or something that is,
I guess, your brain food, -
1:18 - 1:19instead of being excited,
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1:19 - 1:22which is kind of the normal thing to do,
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1:22 - 1:23you actually fall asleep.
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1:23 - 1:26These neurons I'm showing you here
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1:26 - 1:29are the neurons
that are involved in that. -
1:29 - 1:33So, when we have all these neurons
in different colors in the brain, -
1:33 - 1:34the important thing is:
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1:34 - 1:36How do they connect with one another?
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1:36 - 1:38You have all these tracks--
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1:38 - 1:41how many of you guys here
have taken public transportation? -
1:43 - 1:45When you have public transportation,
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1:45 - 1:48what's important is
where those points of contact are, -
1:48 - 1:50and where all those
different tracks lead. -
1:50 - 1:51And so, similar to that,
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1:51 - 1:54we are constructing a system map.
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1:54 - 1:56One of the ways
we want to do this, -
1:56 - 2:00is to take cues from how
we interact with other humans. -
2:00 - 2:01When we have another human,
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2:01 - 2:04one thing that we do
is give a handshake. -
2:04 - 2:06So what professor Cori Bargmann did
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2:06 - 2:10is that she designed a way
to do a molecular grasp. -
2:10 - 2:12So for example, I'm neuron Audrey,
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2:12 - 2:13this is neuron Ella,
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2:13 - 2:18and we each have a glove
that's not lighting up. -
2:18 - 2:20But when we make contact,
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2:20 - 2:23we actually have our gloves lighting up.
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2:23 - 2:25And when we are further away,
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2:25 - 2:28the lights go off.
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2:28 - 2:30So, this is a way to figure out
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2:30 - 2:32how those neurons
are connecting to one other, -
2:32 - 2:33and we can actually see...
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2:33 - 2:35(Audience laughs at off-camera event)
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2:35 - 2:37[Cori and her friends
Molecular Grasp] -
2:37 - 2:40...we see when the neurons
are talking to each other, -
2:40 - 2:42when they're close enough
to one other, -
2:42 - 2:44and when they're further apart
from each other. -
2:44 - 2:48I want to talk about
my motivation to study science. -
2:48 - 2:49I want to study science
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2:49 - 2:53because I like to test ideas
and observe what happens. -
2:53 - 2:57What we want to do is make sure
we're making a fair comparison. -
2:57 - 3:02When we have an apple,
we want to compare it to an apple. -
3:02 - 3:04When you make a comparison,
you want to make sure -
3:04 - 3:06you're comparing
an orange to an orange. -
3:06 - 3:10So in controlled conditions,
we have lots of different controls. -
3:10 - 3:13We have positive controls
and negative controls; -
3:13 - 3:15you have positive controls
to make sure -
3:15 - 3:18when you're actually testing something,
you can see an effect. -
3:18 - 3:21You have negative controls
to make sure you don't have auto-activation, -
3:21 - 3:24so that when you don't have introduction
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3:24 - 3:27of the experimental condition
or stimuli you're testing, -
3:27 - 3:29it's not going to just go off.
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3:29 - 3:32And then you have
your experimental condition. -
3:32 - 3:36And when you design
an experiment, -
3:36 - 3:38you have lots of positive controls,
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3:38 - 3:40you have lots of negative controls,
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3:40 - 3:42and you have your experimental condition.
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3:42 - 3:45One trend that we're seeing
in neuroscience -
3:45 - 3:49is that we can observe
and test our idea. -
3:49 - 3:51And what we scientists are,
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3:51 - 3:54is we're kind of like little ninjas,
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3:54 - 3:58just quietly looking at the brain.
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3:58 - 4:00And that's what
Alex and his friends have done. -
4:00 - 4:04What they do is take these brains
that are in glass boxes, -
4:04 - 4:06and the brains are
swimming, or sleeping, -
4:06 - 4:07or doing whatever they want,
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4:07 - 4:10and the team, meanwhile,
captures the neural activity. -
4:10 - 4:11The way they do this
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4:11 - 4:13is that they've
genetically engineered -
4:13 - 4:18each of these neurons
to give off a photon of light, -
4:18 - 4:19and the more active
these brains are, -
4:19 - 4:22the more photons come out,
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4:22 - 4:25so you see a greater luminescence.
