on those days where they feel insanely
lazy and they don’t want to do anything
what tricks can they do to motivate
themselves how do I take control of my
brain cuz your brain is with you
learning about the brain the whole point
of that is to really begin to understand
the things that you can use in your own
life to empower you to pick a direction
to know what you’re going after you can
trick your brain into thinking that all
is well to the point doesn’t matter
where you start it doesn’t matter who
you are everyone’s a lump of flesh they
can’t hold its own head up and poops in
its diapers right that’s where we all
start and we all learn to do something
over time now you can learn to do that
but man you’ve got to learn about the
brain if you’re not researching the
brain and finding the tricks that it is
pulling on you so that you can reverse
it and pull it back on the brain you’re
missing a trick how much do you think
that we can really rewire consciously
rewire our own brains it may be a while
but we headed the right direction I
think I mean the old view of the brain I
was a medical student one of the things
I learned was a brain consists of
isolated modules this is a caricature
but roughly people believed that
isolated modules specialized for
different functions the modules don’t
talk to each other is vision one on the
touch one does a hearing one the
foresight wonders of wisdom one there’s
memory they hardly interact they’re all
hardwired laid down at Birth by the
genome and that was it there was a new
study each module hoping others in the
brain now we were saying the exact
opposite is true our research has shown
patience and sentiments for example that
first of all these so-called modules are
not hardwired they’re constantly
interacting with the environment they’re
immersed in and with other people
there’s a sort of dynamic interplay of
signals back and forth between the
environment and the what module in the
brain the module and the skin and bones
as explained in a minute and each module
is talking to interacting powerfully
with modules of other people’s brains so
not only is it interacting within the
brain but it’s crossing you over to
other brains using mirror neurons so
this gives you a very dynamic picture of
brain function embedded in society
embedded in social interaction
embedded in your physical body physical
flesh anchored in the physical flesh of
the body it’s a very dynamic picture of
the brain which is highly malleable even
though the basic scaffolding is laid
down at Birth it’s very very radical
really looking in the brain I want to
get back to mirror neurons because you
have a really fascinating view about how
mirror neurons are essentially the thing
that allowed us to rapidly progress as a
species what I’m essentially giving
birth to culture one of the things yes
not to oversimplify the brain but what I
want to I want to go a little bit deeper
first on
yeah plasticity and and how its usable
so um one have you used it in your own
life if so how and if not how have you
seen it with patients you couple a
couple of striking examples she
amputated somebody he develops a phantom
arm and you amputate the arm eternity
phantom are in more than 98 percent of
cases very vivid experience of the
fingers at the palm of the wrist right
there but he doesn’t see it obviously
knows not they’re not delusional but he
experiences his phantom you reach out
and grab a cup the house of the faun
will waive the by very vivid sense of
experience major turning point in my
career is when I saw a patient about 20
years ago who’s sitting there he had a
phantom limb phantom arm and he’d come
to see me because he knew of my interest
in neurology and brain function and he
said he has a phantom that moves around
in reaches a model grabs objects and
telephone in the drains now out of a way
might wear a cup of coffee in front of
him empty cup and I said the reason to
grab that cup of coffee there with your
phantom
he smiled at me is it sure as he was
reaching for it I grabbed it and pulled
away and and my question was very simple
will the phantom then shoot out like
that rubber hand of that movie with the
horse’s name Jim Carrey and will it
shoot out to the west should the
physical limits of the flesh applied to
a phantom just kind of a silly question
if you think about it right that’s not
what happened an akuna music Caesar ouch
I said I said what do you mean without
it painful
I already grabbed the handle when you
pulled it and I said there’s no handle
there’s no cut there’s no happen you
know arm you know well that was well
done your brain is vastly more
mysterious in Marilla so here is a
phantom Anne reaching out grabbing a cup
that died itself a surprising and I
pulled a couple away from the Phantom
and he feels phantom pain and yelps
there was a period in my life where I
was god I didn’t feel like I was
depressed at the time but as I described
the symptoms now it will call it
bordering on depression I was laying on
the floor my face smashed into the
carpet just feeling hopeless and feeling
like what can I do right and it was
researching the brain that allowed me to
get out of that state because I realize
if the brain is that powerful that an
arm I do not have can experience pain
based on you pulling a cup away from it
what’s it doing to me now right how
because that’s not real right but how
