National Geographic: The Incredible Human Body Page #4

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and you compare a normal person,

you'd probably just see our

heart just beating a lot faster.

Narrator:
Heartbeat

is controlled by the brain

and adjusted

to the body's demands.

During exercise, when the

muscles require extra oxygen,

messages are sent to speed up

the heart rate accordingly.

For the hornets, these last

will tax their hearts

and muscles as never before.

Their coach summons

his exhausted players

for final instructions.

Final score:

bulls 95, hornets 102.

Wesley:

It was a long game.

Um, I'm feeling

a little dehydrated...

Feeling a little

sick to my stomach.

My ankles hurt, my feet hurt,

and my back hurts.

This is the agony of victory.

Sigmon:
I'm really impressed

by what NBA players

do with their bodies;

it's just incredible.

I think they are the

best athletes in the world,

without a doubt.

How they do it night in,

night out is just fascinating.

They're running faster,

they're jumping higher

because I think we're able

to train the human body.

It's doing things that we

didn't think it was able to do

maybe 10, 20 years ago.

Narrator:
How does the human form

reach such peaks of performance?

We know the bodies of

professionals like PJ Brown

Are expertly tuned -

his muscles accounting for more

than half of his body weight;

his bones many times stronger

than a steel bar

of the same weight.

Together, they're trained

to move with eloquent precision.

But is it more than fitness that

sets these top players apart?

Scientists and athletes alike

suspect that it is the

interplay between body and mind

that matters most.

Mabloire:
I feel that I've been

playing this game so long

that everything is just

a reaction at this point.

You know, I'm taking

You know, eventually,

it's just a part of you.

Narrator:
This endless

repetition off the court

creates much quicker

reaction time on the court.

It is as if extensive training

hardwires the brain.

Gage:
A professional basketball

player that trains hard

in many ways is a genius

in the sense that

they can run down the court,

dribble at the same time,

and see all the players at the

same time, and shoot the ball,

in ways that people

that don't train never could.

We're beginning

to try to understand

the implications of the fact

that what you do

can influence the structure

of your brain.

And very specifically,

voluntary exercise

can actually increase the number

of cells in the brain.

Coffey:
When you have a cell,

and it's called a neuron,

this little thing puts out

arms just like a tree branches.

And as you watch it

on the microscope,

it's doing

feely-touchy everywhere,

and it reaches out... gulp...

And as soon as it

touches another one,

it knows what it's touched,

and it's wired itself.

And then it begins

to stretch through

so it can sense the periphery,

your fingertips,

and your tongue -

they all come back

to the spinal cord

and they all make their way

up here finally to the brain.

And the brain is where

all these collective properties

are putting all this together.

Says, "Now I can

sense the universe."

"Wow! I don't know

what that is."

I know that

it's these cells that do this.

But how does that brain inside

the cavity in the head work?

Some strange things

goin' on there.

So what the frontier, of course is,

is understanding the brain.

Duffy:
Spell the word "man."

M-A-N.

Narrator:

Back at the Mayo Clinic,

Scott is less than

a day away from surgery.

To give doctors

a better understanding

of how

his particular brain works,

he undergoes a series of basic

cognitive and language tests.

Duffy:
Say

"They raise good potatoes."

They raise good potatoes.

Duffy:
"Will you

answer the telephone?"

Will you answer the telephone?

Duffy:

"I ordered a ham sandwich,"

"A glass of milk,

and a piece of apple pie."

I ordered a ham sandwich...

a piece of apple pie...

And...a glass of milk.

Penguin...

Narrator:
This knowledge

will enable the surgical team

to perceive change -

signs of danger -

as they talk to Scott

throughout the operation.

Lisa:
I wish

he didn't have to be awake

And he could

just put him to sleep

and do it and be over with it

but yet have the same results.

I mean, it's gonna be tough.

Scott:
I need to be conscious

through the whole thing.

I'm not sure exactly

how it's all going to go,

but that's very intimidating.

Coffey:

Do you know how many images

your eye has seen

since you were born?

sounds you've heard?

How in the world could you have

stored all of those sounds,

and all of those images -

in French, German, English,

or whatever

you're storing it in -

and be able to retrieve it

when I just say the word?

If I say "Saturn's rings,"

how are you able,

in the length of time it took

the sound wave to hit your ear,

to retrieve that?

It is so astounding

when we take a look at...

At how fast the brain works

and how amazing it is.

Narrator:
How, and where, the brain

achieves this complex feat of memory

has puzzled scientists

for centuries.

Science is on the trail

of this great mystery

and an unexpected answer

comes from an unlikely source...

London's legendary taxi drivers

are the Olympic athletes

of memory.

Navigating the intimidating labyrinth

that is central London,

they must create

an intricate mental map,

consisting of thousands of

streets, landmarks, and locations.

Kelly:
London

is such an enormous city.

It's a massive area,

chaotic geography...

And it's grown up organically.

There's no real planning to it.

So the streets bend,

they twist.

Osborne:
I mean,

in London we've got streets

Where on one side of the street

it's called one name,

And on the other side of the

street it's got another name.

Lee:
London wasn't laid out for

the traffic that we've got now.

It was laid out for

horses and carts, and whatever.

And it's adapted

to a large extent.

So we've had to adapt to it

as well, you know?

Narrator:
University of London

scientist studying the shape of memory

found ideal subjects

right in their own backyard.

For 150 years,

every new cab driver

has had to pass a grueling exam,

known to Londoners

simply as "the knowledge."

It takes most hopefuls

at least two years to master -

giving researchers

a superb opportunity

to look at how the brain

adapts when required

to retain vast amounts

of information.

Lee:
I don't think there's

any other city in the world

where the cab drivers have to

take as much of a test as we do.

Man:
Thanks, mate,

can you take me to Albert Hall...

Lee:
When somebody gets

in your cab,

they'll say,

"Take me to so-and-so,"

It's got to be like that,

you've got to know instantly

where you're going,

which way to be pointing.

So there's a lot of retention -

you've got to retain a lot

of what you've learned as well.

Narrator:
Here are ordinary

people whose jobs depend on

exercising their brains

in an extraordinary way.

Scientists suspect that

a particular region

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