I Don't Know About That - Neuroplasticity

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Don't know what neuroplasticity is? That's ok. Jim didn't either, but our expert Dr. Greg Thielman will show all of us the way. Jim's new special "High & Dry" is now available on Netflix! Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/IDKAT for ad free episodes, bonus episodes, and more exclusive perks! Tiers start at just $2! ADS: SHIPSTATION: Go to ShipStation.com and use code JIM today and sign up for your FREE 60-day trial. BETTERHELP: Visit BetterHelp.com/IDK today to get 10% off your first month.

When it comes to saving money as a small business owner, every little bit helps. When you lower your shipping costs and make returns easier, your customers stay happy whilst you save money. Worry less about the bottom line when you save money with ShipStation. Go to ShipStation.com and use the code JIM today and sign up for your free 60-day trial. That's ShipStation.com, code JIM. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you're thinking about starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suitable to your schedule.

Visit betterhelp.com slash idk today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash idk. Bin full of recycling erin's softball trophy why does he still have it here it's been a couple of days now you might find out and i don't know about that with jim jeffries as usual i just did what i saw in the room. Aaron won a trophy. Well done, Aaron. I don't think a lot of people know who Aaron is. Aaron's a technician, and Aaron, he won a softball trophy. That's pretty good. Did you win a trophy?

No, I mean, I'm just saying because you referred to Aaron, and it's, you know, I didn't know. One of my pet hates is when people my age start going like this. Ah, these fucking kids today, they all get a participation trophy. When I was a kid, we'd... Yes, we did. Yeah. We did.

My soccer team never won. At the end of the year, they all gave us a trophy. And that was in the early 80s, my friend. And anytime you talk about anti-bullying, they're like, I got bullied as a kid and I turned out fine. I'm like, you didn't, though. You didn't, but you're still mad about it you're obviously and also bullying is a weird one because i i just did this thing for spotlight australia where they asked me i don't know it would have aired by now but i i don't know whether they put this in i said yeah i was bullied in

school like you were bullied like the the interviewer was like what and i'm like i had a fat mom who was a teacher at the school. It wasn't easy times. It was hard yards having a mum who was a teacher at the school. You used to yell at everyone. Anyway, but then I thought about it, about bullying. Like, I think everyone experiences that feeling of bullying. And then there is a chance, I don't know, you won't believe this, that I may have bullied some others.

You? And maybe on this podcast. Yeah, I don't believe this, that I may have bullied some others. You? And maybe on this podcast. Yeah, I don't. I'm not positive, right? I'm not positive. But, you know, there's a lot of survival going on in high school. It would be a fair bet. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I always took up for people who were being bullied.

I'll tell you that much. I sat back and watched it. You know, that's a form of bullying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People who don't speak up. Yeah, I didn't speak up. I was too busy getting bullied myself to fucking become a superhero. I was just trying to get through the day.

I beat up a bully. Yeah. And now he's on a podcast and we're going, this guy who's into me in biology, he used to beat me up at school. I was bullied. You want to know what his name was? Bobby Dickman. It's already a bad name.

Yeah. And he never got bullied. Bobby Dickman. What was Bobby Dickman. It's already a bad name. And he never got bullied. Bobby Dickman. What was Bobby Dickman doing to you? He was like this, he wasn't like a big dude but he was just this like pesty guy you know and he was always like just messing around with people and like

it was like in junior high school and at one time after we had homeroom you know where they just like take, it's like what a weird thing that was. We're going to take attendance and then go to your next class. And we're walking out of that and he kept poking at me and he knocked the books out of my hand.

And I go, I picked him up. I go, dude, stop. It was, this is like a lot. I'd seen bullies, other people like that. And I was like, dude, don't do that again. He did it. And then I went to go pick him up and he could tell that I was like angry at him now.

So he kind of took off. I caught up with him at the top of the stairs. I grabbed him, got him the headlock, and you know those doors that they would hold by magnets, and if you press them, they go? I kept ramming his head into the door, undoing it, undoing it, until they came and broke it up, and then I got suspended for a week. Bobby Dickman has brain damage. So cut to my mom lived in the Florida Keys at the end of her life.

That's where she lived. On that street, the Dickmans, they had a house there on that street that was like their Keys home or something like that. Is that the house you made me piss on? No, the shit. The one you took a shit on. Oh, right. The one you had to piss on was just a girl I had a crush on.

She didn't. She returned my affection. We had a lot of things to do we're there in the keys anyways dickman how you doing dickman so thanks for subscribing well i every time you talk it's i don't know about women but men whenever you talk to men about having fights they're always like this yeah i've been in four fights in my life i've won them all no one ever goes i've been in four or five fights and every time i've just been on the crowd crying. I think Tommy would admit that. I'm going to tell you, I've been in three fights in school,

two I lost by a mile, and one that I had a George McFly moment with a bully, like a proper George. Okay, so this is where all the bullies hang out. We were doing the high school musical. How's it doing? How's it doing? Nice.

I was in year eight and a kid in year 10 so we're talking a 14 year old versus a 16 year old this is a big age gap right and uh they were making us learn the songs right and in between every song this guy would flick me in the ear now i think this guy was a bit of a nerd that he probably got bullied by kids older than him but he was now taking it out on younger kids right and he would just flick me in the ear flick me in the ear and then he'd say things about me mum because me mum was a teacher there which i was pretty immune to and then he kept flicking and then i i turned around and with my voice that had not broken yet went if you do that again i'm gonna punch you in the face and they went he didn't do it again, but I turned around,

and him and his mate went. That's right. And just like George McFly, with plenty of time to think about it, I closed my fist like out of a movie. And he was standing behind me, and because I was shorter, younger, I turned around and uppercut him into the nose. His nose went back into his head. Blood went fucking everywhere.

Blood went everywhere. He fucking fell to the ground like a bag of shit. Everyone's just amazed. Because this is in front of teachers in a choir stance, right? This is like... It was badass choir kids. It's like getting into a fight in a nightclub where you're like, and waiting for security to tackle me when?

And I was just like, oh, no, my hand hurt. And the guy, he stood up and he was still stumbling. I've never seen a punch this pure. It was just unbelievable. So bang. Anyway, so the teacher came and yelled at me, and the teacher who was playing the piano, who incidentally I think there were some issues with him later on,

in the years later. We won't get into that. But he looked up over, and he went, no, I watched it. He warned him. Very Australian. He warned him. That's what's about that. Anyway, so I was kicked out of the classroom.