much in my situation right now this
feeling of hopelessness I actually the
chills thinking about it this feeling of
hopelessness is your real friend to them
right like can can I do something can I
change it if if if there’s a mechanism
at play whether it’s mapping or whatever
and you’ve been referred to as the the
mapper of the brain so if this is it
doesn’t necessarily that particular
thing doesn’t necessarily have to be
mapping and if I could begin to
understand these things and how they
were being used against me essentially
could I flip it and use it for me
anything we study if you have three
agendas one is is it real second
question what’s going on in the brain
you know what why does this happen in
sometimes I’m individuals third question
who cares why is it important or is it
important can you put it in a broader
context so we deserve with phantom limbs
we develop a cure for it which we can
return to later if you want
then there is we did this for
synesthesia for example synesthesia is
condition where people see colors when
you see numbers my black and white
numbers I give you a number five when
you see black and white so these people
who say I see red
receive green or blue different numbers
it is a different colors stable
throughout your life
pounced on from generation to generation
so your parents are oldest in estate so
it’s a genetic basis what causes it when
we’ve discovered that an area of the
brain for colors the fusiform dentist in
the temporal lobe then idea for numbers
the visual appearance of numbers and
these are sitting right next to each
other in this huge brain he said what’s
the likelihood that some people have
this quirk they see numbers is colored
the number area in color area are
sitting right names detailing your brain
right so we said in these people maybe
there’s some cross wiring accidental
cross wiring so in a sea of five number
five Number five lights up in the brain
and cross activates across wearing the
red red color but someone might be green
color again you may say well dr.
Ramachandran you showed that the neurons
in the brain in area number area was
fire and activate the color area in v4
is cross wiring so these people have
this weird phenomena you see color
numbers so why should I care so it turns
out that synesthesia is eight times more
common among artists poets and novelists
that’s why we did camp so that gives you
the clue why should it be heat and more
common artists to present illness but
first we need to ask why does it run in
families in season why is there this
cross wiring you know seed cross very
normal people and you see five which is
see five black and white energy color
these people are cross wires any color
is because all our brains are
cross-wired when they’re in when you’re
a fetus in your infant everything is
connected to everything and as the child
evolves as a child grows up the excess
connections are pruned away and what
you’re left with is a characteristic
modularity that our brain a different
specialized area for color number
alphabets and so on and so forth right
if the pruning gene which causes the
SPRO need to occur and ruin all the
excess connections mutates then you get
de facto pruning so these connections
are left behind from infancy so every
time you see a number five you know
color
right this is a basis in Caesar he
proposed me since it had been confirmed
in many labs so now the only thing
that’s going on but it’s one of them
described are there ways to train my
brain to draw more of these connections
it’s a fascinating question and we
haven’t quite got that yet but we’re
getting there I think synesthesia so
there’s a gene that causes excess
connections because there are what are
called transcription factors which
allows the gene to be expressed
selectively in one region it is
expressed selectively in the fusiform
gyrus where the number area and color
area that they get cross-wired lenient
number color synesthesia and that’s no
big deal and it helps them remember
phone numbers unlike us they see its
spectrum of colors in front not very
useful these days with but it turns out
if the gene is expressed diffusely it
can happen then you get more cross
wiring throughout the brain and that I
claim is the basis of creativity and
metaphor even the bard Shakespeare said
it is the east and Juliet is the Sun you
don’t go Juliet is the Sun does that
mean she was a radiant fireball actually
good it’s not a bad metaphor he meant
she was radiant
she was nurturing she was warm she rises
in bed like the Sun rises in the east
and we can make any number of
connections you want she’s the center of
my solar system like the Sun is the
center of the solar system area and say
she was a master of doing this I bet
chicken safety might have been a
sentence I’m not sure but it could have
been as inosine but soon as these are
more connections throughout the brain
and therefore if concepts and ideas like
Sun and Juliet are enshrined in
different neural architecture in
different parts of the brain even
far-flung green into the brain ideas and
concepts the access connections across
the brain creates a greater propensity
to link seemingly unrelated ideas and
concepts and that’s the basis of
metaphor and creativity you know if we
lose in a scene it fit that for rapid
action and for for its purposes synonyms
perpetuating genes and in your lineage
