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00:00Optical illusions get all the attention, but the whole body you have can be fooled and can fool
00:06the brain. One of my favorite physical illusions is the thermal grill illusion, and you can do it
00:12right at home. I have some hot dog halves in an ice bath. I also have warm hot dog halves.
00:19Now,
00:19what I'm going to do is marry the halves together so that they alternate. Warm, cool. Warm, cool.
00:27When I'm done, I will have a torture device, but not one that hurts your body, one that hurts your
00:35mind.
00:55Rosanna Pansino. Hello, Michael. Welcome to Minefield. Rosanna Pansino is the host of the YouTube
01:01cooking show nerdy nummies green cake so i thought she would be the perfect candidate to try out our
01:07hot dog illusion oh yeah now you didn't hear or see anything i just did right no good all right
01:12well you are in for a treat what i want you to do is take the bottom of your forearm
01:18and place it
01:19skin showing okay right onto these hot dogs oh what'd you feel ouch but now touch them individually
01:28they're like hurt cold warm cold warm cold warm but none of them is as hot as they all felt
01:37together
01:38so what's going on i don't know magic can i try my show oh yeah what we've built here is
01:46a version of
01:47the thermal grill illusion and for reasons that are still being debated this can cause a sensation
01:53of pain maybe the sensors we have specific to hot and cold are both also specific to extreme pain
01:59and getting them to fire right together makes the body think whoa whoa whoa if they're both firing that
02:04near to each other that means get away red alert red alert that's what my arm yeah so what i'm
02:09really
02:09trying to say is that this is a great way to hurt someone without there ever being a mark or
02:15any actual
02:15damage it's pretty sneaky do try this at home
02:30the surface of the human body contains millions of nerve endings that send touch related sensory
02:36information to the brain but in some cases those sensations don't even need to be generated by nerve
02:42endings ever heard of sympathy pain the most well-known type of sympathy pain is called kuvad
02:48syndrome it's when a pregnant woman's husband goes through labor pains husbands can actually sympathize
02:55with their pregnant wives so much that they experience the same problems such as weight gain insomnia
03:01nausea mood swings etc sympathy pain is also known as synesthetic pain it's pain sparked by seeing someone else
03:11getting hurt amputees can actually be more susceptible to it because experiencing trauma can make the brain
03:19more sensitive to other people's pain amputees can also feel pain in the limb that is no longer there
03:26that is known as phantom pain but perhaps the most surprising way that the brain and pain interact
03:32can be demonstrated by the nocebo effect have you ever heard of the placebo effect it's like when a fake
03:39pain pill actually cures a person's pain because they have a positive expectation it will work
03:44well today we're demonstrating the exact opposite if a subject expects they're going to experience
03:50something unpleasant like pain will they feel it even if it actually exists only in their mind
03:56we've told our subject that she's participating in a study to test a non-invasive bone density scanner
04:03but actually it's a totally fake machine that we built from a desk lamp an air compressor and the
04:10kind of ten dollar laser pointer you might tease your cat with it doesn't cause physical pain or for
04:15that matter physical sensation of any kind it doesn't hurt at all you guys this doesn't work
04:20but will the expectation alone make our subject think she's feeling real pain so come on in here
04:28just go ahead take a seat right there and then when you feel ready to drive just let us know
04:35and
04:35we'll dismiss you okay okay thank you first we have to make our subject expect to experience pain and to
04:41do that our actors are going to scare her a little sorry jessica this is for science so are you
04:47already
04:47done yeah i just you know need a minute and then i'll be good to go what'd you do it's
04:53like a targeted
04:54laser it tests bone density did it hurt yeah by the look on her face it appears we have successfully
05:02primed our subject for what's to come okay jessica we're ready for you wish me luck the question is
05:10when put to the test will she actually feel pain when there is really none there this is jessica hi
05:16jessica
05:17come on in did you have a seat everything in this room the medical equipment the hospital supplies
05:23even the demeanor of our fake nurse is designed to play on jessica's mind to psychologically induce
05:29the anticipation of pain we're testing out some equipment it's not invasive we need to measure
05:35the side effects and patient reaction and i want you to be really descriptive about what you're feeling
05:41and pay close attention to the pain that you feel and how it grows notice how we are suggesting
05:47that she will feel pain further raising her expectations i'm gonna give you a ball to squeeze
05:52for pain management okay and any time you want to stop stops right away okay okay you ready
06:10definitely warm uh-huh and like
06:16like tingly after only about seven seconds she's already feeling a physical sensation on her skin
06:23where there is none keep in mind we tested our fake bone scanner and the light emits zero heat
06:28or feeling of any kind yeah no it doesn't feel that great no it's okay we're at 30 seconds it's
06:35really
06:36like stinging a sting a sting and like really really hot now it's hot we're at 45 seconds yeah it