Another teacher takes him to go and get his face cleaned, right? His nose is broke, blood everywhere, right? And he goes to take his face clean. He's still being held up. The teacher, he comes out, and he just sees me standing there. I'm a little kid, right? He's got bigger mates, and my mates aren't going to go against his mates. I only had about two friends.

Like, what was I going to fucking do, right? So I'm standing there in the hallway going, fuck, my life's fucked now. There's got to be retribution for this, right? Retaliation. Anyway, so he came out, and he went, you're fucking, the teacher's holding me, he goes, you're dead, Nugent. You're dead. Like this, like this blood coming out of his mouth.

You're, you're dead, like that. And so I just doubled down and I went, and there's more where that came from. And then for the rest of the year, just every corner i came around i looked around he never did anything no he never did nothing no and the funny thing is because my brother scott was a couple years older than him so his mates all started teasing this bloke that he was beaten up by younger blokes i think he got teased enough for it but like what's he gonna do like in hindsight i thought he was going to hunt me down.

In hindsight, what are you going to do? You're going to be the guy who hunts down the 14-year-old and beats him up? You had your moment. It's Ben Affleck. I've forgotten his fucking name, though. Actually, I wouldn't know his name because he's probably moved on with his life.

He doesn't need to hear from fucking me, I'll tell you that much. Johnny Ballsack. Yeah. It's like all the bullies have terrible names names i think that's why they're so upset yeah yeah yeah what do we what do we have mad mike was a kid that was when i was in year seven there was a kid in year 11 called mad mike right i only got a good year to watch this guy and everyone would stand around and go mad mike mad mike and he would fucking climb up flagpoles, death-defying things,

get to the roof of the gym and hang off a girder. Like if he let go, he dies. And we're all kids. Yeah. Mad Mike. Like his adults should be going, get down from there. Please, I'm going to lose my job.

Yeah, Mad Mike, Mad Mike. And years later, I was walking around north sydney and he like i saw mad mike just in his shirt and or whatever and i was like i think that's mad mike that's just in a shirt yeah yeah like he's in a work shirt with a tie like he obviously works in some office somewhere you know what i mean and i just sort of i was walking behind him and i went mad mike and he turned around and looked at me fuck off off. Yeah, it was him, all right. Hope you're doing well, Mad Mike from St. Ives High. You would have graduated in 1990, mate.

I hope you're doing well. Reach out. You're almost done with your Europe tour. Ah, Europe, you've been a dream. I still got about a week or so left. Well, I've been to this town and then I went to that town and drank champagne in Retrovic. No, I think you're...

Reykjavik. I don't know. I think you had a week left. I had some time and Boris showed me his dick. I think you're actually flying to Dubai today. Ah, let's recount that tale. So by the time you listen to it, bye-bye Dubai. Please welcome our guest today, Dr. Gregory Thielman.

Hello, doctor. Now it's time to play. Yes, no. Yes, no. Yes, no. Yes, no. Maybe. Judging a book by its cover. They can't hear the song. It just sounds like you're saying it. I forgot to tell. Wait, they can?

I think they can. Do you hear that? The song? Dr. Thielman, did you hear a song? Oh, okay. I heard Yes, No, Yes, No. They can hear it now. They can hear it now. Oh, I thought this whole time it's just Jim going,

meh. I know. I was thinking that yesterday, too. So, is it Scrabble? Scrabble? Scrabble in the background. He's got a Scrabble board in the background. Why wouldn't you pick Scrabble out of all the things?

Scrabble's as good an episode as we've ever done. Yeah, Scrabble is good. I mean, we're not doing Scrabble, but are you an expert in Scrabble, Dr. Thielen? We can have you back. I do play a lot of Scrabble, yes. I can't play the Scrabble because I'm a bad speller. And everything I do is like,

if I get an S, I'm excited. Slap that on the end of another long word i don't know i i don't know if you know what this is this topic so do you want okay well if you're gonna do that then i won't even bother you i did actually mention this last week but i don't think you'll remember it um The second half of this word, there was a DC comic book hero that was considered to be the first guy that was kind of comedic in the DC world. The first guy who was comedic in the DC world? Something man.

Yeah. It's an old guy. Oh, I don't remember that. He's bendable. Rubber man. Not close. Elastic man. It's plastic man. Plastic man? I've never heard of him. Never heard of. Close. Elastic man.

Plastic man. Plastic man. I've never heard of him. Never heard of plastic man? He's there. Also, there's plenty of comical people in the DC comics. All the villains are funny. The first one. Plastic man would be pretty funny.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Plastic man, he never goes away. Yeah. Well, we're not talking about plastic man, but it's something. So it's something man. Something. No. That's something plastic. So it's something man. Something. No. That's something plastic.

So something plastic. Elastic plastic. I'm just going to tell you. Fantastic plastic. I'm just going to tell you. How about that? Because we'll be here all day. Okay.

Neuroplasticity. That's not a thing for me. Dr. Thielman's here to talk about it. Neuroplasticity. Yeah. All right. Let's go for it. Okay.

I think once we start asking questions, you'll see kind of what's going on. Sure. Dr. Gregory Thielman is a full-tenured professor in the physical therapy program at St. Joseph's University with a secondary appointment in the neuroscience program. Dr. Thielman is a clinical researcher specializing in motor learning and motor control recovery for individuals post-stroke. He has practiced clinically continuously over his 30-year career in home care for much of the past 20 years and has since 2020 in subacute rehab centers.

Dr. Thielman has presented and been published nationally. He leads the International Medical Mission Trip for Samson College Programs and is the director of the Patricia Leah Lee, I think I'm saying that right. Leahy. Leahy. Leahy, sorry. Movement Science Lab.

For more information about this subject and Dr. Thielman, you can visit the neuroscience foundation.org or the Enigma Stroke Recovery Network. And you can find them on LinkedIn at hashtag Greg Thielman and also ResearchGate. Oh, so that's Enigma Stroke. It wasn't like Enigma Stroke. Enigma's an acronym, it looks like. It's all capitalized. I don't know what it stands for.