you need to take shortcuts and it says
simplifying assumptions to say your
consciousness stops here you know what
your skin to protect that’s different
prison but surely as far as the neurons
are concerned mirror neurons which are
firing away and empathizing with another
person it’s all one big connected
network it includes other people’s
brains not just your own brain and it
includes the skin too as I told you
turns out that there’s a condition
called RSD if you don’t mind my way of
imagine you for a second if you have
normally if you have an injury to a
metacarpal bone and rst is like the
swelling the red yeah so use a tiny
fracture normally the finger swells up
and becomes red and it becomes warm
inflamed painful classic signs of
information and then the bone starts
healing after a couple of weeks and then
the changes in skin and flesh reverse
it’s called healing everything is fine
in about 1% of people fracture heals the
fingers remain swollen red painful and
immobilize you can’t move a finger whole
hand becomes immobilized red painful
swollen and worn entire arm okay and
then you start with this for life
deliver for decades you and there are 30
treatments none of which work adequately
the one treatment sympathetic ganglion
block which helps someone and we didn’t
develop a trick which is not widely
known and used for phantom limb pain but
we suggested it could be used for this
and the grounds have been the bane in
the brain had a small injury and center
command to move is getting payments in
which it out don’t move it is painful
this results in of pseudo paralysis so
the brain gives up attempting to move
the hand because it’s terrifies is why
try to Moodle painful so it learns it’s
called learning pain now you put a
mirror here hide the dystrophic arm
swollen on painful on put your normal
hand on the other side on the patient
look in the mirror and I move my normal
on do that later
my dystrophic arm looks like is moving
but it’s not it just lying still right
and sending commands to both hands only
this handle more in the sense not
it looks like it’s moving but there’s no
pain whoo you’re not moving that
understand he with me so far
yeah yeah so the brain says look your
left hand is moving fine you know and
it’s not painful go ahead and move it
you unlearn the learned pain and then
soon after all the experiments were
tried on about nine patients and
astonishingly about half the patient
online has user pain being have this for
months or years you’ve watched the
normal hands reflection in the mirror so
the district painful hand looks like
it’s moving with impunity it starts
moving not is it not not only does the
inflammation pain subside but the hand
starts moving paralysis subside it goes
away the redness changes the color
changes and at hand stop stops sweating
and you get the temperature changes you
can’t fake that with your mind so visual
input is going in affecting the
temperature of the skin as you watch
with a mirror Rama doesn’t this stuff
freak you out like do you not go home
and see what else you can put in the
mirror box and like what can I do with
this stuff absolutely you know a home
play with mirrors and discovered all
kinds of things I mean if I put two
mirrors at right angles and put my nose
cause you said my nose correctly sir
look looks like a normal face yeah one
half on each side of the mirror by Blinn
you know what happens yeah mirroring
maids bling-bling my right eye is grains
his right eye and he spooks he already
said my god what’s a dude haha unless
you know the object did the same thing
home and try it is beautiful and now
comes the fun part they simply ask you
to look at this gizmo and I say first
look at a normal mirror and move your
head around like this circumduction can
you say fine I mean you look at your
eyes it’s important look at the bridge
of your nose easy right
okay now you put two minutes like this
look in the center do the same thing
you can’t move your head or you do this
need some practice and start doing it
very slowly through the feedback is
wrong what you get what you get in the
normal mirror you use the feedback of
the head to guide your head this is what
we don’t realize that the brain doesn’t
function in isolation constantly
monitoring sensory input so we have to
attempt a correction the head moves the
wrong direction so you didn’t read
correct again the other way and then
again goes the wrong direction to get
into this feedback loop and you get a
pseudo paralysis of the head so who
would have thought that I can put two
mirrors in front of you a right angle in
the book asked me to look inside I said
move your head and even say I’m the man
what is for a normal person what’s
something that they can control and
would allow them a better quality of
life if they learn to control it the
best answer to that is rare to
creativity metaphor poetry alone so what
do you think they can do to practice
well the risk of sounding frivolous
expose themselves to a lot of poetry
write a lot of poetry even if it’s bad
stuff hobby it may be even if you need
to change it altered eventually write
your own poetry write your own jokes if
you can and hang around people who are
poetic mine and people who are
passionate about what they do who think
of life is a grand adventure like panel
on poets you know it’s cliche but but
just that’s that’s the key
[Music]
