Daniel Levitin: How to stay calm when you know you'll be stressed
Daniel Levitin: Cómo mantener la calma cuando se sabe que se va a estar estresado
Daniel Levitin incorporates findings from neuroscience into everyday life. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
I broke into my own house.
asalté mi propia casa.
in the dead of Montreal winter,
oscuridad invernal de Montreal,
Jeff, across town,
en la ciudad,
read minus 40 degrees --
marcaba -40 grados
if that's Celsius or Fahrenheit,
si son grados Celsius o Fahrenheit,
fumbling in my pockets,
delantero mirando en mis bolsillos,
through the window,
where I had left them.
donde las había dejado.
and tried all the other doors and windows,
todas las otras puertas y ventanas,
at least I had my cellphone,
al menos tenía mi celular,
for a locksmith to show up,
podría tardar mucho tiempo en llegar,
de Jeff para pasar noche
Jeff's house for the night
a Europa a la mañana siguiente,
to Europe the next morning,
my passport and my suitcase.
through the basement window,
con ella rompí la ventana del sótano,
and taped it up over the opening,
y lo puse en la apertura,
on the way to the airport,
camino al aeropuerto,
and ask him to fix it.
pedirle que lo arreglara.
than a middle-of-the-night locksmith,
que un cerrajero a media noche,
I was coming out even.
circunstancias, salía bien parado.
about how the brain performs under stress.
funciona el cerebro bajo estrés.
that raises your heart rate,
aumenta el ritmo cardíaco,
that I had to call my contractor,
llamar a mi contratista,
la siguiente semana en Europa,
the cortisol in my brain,
because my thinking was cloudy.
porque mi pensamiento estaba nublado.
to the airport check-in counter,
de facturación en el aeropuerto,
no tenía mi pasaporte.
and ice, 40 minutes,
en la nieve y el hielo, 40 minutos,
raced back to the airport,
volví al aeropuerto.
my seat to someone else,
mi asiento a otra persona,
trasera del avión, al lado de los baños,
next to the bathrooms,
on an eight-hour flight.
en un vuelo de ocho horas.
during those eight hours and no sleep.
pensar en esas 8 horas sin dormir.
are there things that I can do,
si había algo que pudiera hacer,
from happening?
of it being a total catastrophe.
de que sea una catástrofe total.
until about a month later.
mis pensamientos no cristalizaron.
Danny Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winner,
Kahneman, ganador del Premio Nobel,
about having broken my window,
de que rompí la ventana,
something called prospective hindsight.
llamado retrospectiva prospectiva.
from the psychologist Gary Klein,
del psicólogo Gary Klein,
a few years before,
esto unos años antes,
to figure out what went wrong, right?
de averiguar lo que salió mal, ¿sí?
all the things that could go wrong,
todas las cosas que podrían salir mal,
what you can do
qué puede hacer
or to minimize the damage.
o para minimizar el daño.
con Uds. es de algunas cosas
in the form of a pre-mortem.
en la forma de una premortem.
some of them are not so obvious.
otras no son tan evidentes.
for things that are easily lost.
las cosas que se pierden fácilmente.
like common sense, and it is,
to back this up,
que apoya esta tesis,
nuestra memoria espacial.
called the hippocampus,
llamada hipocampo,
of thousands of years,
a lo largo de miles de años,
of important things --
ubicación de las cosas importantes,
where fish can be found,
donde están los peces,
amigas y enemigas.
becomes enlarged.
that allows squirrels to find their nuts.
a las ardillas encontrar sus nueces.
somebody actually did the experiment
realmente hizo el experimento,
the olfactory sense of the squirrels,
de las ardillas
they were using the hippocampus,
sino el hipocampo,
in the brain for finding things.
del cerebro para encontrar cosas.
that don't move around much,
que no se mueven mucho,
que se mueven mucho.
and reading glasses and passports.
del auto, gafas de lectura y pasaportes.
designate a spot for your keys --
un lugar para las llaves,
maybe a decorative bowl.
tal vez un plato decorativo.
un cajón en particular.
a particular table.
una mesita en particular.
and you're scrupulous about it,
y son escrupulosos con ello
when you look for them.
cuando las busquen.
of your credit cards,
de sus tarjetas de crédito,
para que estén en la nube.
you can facilitate replacement.
esto puede facilitar la sustitución.
the brain releases cortisol.
el cerebro libera cortisol.
and it causes cloudy thinking.
enturbia el pensamiento.