Yeah, and the Stroke Recovery Network, which is a big network that you're a part of, I believe, right? Yes, tremendous network. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about just how you got into this field and what led you there. about just how you got into this field and what led you yeah well uh so i not to bore you with too much of the details but i did start off as a young um physical therapist and working in sports

medicine and uh that's kind of the way it was my niche i was a football player in college and then i was hurt and went into physical therapy as so many people do after an injury. And then I started practicing that area. But then after a few years, I decided that, you know, helping athletes was cool, but it wasn't enough for me. So then I started working in rehab centers, and I worked with spinal cord patients, and, you know, people's lives were awfully devastated because of the trauma they had and uh soon after that i decided to go back to school and i uh big big shout out to teachers

college columbia university because that is where a big part of neuroplasticity research started it was uh one of my mentors there was anja and teal she's since passed away but she was a um she bridged kind of motor learning which we're going to talk about and psychology so she had two phds so pretty amazing woman and she bridged those two fields and it kind of developed neuroscience and it evolved to what is we know today as neuroplasticity, how the brain recovers from these traumas. So I started in that field, like I said, five years after practice, and now 25 years later I've pretty much evolved to do most of my time is spent around doing that, either teaching or doing research in that area

or practicing therapy. All right, well, great. I'm going to ask Jim a series of questions here about neuroplasticity. It might be pretty short because you might say, I don't know. Maybe you give an answer. You try. I don't know. To be fair, I don't know anything about this either,

so I'm not up here bragging. If I was on your side, I wouldn't know anything either. And at the end of me asking these questions, Dr. Thielman, you're going to grade him 0 through 10, 10 being the best on his accuracy of the answers. Kelly's going to grade him on confidence. I'm going to grade him on et cetera. I'll combine all those answers together, 0 through 10.

21 through 30 first, right? You don't know anything about this topic, right? That would be obvious. 11 through 20, you have to spell neuroplasticity okay 21 through 30 you have to tell us what is an archaeopteryx yeah i don't know any of those things yeah well archaeopteryx we've mentioned you already mentioned what neuroplasticity well what is neuroplasticity i've forgotten i go and i got that and then i went he just said it a minute ago maybe yeah left you know what it is the brain telling you how to, your neurons to work.

Okay. And how to move. Do you know what neurogenesis is? Or might be a difference between that and neuroplasticity? The genesis is when your brain tells your body how to move. And neuroplasticity is when your, when doctors get involved to help with that. Okay.

Tell me when you want to tap out. When, what is the role of neuroplasticity and learning and memory? I probably need some neuroplasticity if it comes in pill forms, because my memory has gone to shit. Yeah. It is fucking awful. I might get some Nugenics.

Which one's the one for the brains, those pills? Can't even remember that. I don't know. Isn't Nugenics the golf one? Yeah, that's testosterone. That's testosterone. But it makes you really good at golf? It had a big golf ad recently for some reason. When I was reading through these questions earlier,

I was like, neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a good name for a band, and they could support the strokes. There you go. Can neuroplasticity be improved through practice? Yes. Yes, of course it can, Frost. Okay. Anything can be improved with practice.

I'm going to ask you a bunch of yes-no questions. Practice makes perfect. Can it be improved with practice. I'm going to ask you a bunch of yes, no questions. Practice makes perfect. Can it be affected by age? Age and AIDS. Okay. What are some examples of behaviors or experiences that can enhance neuroplasticity? Repetitive cognitive memorizing.

That's really smart. You see my little finger there, right? I see it. And then my brain, that's my brain doing that. Yeah. Right? But I'm working in touch with the muscles.

If I do that enough, right? Just make your pinky going up and down for people who can't see. There'll be muscle memory. Yeah. And then when I'm really old with dementia, I'll still be able to do that. I won't forget that.

What is the relationship between neuroplasticity and mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety? If you get neuroplasticity or you don't have enough of it, you'll get sad. Of course you will. You've got to have the right balance. We're going to jump ahead here. We'll go through all these questions, i think i'm dumb i don't know any answers to any of these so it's actually okay oh wow really okay he says you're doing okay some of them

one of those um how about this uh can i know we'll jump over this uh can neuroplasticity be used to treat chronic pain and how? Oh, of course. And through repetition. Okay. And practice. I'm going to ask one last question and we'll go over all these. Can neuroplasticity help in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's? The answer is always yes.

Okay, but how? Alzheimer's, how does it help? You're not going gonna go like this can uh what's the topic again neuroplasticity can that bring your bins in no right but can it help with any medical condition yes all right let's let's let's talk to dr theelman all the above on that brief questions i asked him dr theelman how did jim do on his knowledge of neuroplasticity actually you know is the little bit he came out with, there was a few of them

that he got right. There was about two or three of them that he actually was spot on, and he probably doesn't want to expound upon them, but he got the tip of them. You mean when he said yes? Yes, of course. Yes, of course.

He said it with confidence. Come on. I love the finger. That's right. He's not totally wrong. I'm not totally wrong. I'm not totally wrong. It's like when Cliff Clavin was on Jeopardy. Yeah, yeah.

It is fine. People that haven't been in my kitchen. People that haven't been in his kitchen. He's like, I'm not wrong. I've been in my kitchen. How do you do on confidence, Kelly? Well well the of course is up to score it was gonna be a two but now it's well i thought the questions would be difficult and then forrest threw me some yeah yeah softballs yeah well can it help with this like if you go can it help with memory oh no it makes, it makes it worse. Don't do this. There's no doctor who's given a procedure that makes things worse.

Well, I think, you know, we can't just delve into it. If we did this podcast 300 years ago, I'd be doing well in leeches and the benefits of. I don't know what I'm going to give you on it, et cetera, but I'm just going to ask you to spell neuroplasticity. You might be able to get this. Neuroplasticity. You might be able to get this. Yeah. Neuroplasticity. Neuro. N-E-R.

N-E-U-R-O-P-L-A-S-T. Plasticity. Yeah. Yeah, you're good. T-I-S-T-E-Y. Ah, so close. It was T-I-C-I-T-Y. But you did really good.

That's pretty good for me. Jim is not a good speller, as you said. I spell real bad. I spell so bad that my text can't even be predicted. I just go, the computer just goes, ah, this is obviously a child mashing a keyboard. Half of my job is just deciphering Jim's texts. Dr. Thielman, first question, what is neuroplasticity?

Can you give us an answer, please? Yeah, I'll give you a little elevator talk. But, you know, I like the way Jim started out because the idea is we have to make it so anybody can understand it. And I tell this to my students, and if I present, I tell this so that anybody can understand it. And I tell this to my students, and if I present, I tell this that anybody can understand it. So the idea is that the brain is always malleable. So we start off, and we figure out maybe as babies how to roll and then sit up and get head control.

And all of that, our brain is going wild. It's developing. So that's the neurogenesis that's going on so that is all good but then at some point certain functions of the brain may slow down because you know we whatever spend our life um and doing mechanics so our our because if we're mechanics our hands are so our area of the brain as far as the mechanic it's so well developed and as well as the problem solving area of the brain so as far as mechanics, is so well developed, as well as the problem-solving area of the brain. So well developed.