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4:25 - 4:28And so, while these fish
are doing their regular business, -
4:28 - 4:32while these brains in glass boxes
are doing their regular business, -
4:32 - 4:36and we can observe the neural activity.
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4:36 - 4:39Let's say we want to take this
a little bit further, -
4:39 - 4:41to the entire human population.
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4:41 - 4:46What if we look at
the entire human population, -
4:46 - 4:48in your native environment,
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4:48 - 4:52and let's say we take away
those positive and negative controls -
4:52 - 4:55and just have experimental conditions?
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4:55 - 4:57What if we have something
like a wiki log, -
4:57 - 4:59a wiki lab notebook,
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4:59 - 5:02where everyone contributes their ideas,
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5:02 - 5:06and as people are contributing,
everyone writes over one another, -
5:06 - 5:09kind of like Wikipedia.
Who would have thought -
5:09 - 5:11that WIkipedia would have
taken off the way it did, -
5:11 - 5:14with all its success?
But it did. -
5:14 - 5:16And what if we could
apply it to science? -
5:16 - 5:19It's slightly different than
how we think about things now. -
5:19 - 5:21We have these apples and oranges,
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5:21 - 5:24and usually we can't compare
them to one another. -
5:24 - 5:26But now we have
all these different conditions, -
5:26 - 5:28and things like maybe weird fruits,
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5:28 - 5:30like dragon fruit,
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5:30 - 5:32and we want to compare those.
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5:32 - 5:34So, I want to give you a challenge:
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5:34 - 5:37to be the ones,
to be the mathematicians -
5:37 - 5:39and the statisticians to design
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5:39 - 5:41these types of algorithms;
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5:41 - 5:43and to decide whether or not
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5:43 - 5:44we can extrapolate trends
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5:44 - 5:48and figure out the observations
without all those controls. -
5:48 - 5:50So, change the way we do science.
Go change the world. -
5:50 - 5:51Thanks!
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5:51 - 5:54(Applause)
- Title:
- Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech
- Description:
-
Dr. Audrey Chen is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Division of Biology at Caltech, whose current work examines the genetic and neural mechanisms underlying sleep. In her talk, she shows us neural activity in a live brain that's housed in a 'glass box'. Dr. Chen is passionate about making science accessible to everyone, and invites us to consider the possibilities that crowd-sourced science might hold.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 06:00
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez commented on English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez approved English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez commented on English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Watching Sleeping Neurons: Audrey Chen at TEDxYouth@Caltech |
Camille Martínez
This was a deceptively tough little talk!
I changed some of the wording, not because of transcriber or reviewer error, but because in many cases the speaker is unclear; there aren't always logical transitions from one idea to the next.
She also sometimes switches subjects mid-sentence, causing subject/verb agreement problems. Plus, there were some instances of inverted syntax that I corrected (and also found interesting).
One problem that I couldn't resolve on my own was at 03:18
"...you have negative controls
to make sure [you ____] have auto-activation..."
It was hard to know if she was saying 'you'll have' or 'you don't have', so I contacted the speaker to verify, and she confirmed that's it's '...to make sure you _don't_ have auto-activation...'
Other changes were made in the interest of timing/char per second. And of course, to get rid of some of those 'actually'-s :)
If there's anything that isn't clear or doesn't seem logical (or is just wrong), please comment or message me. Thanks!
Camille Martínez
* Also:
@ 03:58-04:00
"And that's what Alex and his friends have done."
--I didn't know how to clarify the 'Alex' mention. I assumed (and was going to include in parentheses), that Alex was the previous speaker, but I looked up the event, and there were no speakers named Alex. So it's not clear who Alex is, but it wasn't an option to leave it out, since we can see the speaker talking.