lazy and they don’t want to do anything
what tricks can they do to motivate
themselves how do I take control of my
brain cuz your brain is with you
learning about the brain the whole point
of that is to really begin to understand
the things that you can use in your own
life to empower you to pick a direction
to know what you’re going after you can
trick your brain into thinking that all
is well to the point doesn’t matter
where you start it doesn’t matter who
you are everyone’s a lump of flesh they
can’t hold its own head up and poops in
its diapers right that’s where we all
start and we all learn to do something
over time now you can learn to do that
but man you’ve got to learn about the
brain if you’re not researching the
brain and finding the tricks that it is
pulling on you so that you can reverse
it and pull it back on the brain you’re
missing a trick how much do you think
that we can really rewire consciously
rewire our own brains it may be a while
but we headed the right direction I
think I mean the old view of the brain I
was a medical student one of the things
I learned was a brain consists of
isolated modules this is a caricature
but roughly people believed that
isolated modules specialized for
different functions the modules don’t
talk to each other is vision one on the
touch one does a hearing one the
foresight wonders of wisdom one there’s
memory they hardly interact they’re all
hardwired laid down at Birth by the
genome and that was it there was a new
study each module hoping others in the
brain now we were saying the exact
opposite is true our research has shown
patience and sentiments for example that
first of all these so-called modules are
not hardwired they’re constantly
interacting with the environment they’re
immersed in and with other people
there’s a sort of dynamic interplay of
signals back and forth between the
environment and the what module in the
brain the module and the skin and bones
as explained in a minute and each module
is talking to interacting powerfully
with modules of other people’s brains so
not only is it interacting within the
brain but it’s crossing you over to
other brains using mirror neurons so
this gives you a very dynamic picture of
brain function embedded in society
embedded in social interaction
embedded in your physical body physical
flesh anchored in the physical flesh of
the body it’s a very dynamic picture of
the brain which is highly malleable even
though the basic scaffolding is laid
down at Birth it’s very very radical
really looking in the brain I want to
get back to mirror neurons because you
have a really fascinating view about how
mirror neurons are essentially the thing
that allowed us to rapidly progress as a
species what I’m essentially giving
birth to culture one of the things yes
not to oversimplify the brain but what I
want to I want to go a little bit deeper
first on
yeah plasticity and and how its usable
so um one have you used it in your own
life if so how and if not how have you
seen it with patients you couple a
couple of striking examples she
amputated somebody he develops a phantom
arm and you amputate the arm eternity
phantom are in more than 98 percent of
cases very vivid experience of the
fingers at the palm of the wrist right
there but he doesn’t see it obviously
knows not they’re not delusional but he
experiences his phantom you reach out
and grab a cup the house of the faun
will waive the by very vivid sense of
experience major turning point in my
career is when I saw a patient about 20
years ago who’s sitting there he had a
phantom limb phantom arm and he’d come
to see me because he knew of my interest
in neurology and brain function and he
said he has a phantom that moves around
in reaches a model grabs objects and
telephone in the drains now out of a way
might wear a cup of coffee in front of
him empty cup and I said the reason to
grab that cup of coffee there with your
phantom
he smiled at me is it sure as he was
reaching for it I grabbed it and pulled
away and and my question was very simple
will the phantom then shoot out like
that rubber hand of that movie with the
horse’s name Jim Carrey and will it
shoot out to the west should the
physical limits of the flesh applied to
a phantom just kind of a silly question
if you think about it right that’s not
what happened an akuna music Caesar ouch
I said I said what do you mean without
it painful
I already grabbed the handle when you
pulled it and I said there’s no handle
there’s no cut there’s no happen you
know arm you know well that was well
done your brain is vastly more
mysterious in Marilla so here is a
phantom Anne reaching out grabbing a cup
that died itself a surprising and I
pulled a couple away from the Phantom
and he feels phantom pain and yelps
there was a period in my life where I
was god I didn’t feel like I was
depressed at the time but as I described
the symptoms now it will call it
bordering on depression I was laying on
the floor my face smashed into the
carpet just feeling hopeless and feeling
like what can I do right and it was
researching the brain that allowed me to
get out of that state because I realize
if the brain is that powerful that an
arm I do not have can experience pain
based on you pulling a cup away from it
what’s it doing to me now right how
because that’s not real right but how
much in my situation right now this