But maybe higher-level cognitive thinking area of the brain, not developed at all because they're not spending – although they're doing a lot of problem-solving, they're not doing a lot of higher-level thinking. They just figure out the problem, and then they do so much with their hands. So the analogy is that um our brains can continuously develop and after a trauma um there used to be a theory before neuroplasticity became a thing really in the past 20 to 30 years that you had that area of the brain damage and then nothing was ever going to change after maybe the first five or six months. They said, go to recovery, go to therapy, and then after that, nothing is going to change for you. And then, you know, some theories came out, and then people started, you know, doing a lot of research in this area

and showing that that was not the case at all, that our brains are constantly developing, and it's up to the experience and the people that set up the experiences like people like myself and others in therapy and and others that do this work to figure out what's the best experience that can help develop the brain it's funny that you said like like so the brain's always developing or it might slow down it might so i have an app on my phone because i have a baby right and on the app tells you, it starts from when my wife gets pregnant, and this is what the baby's doing in the stomach. And then when it gets out, it starts telling me it should be taking its steps here.

It should be rolling over by this age. It should be doing this. And now my baby's at an age it should know five to 20 words. And so you start to feel a little bit bad if it's not reaching the milestones. And some of the milestones, it gets to earlier than others. But I reckon that app should just keep going for the rest of your life. Right. Just keep going.

Because when your vision will go. Yeah, yeah. Things might be a bit more blurry for you. Start forgetting names. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's your piss stream? I feel like that might be getting a bit weaker. So this is interesting because I always think,

because I'm starting to forget people's names, for instance, that I don't know that well, or things like that. So I always think my brain is devolving now, but you're saying that it's just, it's not, I mean, it can be retrained. Yes. Does weed make your brain stronger? What was that? Does weed make your brain stronger? This is a Hail Mary. There's no evidence of that.

Ah, no evidence of it? Oh, well. I'll forget anyway. It does relax you. We know that. And, you know, you've got to be in a relaxed state to learn and to figure things out,

so it's not a bad thing. All right. We're good. But when I'm forgetting stuff, or whoever, it's because a bad thing all right we good but when i'm forgetting stuff or whoever it's because we're not using that part of our brain anymore is that way or okay so right so that's that area needs extra attention and right and you know the theory is that the nouns go first so names right or the objects you're like oh i used to be able to call that all the time what it was but starts it starts, you know, beginning to suffer. But, you know, verbs, they stay with us.

It's just because of how our brain, I guess, doesn't allow us to control those things. But priming it can help. So I do this tremendous class. It's called Ageless Grace. It started off as a program just for seniors, but now my colleague and myself have been testing it out on individuals post-stroke. And we got a couple publications on it. It's a lot of fun. So it's basically where they're doing cognitive activity while they're moving their arms and legs. we kind of do that in naturally in therapy but oftentimes the therapists get so focused on just trying to get people to improve their walking or improve

their movement or their balance or so they forget about doing the dual task of making sure they do the motor activity and think so So to solve your nouns issue, there's a lot of evidence to show that just doing more brain training games or just having more fun where you have to kind of manipulate things in your mind. Well, I'll be honest, Doctor. There's good evidence for that.

I've already forgotten your name, right? Dr. Thielman. Dr. Thielman. Thielman. Thielman. So is that maybe why I can remember stand-up better than anything else? Dr. Thielman. room when I'm moving around and I feel like I'm the juices are flowing and I'm even better if I just did a exercise activity half an hour before because then my brain is really primed and I'm really you know energetic and I've got all my thoughts are coming to me easily as opposed to um you know if you're sitting statically or we're sitting now sometimes the energy is not flowing I have one exercise physiology colleague across the hall from me.

He walks all day long on the treadmill during his meetings, and he comes out of there, and he is ready to explode because he's got so many ideas on him. But there's a lot to that. So it's just movement, and it's making us do two things at once that helps neuroplasticity. One of the questions I didn't ask you, Jim, is can physical exercise enhance neuroplasticity?

Of course. Dr. Thielma was just saying that, but that makes sense, like, why when people that are older that are more mobile that walk, like when my mom, before she passed away, but she made it a point to always be moving. Not only so her muscles weren't atrophying. She's just trying to get away from forest.

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I love the therapy. I've been going to therapy. I'm nervous about to go off to Europe for six weeks without therapy. So you know what I'm doing? BetterHelp. I'm going on BetterHelp. Nice. So I can do it because I normally meet people in Perth,

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give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire and get matched up with a licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time at no additional charge discover your potential with better help that's betterhelp.com slash idk today to get 10 off your first month i put the code in myself that's betterhelp.com slash idk yeah but i think it was their muscles went naturally but also i think it was their muscles went naturally, but also I think it helped their brain too, I think,

to keep, I guess what you're saying, yeah. You are absolutely right. How do I remember people's names better? What do I have to do? Because I've gotten worse at this. So there is good literature out there that shows that if you do more word activities in your brain, so you know, like a lot of people love to do crosswords, okay?

Certainly seniors spend time doing crosswords, and it's a good thing because it's good for your words and your brain. Loads of idiots play Scrabble. Do some of the other. Go ahead. I said loads of idiots play Scrabble. Oh, there you go, right? Scrabble's so much fun.

Anyway, I've got to cut this stuff off. I want to know how to remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So some people do crosswords, as you were saying, the older bit, which I do those. Crosswords are good, but I encourage them to move. So in other words, do an activity. You know, there's this actually this trail making activity

where you stand up and it's like a huge twister board and you kind of have to walk. So when I'm with a group of individuals after a stroke or if I go to a senior center, I'll introduce that to them. Say, okay, we're going to do a trail making activity on this big, huge twister and you're going to, your brain's going to get, you're going to move because you're going to be walking from space to space and you're going to, you know, going to be walking from space to space and you're

going to you know it's like a big twister game really is what we do with them and they have to think and they have to work around other people so it's balanced activity it's tremendous activity so there is lots of ways if as long as we move and think at the same time that we are priming our brains to not forget or priming our brains to stay up for whatever it is the activity that we are priming our brains to not forget or priming our brains to stay up for whatever it is, the activity that we're engaged in. Now, I'm very certain or scared that I'm going to get dementia. I just feel like it runs in my family. Your dad doesn't have another one.

My dad's got the, that's another thing. But anyway, so I... Can it fix dementia? How far away are we from fixing dementia? And follow-up question. You know, whenever you meet someone with Tourette's, right, and they can swear and all that type of stuff, they always...

