This video was indeed fascinating to me. Christopher DeCharm speaks about a new scientific finding where MRIs and other technology has advanced so much that not only can we see the brain patterns and activity on what looks like an x-ray screen, but we can see it in real time. This means that we can look at an image of our brains and see which areas are active as the activity is happening. He says that seeing our brain patterns in action allows us to actually have control over which parts of the brain we choose to excercise. For instance, he said that people with chronic pain watched their brain activity through this new technology and somehow managed to take full control over this pain by observing their brain patterns and manipulating them to reduce their pain. DeCharm continues that with more research and further progress, we may actually be able to control and manage our brain activity at even deeper levels such as controlling emotions, or other more complicated aspects of the brain that we never thought possible to interfere with. DeCharm suggests that in the near future this new technology may even be a fourth alternative instead of medication, psychotherapy or surgery. I'm usually opposed to such advanced fast-paced technology, because it seems unnecessary or pushing our human limits. I have often agreed with the idea that "just because we can doesn't mean we should" however, this particular phenomenon has caught my interest and I am fully in favor of further research into this, as I feel that controlling our own brain patterns naturally seems like an outstanding and superior solution in comparison to medication.