feeling of hopelessness I actually the
chills thinking about it this feeling of
hopelessness is your real friend to them
right like can can I do something can I
change it if if if there’s a mechanism
at play whether it’s mapping or whatever
and you’ve been referred to as the the
mapper of the brain so if this is it
doesn’t necessarily that particular
thing doesn’t necessarily have to be
mapping and if I could begin to
understand these things and how they
were being used against me essentially
could I flip it and use it for me
anything we study if you have three
agendas one is is it real second
question what’s going on in the brain
you know what why does this happen in
sometimes I’m individuals third question
who cares why is it important or is it
important can you put it in a broader
context so we deserve with phantom limbs
we develop a cure for it which we can
return to later if you want
then there is we did this for
synesthesia for example synesthesia is
condition where people see colors when
you see numbers my black and white
numbers I give you a number five when
you see black and white so these people
who say I see red
receive green or blue different numbers
it is a different colors stable
throughout your life
pounced on from generation to generation
so your parents are oldest in estate so
it’s a genetic basis what causes it when
we’ve discovered that an area of the
brain for colors the fusiform dentist in
the temporal lobe then idea for numbers
the visual appearance of numbers and
these are sitting right next to each
other in this huge brain he said what’s
the likelihood that some people have
this quirk they see numbers is colored
the number area in color area are
sitting right names detailing your brain
right so we said in these people maybe
there’s some cross wiring accidental
cross wiring so in a sea of five number
five Number five lights up in the brain
and cross activates across wearing the
red red color but someone might be green
color again you may say well dr.
Ramachandran you showed that the neurons
in the brain in area number area was
fire and activate the color area in v4
is cross wiring so these people have
this weird phenomena you see color
numbers so why should I care so it turns
out that synesthesia is eight times more
common among artists poets and novelists
that’s why we did camp so that gives you
the clue why should it be heat and more
common artists to present illness but
first we need to ask why does it run in
families in season why is there this
cross wiring you know seed cross very
normal people and you see five which is
see five black and white energy color
these people are cross wires any color
is because all our brains are
cross-wired when they’re in when you’re
a fetus in your infant everything is
connected to everything and as the child
evolves as a child grows up the excess
connections are pruned away and what
you’re left with is a characteristic
modularity that our brain a different
specialized area for color number
alphabets and so on and so forth right
if the pruning gene which causes the
SPRO need to occur and ruin all the
excess connections mutates then you get
de facto pruning so these connections
are left behind from infancy so every
time you see a number five you know
color
right this is a basis in Caesar he
proposed me since it had been confirmed
in many labs so now the only thing
that’s going on but it’s one of them
described are there ways to train my
brain to draw more of these connections
it’s a fascinating question and we
haven’t quite got that yet but we’re
getting there I think synesthesia so
there’s a gene that causes excess
connections because there are what are
called transcription factors which
allows the gene to be expressed
selectively in one region it is
expressed selectively in the fusiform
gyrus where the number area and color
area that they get cross-wired lenient
number color synesthesia and that’s no
big deal and it helps them remember
phone numbers unlike us they see its
spectrum of colors in front not very
useful these days with but it turns out
if the gene is expressed diffusely it
can happen then you get more cross
wiring throughout the brain and that I
claim is the basis of creativity and
metaphor even the bard Shakespeare said
it is the east and Juliet is the Sun you
don’t go Juliet is the Sun does that
mean she was a radiant fireball actually
good it’s not a bad metaphor he meant
she was radiant
she was nurturing she was warm she rises
in bed like the Sun rises in the east
and we can make any number of
connections you want she’s the center of
my solar system like the Sun is the
center of the solar system area and say
she was a master of doing this I bet
chicken safety might have been a
sentence I’m not sure but it could have
been as inosine but soon as these are
more connections throughout the brain
and therefore if concepts and ideas like
Sun and Juliet are enshrined in
different neural architecture in
different parts of the brain even
far-flung green into the brain ideas and
concepts the access connections across
the brain creates a greater propensity
to link seemingly unrelated ideas and
concepts and that’s the basis of
metaphor and creativity you know if we
lose in a scene it fit that for rapid
action and for for its purposes synonyms
perpetuating genes and in your lineage
you need to take shortcuts and it says