People I've talked to have had Tourette's. They said it was good in school because you could just tell the teacher to fuck off and go, Tourette's, right? I reckon if I get dementia, I'll be... It's like how I told my wife my vasectomy was going to take a week to heal up instead of two days so she'd leave me alone for a week I reckon I will fucking I've forgotten something again just to get away with it yeah

I'll take advantage in the early days when I've still know a little bit that I've got it yeah I'll be abusing the shit out of my dementia how many questions did you have what's the question you want to ask him? The first one is, can it stop dementia? And do the dementia patients you know, have you used dementia in their favor? Oh, that's funny about using it in their favor. You know, okay, so early on in the dementia process,

they know, you know, they know. So then they go to get help and they go to go to you know figure out how to slow it down and there are certain meds that have shown that they can help a little bit certainly the activity in conjunction with the meds is the ideal program but then at some point when they can no longer slow it down they don't totally know well but we don't know they know because they're not able to be explicit about it. So they probably do use it to their favor because we don't know what they're thinking. Yeah, I'll just be showing up in strip clubs all over town. Well, I wandered away.

Yeah, that's what he did in Breaking Bad, didn't he? Remember? He pretended he had an episode. He was naked in the grocery store. And then his wife... That was a documentary. Well, I don't know. It comes from somewhere. And then

so neuroplasticity is different from neurogenesis. You mentioned neurogenesis. What's the difference between those two? Well, so it's kind of like how we initially develop. So all of that goes into the, you know, our, so our brains aren't necessarily called on to be very plastic to recover until we age or until we want to develop certain areas of the brain that aren't highly developed. So that's all neuroplasticity. Neurogenesis is just what happens like, like, um,

Jim just said, you know, early in birth, you know, everything is starting to connect so that all those connections that are starting to develop, um, that's the neurogenesis. And then that's the, how we get our genetics, you know, cause all of those connections come together and then we are able to, you know, people are, have certain people have certain genes that come together and allow them to continuously, you know, move and control the mind. So, I mean, I'm not an expert on neurogenesis, obviously. That's a fine gift. It's not. It's very different than neuro.

You know more than we do. So, you're an expert here now. So, what are some examples of behaviors or experiences that can enhance neuroplasticity? You talked a little bit about it. This is when Jim was moving his finger, I think. His finger? I already answered it. Oh, do we not need to talk about it?

He said it was right. Oh, okay. I remember that. Let's not look any further into it. Besides exercise, like, is eating, like, is that like a, or is there any? Well, okay, so nutritional supplements are, yeah, that's a whole different field. But however, we know that nutritional supplements will help. But the timeframe of when they can get to our bloodstream and have an effect is the – that's the research that's going on now.

We don't know how long. We know certain foods are going to have fast effects versus other foods that are going to be much more, we take them much longer before we want to have our peak performance. And nowadays, the idea is not just peak performance motor, it's peak performance of your brain, you know, your brain motor interaction. So when is that peak performance going to occur? So there's good evidence that shows, like I said, if you exercise about maybe an hour or so that leads up to about a half an hour before your activity and then you kind of cool down and then for you'll be good for about an hour you'll be really primed and it's your highest level of thinking and processing and reaction times and responding to cues that maybe give you interference. So that's a problem in our brain when we have interference.

But you'll be able to work through those if you do that priming activity. Exercise is one of them. You know, like people that are unable to exercise doing some cognitive activity, like I said, the crossword or something like that is another one. And then in therapy, we actually do these brain stimulations. We'll put brain stimulations on the head. For a while there, there was these gimmicks that were knock-offs that people were just buying them.

Athletes were just buying them and putting them on their head before their activity. There's not much evidence for those yet, but they're out there. The next time, if I ever get an acting job ever again, because I find dialogue very hard to learn. So exercise, and then the 30 minutes afterwards. Do it on a treadmill, like walk on a treadmill.

Practice your lines on a treadmill. I don't know. Or on a bike or something like that. Practice your lines on a treadmill or a bike. You got the bike. Would fucking count? It's an activity. You're going to practice your lines while having sex?

No, I'll just tape them to my wife's back. Well, she should read the other part. She'll have the other part on her phone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good. She'll read the lines back and forth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you could return the favor for her when she gets a part.

Nah, she's got a young brain. She's fine. She doesn't need the help. But also, like, with, I was talking to you yesterday, like, I'm doing the ketamine therapy, and that is meant to increase neuroplasticity as well. So if you want a drug route instead of an exercise route, you could try ketamine.

You can, but most people, if they want the drug route, they need to do some activity in conjunction. And Kelly's like, damn it. Well, you don't do activity in the ketamine part, but yes, you are encouraged to walk before it. Watch people exercising on TV? Yeah, I need to get in shape. That's no secret.

No, just a different shape. You're already in a shape. We were talking about this the other day. When you go to a doctor now, they either tell you to hydrate or lose weight. Hydrate, lose weight, do crosswords exercise yeah but and also just even what you were saying that you know sometimes before a show you're lying in bed you're like i'm just gonna stay in bed until right before i have to leave turns out that's not a good idea i forgot all my jokes is fish oil a good thing for it everyone

takes fish oil for everything oh i know fish no there's no evidence for fish oil a good thing for it? Everyone takes fish oil for everything. Oh, I know. No, there's no evidence for fish oil. I mean, I think there's a little bit of evidence for decreasing some joint pain, but no good evidence that fish oil is, you know. No, no, this is not. I have to say the supplements, that's young research that nobody knows. You know, I'll give you one fascinating thing now, and then we'll save it for later. There's this factor that runs in our brain. The blood in our brain is called

brain-derived neurotrophic factor. It's BDNF. It was a huge buzz for about the past 10 years. Everybody was like, this exercise is going to increase my BDNF. It's going to increase my mood. It's going to increase my mood. It's going to decrease my depression. So everybody was prescribing that we had to test people's BDNF in their blood system. It circulates in your brain, but basically by just taking, you know, a phlebotomist taking your blood, you can get your readings. So they decided that this was such a buzz in the field,

and the research ended up being kind of, you know, that's not the be-all, end-all. But for a while there, the thought was that was the be-all, end-all. I even had a publication on it, and we thought that we're going to track BDNF with all of our subjects, and if they increased, they were going to get much better with their motor abilities because we were priming their brains so much more. But it finds out that's not it. I know a lot of blokes my age taking testosterone. Is that good?

I don't want to take testosterone because I wank enough. Yeah, I don't want to do it either. I don't need to step this up. How are you going to remember your lines, though? I know a lot of comics that take testosterone. I'm not, you know, and like Bill Burr did a good bit on this where he goes, I don't want the testosterone of a man in his 20s. That's dangerous.