06:43doesn't
06:44it's okay i'm gonna turn it off okay thanks
06:50you described warm turning to hot it was like warm then that like heat grew into more of like a
06:56sting
06:57on this pain scale would you point to the amount of pain you were feeling between a six and a
07:02seven
07:03according to the pain assessment scale she experienced significant pain
07:08if this is completely up to you but we can move to level two which is slightly more intense how
07:14many
07:14more levels are there uh there's just five there's five levels there are five but again you're in the
07:20driver's seat uh yeah sure let's do it here's another test of our nocebo will she feel an increase in
07:28her level of pain if she expects to you ready keep in mind level two is fake we're not doing
07:36anything different than before meaning nothing is happening to her so yeah it started off higher
07:42than the last time i think it's definitely like already stinging immediately she reports increased pain
07:50on level two it's 15 seconds it feels really really really hot and like penetrating how deep um
07:5730 seconds i don't know like half half an inch or like an inch yeah it is very hot um
08:05like burning
08:08like my whole arm is like on fire
08:13we can stop at any time you want to call it okay we're off do you need a tissue yeah
08:20thank you
08:22could you rank for me how you felt at level two like nine and a half the power of suggestion
08:29was so
08:30strong our nocebo caused our subject to think she felt almost the worst pain imaginable other subjects
08:37felt different imaginary sensations the muscles are kind of uh kind of burning a little bit stop how did that
08:45feel that was like a seven actually it's tingling a lot more now than it was before i was surprised
08:52at
08:52the intense reaction some subjects had to a feeling that was created only in their minds okay i'm gonna
08:58stop it now that was 45 seconds describe for me the sensations that you were having it felt like a
09:05little prickle like when you get goosebumps what about our original subject who experienced a severe
09:12nine and a half on the pain scale how will she feel when she learns it was all in her
09:16head i want to
09:17debrief you on everything that we're up to today so this is a psychology program and this equipment is
09:24not doing anything to you this is just a machine that makes noise and that's just a laser pointer on
09:29a
09:29lamp for real for real you were never in danger we didn't do anything to you this is an investigation
09:37in pain anticipation yeah that worked i was so scared i was so close to like going to like just
09:44say you know what i changed my mind i was so close to leaving i mean you you did say
09:48that you felt a
09:49prickle uh-huh how do you feel about that whether it was really i didn't get goosebumps or i was
09:54nervous
09:54which is why i felt it i know as a person like if i think there's gonna be pain i'm
09:59gonna feel
09:59something i do still feel like kind of like a burning sensation on my arms really yeah the power of
10:05suggestion is so strong that this subject continued to imagine a physical sensation even after
10:10learning it wasn't real the name for the effect is the nocebo effect it's a negative effect caused by
10:16nothing but the mind it makes perfect sense you know the power of suggestion i'm shaky just thinking
10:23about it pain and touch are weird but what about when touch straddles the line between pleasure
10:36and pain when a sensation makes you laugh and drives you crazy i'm talking about tickling part of what
10:43makes you laugh when you're tickled is the element of surprise your brain doesn't know exactly what to
10:48expect or when it's going to happen on the other hand it's impossible to tickle yourself if the brain
10:54knows where and when and how you are going to be touched you won't laugh but professors of cognitive
11:00neuroscience at the university college london have invented the tickle machine subjects sit in the tickle
11:08machine with their feet against a brush that is connected to a handle at first when the subjects
11:12turn the handle the brush rotates at the exact same time resulting in no tickling then the machine is
11:19switched into tickle mode which causes a delay of less than a second between when the subject turns
11:24the handle and when the brush moves against their foot this slight change is enough to prevent the
11:30brain's cerebellum from predicting the sensation thus allowing the subject to respond to the tickle
11:37tickles can be fun pain not so much if you couldn't feel pain that would be great right or would
11:45it
11:46let's meet steve pete steve i understand you don't feel pain yes i was born with a rare genetic
11:53condition called congenital insensitivity to pain only affects about 40 or 50 of us around the world with
11:58it only 40 or 50 people so far that we've been able to find and tell me what it means
12:02when you say you
12:02don't feel pain pain is used to detect injury and it kind of sends a signal to your brain saying
12:08hey
12:08don't do this anymore it's an alarm system so what happens with my condition is we feel what's going on
12:13like if i were to touch your shoulder you would feel me touching your shoulder but if i were to
12:17touch
12:17your shoulder in a way that's painful i would feel just the pressure and the signal of pain would not
12:23travel to my brain okay so you feel everything else that i feel but you just don't feel pain correct
12:29but that can be dangerous how did you first find out you had this condition well what happened was
12:34i was teething and i chewed part of my tongue off uh so my parents quickly took me to my