simplifying assumptions to say your
consciousness stops here you know what
your skin to protect that’s different
prison but surely as far as the neurons
are concerned mirror neurons which are
firing away and empathizing with another
person it’s all one big connected
network it includes other people’s
brains not just your own brain and it
includes the skin too as I told you
turns out that there’s a condition
called RSD if you don’t mind my way of
imagine you for a second if you have
normally if you have an injury to a
metacarpal bone and rst is like the
swelling the red yeah so use a tiny
fracture normally the finger swells up
and becomes red and it becomes warm
inflamed painful classic signs of
information and then the bone starts
healing after a couple of weeks and then
the changes in skin and flesh reverse
it’s called healing everything is fine
in about 1% of people fracture heals the
fingers remain swollen red painful and
immobilize you can’t move a finger whole
hand becomes immobilized red painful
swollen and worn entire arm okay and
then you start with this for life
deliver for decades you and there are 30
treatments none of which work adequately
the one treatment sympathetic ganglion
block which helps someone and we didn’t
develop a trick which is not widely
known and used for phantom limb pain but
we suggested it could be used for this
and the grounds have been the bane in
the brain had a small injury and center
command to move is getting payments in
which it out don’t move it is painful
this results in of pseudo paralysis so
the brain gives up attempting to move
the hand because it’s terrifies is why
try to Moodle painful so it learns it’s
called learning pain now you put a
mirror here hide the dystrophic arm
swollen on painful on put your normal
hand on the other side on the patient
look in the mirror and I move my normal
on do that later
my dystrophic arm looks like is moving
but it’s not it just lying still right
and sending commands to both hands only
this handle more in the sense not
it looks like it’s moving but there’s no
pain whoo you’re not moving that
understand he with me so far
yeah yeah so the brain says look your
left hand is moving fine you know and
it’s not painful go ahead and move it
you unlearn the learned pain and then
soon after all the experiments were
tried on about nine patients and
astonishingly about half the patient
online has user pain being have this for
months or years you’ve watched the
normal hands reflection in the mirror so
the district painful hand looks like
it’s moving with impunity it starts
moving not is it not not only does the
inflammation pain subside but the hand
starts moving paralysis subside it goes
away the redness changes the color
changes and at hand stop stops sweating
and you get the temperature changes you
can’t fake that with your mind so visual
input is going in affecting the
temperature of the skin as you watch
with a mirror Rama doesn’t this stuff
freak you out like do you not go home
and see what else you can put in the
mirror box and like what can I do with
this stuff absolutely you know a home
play with mirrors and discovered all
kinds of things I mean if I put two
mirrors at right angles and put my nose
cause you said my nose correctly sir
look looks like a normal face yeah one
half on each side of the mirror by Blinn
you know what happens yeah mirroring
maids bling-bling my right eye is grains
his right eye and he spooks he already
said my god what’s a dude haha unless
you know the object did the same thing
home and try it is beautiful and now
comes the fun part they simply ask you
to look at this gizmo and I say first
look at a normal mirror and move your
head around like this circumduction can
you say fine I mean you look at your
eyes it’s important look at the bridge
of your nose easy right
okay now you put two minutes like this
look in the center do the same thing
you can’t move your head or you do this
need some practice and start doing it
very slowly through the feedback is
wrong what you get what you get in the
normal mirror you use the feedback of
the head to guide your head this is what
we don’t realize that the brain doesn’t
function in isolation constantly
monitoring sensory input so we have to
attempt a correction the head moves the
wrong direction so you didn’t read
correct again the other way and then
again goes the wrong direction to get
into this feedback loop and you get a
pseudo paralysis of the head so who
would have thought that I can put two
mirrors in front of you a right angle in
the book asked me to look inside I said
move your head and even say I’m the man
what is for a normal person what’s
something that they can control and
would allow them a better quality of
life if they learn to control it the
best answer to that is rare to
creativity metaphor poetry alone so what
do you think they can do to practice
well the risk of sounding frivolous
expose themselves to a lot of poetry
write a lot of poetry even if it’s bad
stuff hobby it may be even if you need
to change it altered eventually write
your own poetry write your own jokes if
you can and hang around people who are
poetic mine and people who are
passionate about what they do who think
of life is a grand adventure like panel
on poets you know it’s cliche but but
just that’s that’s the key
[Music]
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