I don't want to get out of a car and go, listen here, buddy. Like, you know. Right. Yeah, so is that bad? I don't know if testosterone, I don't know. It's meant to help everything, isn't it? Does cocaine help? If you take, just for argument's sake,

if you take loads of cocaine in your 20s, does that make your memory better in your 40s? Before you answer that, doctor, here's a question I was going to ask you, Jim. What are some examples of behaviors or experiences that can impair neuroplasticity? I think that might be on there. Cocaine.

Oh, yeah. So interference, you might be right. It would impair neuroplasticity i think that might be on there okay oh yeah yeah so interference you might be right it would impair neuroplasticity because damn it yeah the long-term effects of cocaine yeah there is there is some good evidence for that yes um so but also anything that promotes anything that really forces interference in our brain that's too much so we have this there's this optimal theory where it's the just the right amount of activity between the motor activity and the cognitive activity and when you go too much then the performance really degrades and that's obvious when you start to like in general sometimes therapists just talk too much to their

patients they can't understand they can't follow't follow you because you've interfered with their processing. Or when you give them too much instruction before they learn a new task. It doesn't work because it's too much. So interference is a big problem. What would be the first thing you would do in therapy to, for lack of a better term, fix someone? Okay, so the environment so as the as a you know stroke rehab specialist who focuses on neuroplasticity and no matter what type of therapy i'm going to use first thing i'm going to think about is setting up the right environment so if they're

if they're really confused and they're um they don't like loud noises i'm going to put them in a quiet space and figure out whatever it is task that we're going to try to improve on that's going to, you know, ultimately, like Jim said at the very beginning of the show when he was moving his finger, his brain was telling him to do that. That doesn't happen without that grid circuit going from the brain all the way down the spinal cord to that finger. So whatever task it is that we're going to figure out the person that needs to work on or wants to it is that we're going to figure out the person that needs to work on or wants to work on, we're going to set up the right environment. Some people, they need to thrive

in a really busy and, you know, lots going on in the environment and they're good with it. So, so that's the first thing we're going to do is set up the right environment for them, whatever it might be. What can, can it be measured? Like, could, could we test, like, could, could we in here, could we, is there a way we could, do we take it online? whatever it might be. Can it be measured? Could we test? Is there a way? Do we take it online? Do we have to go somewhere? Has there a scoring system or something?

Finish the test now. Give us 50 bucks. They're all scams. I don't know. Nothing on the internet works except for porn. Dr. Thielman, can we get tested? And how do they measure it? All right. So we measure it by reaction time. So that's, can we get tested? And what would be the, how do they measure it? Yeah. All right. So we measure it like by reaction time.

So that's one thing we do to see if, you know, you test somebody, you don't test anybody before they have a stroke or say, or before they have brain trauma, you don't know. Or even an elderly person, you can test them when they're at a baseline, when they start to have a cognitive, a neurocognitive problem, you can test're at a baseline when they start to have a cognitive a neurocognitive problem you can test them at a baseline and some of the tests would be how they respond to interference tests like there's a stroop test out there which is a simple one that just you have to name certain things and then it changes on you to the color and you still have to name the actual words it's supposed to the color something like that is interference. Reaction time is another one we test or just the time it takes to do a task, whatever it is.

You know, get up from a chair, walk across the room and grab a cup, whatever it is. So time that task. Now that takes forever. And if that neuroplasticity is improving, then they shorten the time. I saw a thing with people with dementia where they started moving. I don't know if this is still a thing. They started putting them in houses where everything was like from the 1950s.

So their brain would start to get familiarities with their youth. And that made them. Is that a load of pumpkin or what is that? No, there's something to that. I don't know if it lasted, though. Again, I'm not a. But you know that study they were doing. Yeah, I do.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cool stuff because they thought about the environment first. And they're absolutely right. You get that environment to what the patient really prefers or how they're going to learn, what environment they're going to learn in, you're going to help them out. And you're going to set them up for the best chance for success. So for my grandfather, I should just put him in like a swamp

so it looks like Vietnam? Best chance for success. So for my grandfather, I should just put him in like a swamp. So it looks like Vietnam. Well, that makes sense. I've heard that like, for instance, you can all fuck off. I've heard, for instance, that when you're like in school and you're studying the, you know, if you're listening to music while you're studying, you want to keep your environment the same as when you're studying to when you're testing because that's how your brain remembers the most. So that would make sense that if you put somebody in a kitchen that they grew up in

or the type of kitchen they grew up in, it's like, this is what it looked like when I learned how to cook or do these things for myself. Yeah, so when we're really old men, oh, and women, okay? They're going to put us... Possibly.

Not Jack, this is your different generation. They're going to put us in rooms and we'll be in lazy boy recliners with friends on the TV. This is how I live now. Sounds fucking awesome. And then like, put on Smells Like Team Spirit again. He's starting, his memory's starting to go. Yeah. Oh, good.

Remember in- We're just in flannelette shirts, baggy jeans. Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah. Heroin needle. No, you remember in Coco, again, another documentary, at the end he plays this song, Remember Me, and then she starts moving her hand and starts singing.

You weren't set by yourself in your house, didn't you? I've watched it many times. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've told the story. A woman cried on a plane next to me watching that. I told her to watch this, and I forgot her dad had just died. Bad suggestion. She had been drinking on the plane.

She started crying as we landed, very loudly. Anyway, it's fun times. Mental illness, depression, anxiety, what's the relationship between neuroplasticity and that? Tremendous. After we have brain trauma, the depression, you know, goes through the roof. You know, we kind of let the people recover, and we think that's all about their processing. Their brains are trying to figure out how to move again or how to think again.

But the other problem is they're very depressed. So we, you know, music definitely helps. So, we, you know, music definitely helps. That's why this Ageless Grace activity is so cool because it's music while we're giving them commands to try to move as well as process something. So, in other words, I do this in all my classes. It's so much fun. So, you know, the typical thing where you pat your head and rub your belly. So, we'll add a third onto that while actually asking them to say something so they'll have to you know um spell their name with their right hand you know in cursive while they're patting their head and they're kicking their left leg you know when they're right so so we'll do all

these crazy things and it's supposed to really force the brain to really open up more and they're doing it while a music is in background. So a song they like, and then we'll put together all these songs, and then we do a whole class with it. It's so much fun. What if we don't have brain trauma like me, and I'm depressed? No, you have brain trauma.