12:39pediatrician
12:40wow are you ticklish yes do you itch yes do you like massages yes do you take painkillers no what
12:46about a headache no what about spicy peppers i enjoy them yeah i mean i do sense the burning sensation
12:54but
12:54nothing painful what about intestine pain like gas pain that's something i don't feel so that kind of
13:02ties into one of my biggest fears which is having like appendicitis or any other type of internal damage
13:07that i just don't know about until it's too late is there an upside to this i'm sure that people
13:11often
13:12naively hear that you don't feel pain and they think oh man well you should become a boxer the only
13:16upside to it is uh being that i have had so many injuries during my childhood as i get older
13:21i won't
13:21feel the pain that comes with it other than that really i just try to live my life normally as
13:25everyone else does i cannot describe pain to you just like you can't describe a color to someone who's
13:30blind which is where i run into my problem with with trying to describe what not feeling pain is like
13:35wow all that well steve thank you very much this was really really fascinating
13:42so not being able to feel pain is actually a bad thing but likewise the anticipation of pain can be
13:50bad too just making someone think that they might be tortured soon can be a torture device the cia and
13:57guantanamo bay are known for using psychological torture involving the anticipation of pain against
14:03prisoners in the war on terror the effects of this type of torture can last a lifetime so what's worse
14:12waiting for pain to happen or the pain itself you might be surprised
14:21we're basing our investigation on an anticipation of pain experiment conducted at the university
14:26college of london which gave subjects two options option one experience intense pain right away or
14:33option two anticipate a lower level of pain in intervals every few minutes researchers found
14:39that the psychological effects of dread can often be worse than the pain itself
14:46we decided to demonstrate this phenomenon by setting up a fake research study we are looking
14:51into the effects of electrical stimulation on the body it's all completely harmless but it can be
14:57unpleasant so we'll show you the two settings all right i want to show you first what we call the
15:02light setting okay okay you ready i guess so oh and then there's the high setting ow okay
15:13all right so again unpleasant definitely but you're safe we call this the low voltage or light shock
15:20okay ready all right okay and now we'll show you the the high voltage or higher shock okay
15:32okay okay now it's time for our subjects to make an important choice all right so now that you know
15:38the
15:38two differences you either can choose choice a which is one high voltage shock every 10 seconds
15:44for a minute will our subjects choose the higher more painful shocks but get it over with right away
15:51or choice b is one low voltage shock every 10 minutes for one hour or will they choose the lower
16:01shocks but be forced to anticipate the pain for 10 minutes between shocks for a solid hour either way
16:07you will be here for an hour what's worse a higher level of pain or having to wait and anticipate
16:14the
16:14lower level of pain i'll take a long i think i'll do the shorter uh more painful one okay now
16:22that
16:22they've made their choices it's time to see how our subjects experience these two options
16:28the subject who chose to anticipate the lower level of pain during the course of an hour is seated in
16:33the
16:33low shock administration room along with our actors who are pretending to get shot no actors were
16:40harmed in the making of this show this subject's hour-long ordeal is just beginning but what about
16:46the subject who chose to get it over with and take the more painful shocks right away we're starting now
16:53here's shock number one ow okay yes the shock is painful but it was her choice so this is shock
17:01number
17:01two it's really painful shock number three tap over exactly it may hurt more but she's getting it over
17:11with quickly shock number four number five number six okay you're done meanwhile our other subject is
17:21only on shock number one that's one shock down five more to go while the pain level may be lower
17:32this
17:32subject has plenty of time for the pain and its anticipation to occupy his mind hi jerome did you
17:42come with me oh okay finally his hour is up tell me about why you chose the lower voltage choice
17:49i guess yeah less pain yeah while you were sitting there waiting for 10 minutes to elapse how did you
17:56feel anxious it's so quiet in there so basically you got your thoughts and your thoughts is like okay
18:02he's coming this anxiety may be the reason why in the original study a full 70 percent of subjects
18:09opted to receive the more painful shocks right away rather than suffer through the mental torture
18:13of anticipation why did you choose the higher shock group just knowing that it was over within a minute
18:21i think 10 seconds was easier to go along with and anticipate what was coming next so it's kind of
18:26like
18:26ripping a band-aid off i guess hard and fast hard and fast yeah yeah yeah
18:38tickling may be annoying and pain may be well painful but we crave touch hugging feels amazing
18:50hugging hugging hugging can actually decrease your risk of catching the common cold and hugging can lower
18:56blood pressure hugging can also release oxytocin the so-called bonding hormone i guess what i'm trying
19:04to say is stay in touch
19:34uh
19:34that's
19:34very much
19:34that's
19:35you