I have brain trauma. You have trauma in your life. God, bucket loads. When I first met you, you were agile. You know when old people meet each other and they're really old and that's the biggest compliment very active brain

I met this woman down at the bowling club very active brain yeah and so I won't get active brain I was agile when you met me

no I'm joking you were never agile okay stop worrying the brain trauma doesn't necessarily mean like a oh good

I was never agile brain injury it still matters for like just any type of trauma right in your life exactly so you know that's the thing everybody thinks about oh it's my muscle or it's my nerve but no i mean their heart sure but it's all about the brain that's what i tell everybody it's all about the brain it's how the brain responds when i'm talking to you it's how your brain is processing information when i'm trying to reteach somebody how to walk again it's all about how their brain's crossing it's not how about

they're getting their foot out you know all of those things are the peripheral stuff it's you've got to figure out how best to communicate to the individual so that they're you can develop connections in their brain yeah we didn't ask this question about addiction and I don't know if you have the answer to this but can't used to treat addiction because I'm an addict. And I there's all these, you know, you go to 12 step meetings, they say you can do that. But then I've read that there's a gambling out. So like, there's a pill you can take things. You got other things for us. Yeah, sure. But that's my big, that's my worst one, I would say gambling man, my most destructive. And, but then sometimes someone said there's like a pill you can take.

I think it's like for antidepressants or something like that. It'll help. But could you train your brain not to be an – is that like a – Forrest is asking how could he forget about gambling. Oh, boy. The cognitive behavioral therapy is a long road. It's hard. And it's actually – I would think that you would do some of the same you know environment training that i talked about it's the environment right sometimes

the environment we know is going to make us worse can make that worse so figuring out the right environment to be in and then there's you know cognitive behavioral therapies of all another but obviously that they need they need to work together you do motor therapy with cognitive therapy and then if you have a behavioral therapist helping out yeah i was hoping you're gonna say crosswords and i was just gonna do more crosswords i stopped gambling turns out doing shows in las vegas is not a good environment guess not. What's the most remarkable recovery you've seen? Oh, you know, and this is a great thing that's happened over the past 20 years because I'd say for years they wouldn't do this. So an individual, I tell everybody, after they've had a stroke,

they can get some therapy, you know, or brain trauma, they can get some therapy every year. For years it was like you get your own therapy and then that's it. Your family's in charge of you, they can get some therapy every year. For years, it was like, you get your own therapy, and then that's it. Your family's in charge of you, and they're going to help you out, and as long as the rest of your life, you're not going to get any more therapy. So now they can get it every year, and I've seen people that have come into my lab with that really hemipredic arm. They can't even move it, and then we put them in a training study, and they start to get their arm out of the way from their body, And then they'll be in another study five years later, and they start to get some finger response,

and they start to use the hand again. That's mostly my speciality. I would bloody abuse that. If I only had to do therapy once a year for a couple of weeks, I'd come in to you, and I'd get my arm. Come in, and then I'd be waving goodbye. And you'd be like, he's come a long way real scam artist I'd get on my scooter and drive home how would you get your arm better if you weren't doing the therapy

because it's gotten better when he hasn't been watching because I've done the work for us I just haven't had people cheerleading me because my family aren't nice to me so then I come to the doctor and then he does it. I jink my arm up again. It's a movie.

You sandbag in the beginning of the appointment. By the end of it, miraculous cure. It's a movie. My left arm. But it's not inspirational because you're lying. They won't know that in the movie. Okay. They'll just make a movie about it.

You think Rudy was really small? Yeah. He was just standing on his knees with shoes. He was a regular size guy regular size rudy um yeah you're six foot four nothing you you weigh 220 pounds nothing um i asked jim can neuroplasticity be used to treat chronic pain he said of course through repetition and practice but i'd be interested in this because there are people that have chronic pain, and you can retrain yourself not to feel that?

Is that how it's done? No, no. There's nothing for chronic pain. There's nothing for neuroplasticity for chronic pain. It's about pain relief. So unfortunately, right, we know there's a crisis out there for pain meds, for pain relief. So, they have to watch that.

But there is, if we can figure out the right movements for them to do to assist it, you know, they start to move where they're in the area where they're comfortable. And then if they can slowly start to get more and more movement. So, chronic pain is so hard but it has to be a combination of meds pain relief meds as well as um you know not addicting pain relief meds as well as movement therapy you know which is there's different therapies out there it's not even just physical therapy actually there's there's some good relaxation therapies that help because once you get relaxed then we can start moving a little bit all right and then can you moving a little bit. All right. And then can you talk a little bit about, uh, this is, I think one of your special areas is working with neuro,

yeah, neuro degenerative diseases. Uh, I need some plasticity. So that's just Alzheimer's and, uh, yeah, things like that and how that,

so what you've done. Yeah. Yeah. So Parkinson's was so, so Jim asked me, you know, one of the most amazing stories that was for some stroke patients, you know, amazing stories, but, um,

and then certainly getting people to walk that haven't walked is an awesome thing for, for anybody, anybody. It's part of the family that if anybody's had that brain trauma and they haven't walked and then they start to walk again, but it's also great for the therapist to see that change. So seeing a lot of that. that um but that's the first goal everybody tells you when everybody has whatever happened to them first thing they say is i want to walk again they don't say you know i want to be able to get up up and down from the chair i want

to be able to move my arm again they don't say that at all they all say they want to walk again so if you ever get me i'll say wank again this needs to use his arm. I always think that those paraplegics must have some blue balls on them. Fuck me, it must be hard. That's probably the hardest thing, probably, yeah. That's the hardest thing. Maybe breathing sometimes.

Right, there we go, Kit Forrest. Thank you. Breathing's the first choice. The blue balls must be an issue in your occupation, right? So blue balls must be an issue in your occupation, right? For spinal cord patients, if they have sensory sensation down there, they're good. They're all good.

All right, so I cut you off. You were telling an important story, and I cut you off with masturbation. Oh, yeah, that's okay. That was a good side. We have to throw in some spinal cord injury information. It's important. But Parkinson's, so Parkinson's the the latest theory that's really taken you know every city has this now is a is a whole boxing activity so it's called um rock steady boxing where you try to get the individuals to overcome their slowness of moving

and they will go in their box and if they got balanced they'll kick box and they will go in there and box, and if they got balance, they'll kick box, and they'll walk fast. You have to watch them, but they'll watch them while they're boxing, and it's become a great thing because their feet move more, their arms move more, and it kind of slows down the progression of a neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's. It's awesome. And is it like two people with Parkinson's boxing each other, and can Forrest bet on it?

I'd love that. Forrest probably would find a way to do that. I got Michael J. Fox. But no, it's like boxing with a trainer. It's group activity, though, so you can do it where somebody's, you know, just punching a bag in the room and then somebody next to you might be having a trainer with them. But it's really a group exercise class with all these individuals in Parkinson's.

We have a few of them in Philly, and they all go in, and they love it. And the changes in those individuals as a result of going there is phenomenal. That's almost as – I mean, there's lots of great stories of certain disorders that have come back really well, but that's one of the best ones lately. So, because my wife's mad, that's her main exercise is boxing. She goes out in the yard and she has a trainer and she punches and stuff like that. She loves it. So, does that mean she won't get Parkinson's?

Oh, no. Unfortunately, that's all about the brain. What's in our genetics and then what's in our brain that could bring it out. We don't know. We don't know what's going to bring it out, but she's ready. I hate to say this, but if it does happen, she's ready. She's already got the basis for how to box. By the time she gets it, I'll be dead, so I'm not worried.

Good thoughts. Just her and your child. Positivity all around. it's your problem charlie how about your mom boy and then also i do tell people that i do tell people that they're you're um you know as you age or as you're just just recovering from whatever trauma has occurred you're using neuroplasticity just to get you ready because you don't know what's going to happen next to you had a stroke and you're at risk for another stroke or you know as we get into our 80s people fall all the time so you're you're priming yourself to get ready to recover from that and you know it's hard to convince anybody of that i mean let alone somebody that's

going through it but um yeah i i just turned 50 and i can tell you like i i used to not even care but in the last couple years i can see how you would die in a shower like i get in there i'm like this is slippery i'm like this is like i might fall here and go there and like i can see when you get to be like 60 70 80 90 it's like everything's a hazard i sometimes look at my baby with the full knowledge that he'll have to wipe my ass one day. I'm like, one day. Why do you think he's going to do that? Because you become the parent. You didn't wipe your mom's ass, but you become a parent of some sort.

But you have a fancy toilet. You have to fill out forms, and you have to do this, and you have to make sure they're okay, and all that type of stuff. That's why you've got to be nice to your kids. You've got to be nice to your kids because you want them helping you out when you're old. True. And with Alzheimer's's you didn't mention that but like has it been shown to like

reverse or halt the effects of Alzheimer's like any therapy yes but not reverse so you know like anything really for that's a degenerative condition the earlier we can address it the better that you would have to, you know, see the benefits of doing, you know, medical therapy as well as movement therapy.

The earlier it's addressed because if you address it late, you know, you ignore whatever that hand that keeps, you know, twitching or whatever, or the eye twitch that often comes on when somebody's diagnosed with MS. So whatever it is, if you have those conditions, you just have to get them checked out because the early onset is the better time to start treating it. It would, I guess, man, if you had a disease named after you, do you think you'd like that? I'm just looking at that.

I know if you discover it or you get named after it, but it doesn't seem like something good. My great-grandfather, Alan Hemorrhoid, he was a strong man, liked to sit and wiggle around a lot. Alan Hemorrhoid. Dr. Alan Hemorrhoid. How come I've never heard of this before? I hear you, Mr. Hemorrhoid. Well, we don heard of this before they hear you Mr. Hemorrhoid

well we don't like to brag I don't know it's not in our family DNA doctor would you like a disease named after you Dr. Thielman wow I don't know

you know it seems like a weird thing wait I don't well I always thought that about the guy whose name was Asperger it's like fuck you dude

those kids are already going to get picked on and then you gave them a name that sounds like Asperger yeah yeah like who the fuck do you think you are you're like individually Like, fuck you, dude. Those kids are already going to get picked on, and then you gave them a name that sounds like Arsberger. Yeah, yeah. Like, who the fuck do you think you are?

You're like, individually. I know you're a German guy or whatever. You're some type of Germanic person. Arsberger, you know? Yeah, Alzheimer. That seems like a lot of Germans. Yeah, yeah, the Germans. Alzheimer too, right? That's a tough one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heimlich. That's not a disease, but he's named the maneuver. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? I don't think I'd like that. Yeah, Heimlich. That's not a disease, but he's named the maneuver. They used to call piles Hitlers until it became unfashionable. Not Adolf, Dr. Hitler back in the day was the first person to follow. He was a different guy. I thought it was named after your great-grandfather, Alan.

Who was a Nazi. Oh, sorry. Keep up, Forrest. Okay. Okay, I think this is the time on our show called Dinner Party Facts. We ask our guests, our experts, to give some sort of interesting or obscure fact about our subject that our audience can use to impress people at home. Do you have anything about neuroplasticity? Let's see.

Yeah, the fact that music helps. I think that's a nice little fact to tell people is that, you know, yeah, you're listening to music is in training your brain. And if you're doing an activity with it, it's definitely a great, you know, activity for you just to even get ready to do something. Or, right, think about all the locker rooms when you were a kid, you know? You always had music blasting. That was good. We didn't know that, but it's a good thing because you were really priming the brain to get ready to move.

Yeah, you have a walk-on song when you're a comedian. Yeah. Yeah. Yes! Do you find that helps you, Jim? Helps me walk on. No, but that doesn't get your brain. It gives me the bit where I'm like, oh, it's starting.

Oh, I should go out on stage now it signals the brain yeah i only really suck myself up like 10 seconds before i go out there when the song starts is the only time like a pavlovian dog yeah yeah all right time to go yeah i don't pace around too much or anything no too bad no he's like how are they how are they out there yeah okay so So that works for you. You're right. But people, okay, so anybody, you find your environment that works for you. But if you're struggling at something, it's probably the best thing to do is to do a little activity before it because then it'll get you decrimed. That's one thing. All right. Well, thank you for being here, Dr. Gregory Thielman.

And again, if you want to find him on LinkedIn or ResearchGate, it's hashtag Greg Thielman. And then check out the neurosciencefoundation.org or Enigma Stroke Recovery Network to learn more about neuroplasticity and how it affects people. And I don't know if there's anything else you want to promote, but thank you for being here. people and i don't know if there's anything else you want to promote but thank you for being here um you know i'm a like i said a pt professor at st joe's university in philadelphia so that's a nice one and we you look up our our program and you'll get a link to our lab and see all the wonderful activities that we have doing a lot of this research that i talked about today is all being analyzed on mostly individuals after a stroke well Well, it's because you're from Philadelphia. One last question. How did Rocky get smarter with every film? The first film, he was basically mentally challenged.

And then the more he got punched in the head, by the third film, he was doing Amex commercials with the Muppets. How? You're right. I mean, he definitely should have gotten dumber because he was doing all that brain travel. Was it all the boxing therapy? Was it the boxing therapy that made him come around?

He was counteracting all those blows to his head. That's it. There you go. We've solved all the problems of the world. Thank you, Doctor. That was fantastic. If you're ever at a party and someone comes up to you and goes, do you have dementia?

You can go, I don't know about that. Denied Australia.