you're not going to be at your best,
no estaremos en el mejor momento,
no more stressful a situation
with a medical decision to make.
ante una decisión médica.
are going to be in that position,
estaremos en esa situación,
a very important decision
una decisión muy importante
or that of a loved one,
médica o la de un ser querido,
a very particular medical condition.
médica muy particular.
of medical decision-making,
toda toma de decisiones médicas,
and social decision-making --
financieras y de decisiones sociales,
que hay que tomar
assessment of the facts.
una evaluación racional de los hechos.
and the doctor says,
van al médico y el médico dice:
your cholesterol's a little high."
y el colesterol está un poco alto".
of cardiovascular disease,
de enfermedades cardiovasculares,
isn't the best thing,
"You know, I'd like to give you a drug
recetarle un medicamento
lower your cholesterol, a statin."
el colesterol, una estatina".
de las estatinas,
the most widely prescribed drugs
los medicamentos más recetados
a personas que los toman.
people who take them.
"Yeah! Give me the statin."
"¡Sí, recéteme la estatina!"
you should ask at this point,
se debe hacer entonces,
don't like talking about,
no quieren hablar,
like talking about even less.
incluso menos.
el número necesario a tratar.
that need to take a drug
tomar un medicamento
or any medical procedure
cualquier procedimiento médico
what kind of crazy statistic is that?
estadística descerebrada es esa?
something to me
no funciona así.
doesn't work that way.
it's the fault of scientists like me.
es de los científicos como yo.
the underlying mechanisms well enough.
los mecanismos subyacentes.
in only 30 to 50 percent of the people.
solo del 30 al 50 % de las personas.
for the most widely prescribed statin,
la estatina más ampliamente recetado,
antes de que ayude a una persona?
before one person is helped?
Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband,
Jerome Groopman y Pamela Hartzband,
por Bloomberg.com.
el medicamento durante un año
take the drug for a year
derrame cerebral u otro evento adverso.
or other adverse event is prevented.
de bajar mi colesterol.
of lowering my cholesterol.
the prescription anyway."
Deme la receta de todos modos".
for another statistic,
preguntar por una estadística más,
about the side effects." Right?
efectos secundarios". ¿Sí?
in five percent of the patients.
en el 5 % de los pacientes.
gastrointestinal distress --
dolor gastrointestinal,
it's going to happen to me,
no piensan con claridad.
you're not thinking clearly.
to work through this ahead of time,
asimilaran esto con el tiempo,
la cadena de razonamiento en el acto.
the chain of reasoning on the spot.
A una persona le ha ayudado,
One person's helped,
have side effects,
de salir perjudicado por el fármaco
to be harmed by the drug
should take the statin or not.
tomar la estatina.
this conversation with your doctor.
esta conversación con su médico.
of informed consent.
de consentimiento informado.
to this kind of information
a este tipo de información
you want to take the risks or not.
si uno quiere asumir los riesgos o no.
out of the air for shock value,
por el valor del choque,
this number needed to treat.
a tratar es bastante típico.
on men over the age of 50,
en los hombres mayores de 50,
for every one person who's helped.
a la que ha ayudado.
occur in 50 percent of the patients.
se producen en el 50 % de los pacientes.
erectile dysfunction,
o disfunción eréctil,
of the 50 percent who has these,
y se es uno de ese 50 %
is to think ahead of time
es pensar antes de tiempo
that you might be able to ask
plantear
hacia adelante.
all of this on the spot.
fabricar todo esto en el acto.
about things like quality of life.
en la calidad de vida.
una opción muchas veces,
that's pain-free,
libre de dolor,
a great deal of pain towards the end?
tener mucho dolor hacia el final?
que hablan y piensan de ahora,
and think about now,
in the heat of the moment,
en el calor del momento,
en este tipo de pensamiento.
with this kind of thinking.
releases cortisol,
libera cortisol bajo estrés,
that happens at that moment
que sucede en ese momento
you don't need your digestive system,
no es necesario el sistema digestivo,
metabolism on those things
el metabolismo en esas cosas,
los leones, así que nada de eso importa.
and then none of those things matter.
during those times of stress
durante esos momentos de estrés
and his colleagues have shown.
sus colegas han demostrado.
to think ahead
para pensar en el futuro
is recognizing that all of us are flawed.
que todos somos defectuosos.
to what those failures might be,
cómo podrían ser esos fallos,
that will help minimize the damage,
que le ayudará a minimizar el daño,
from happening in the first place.
sucedan en el primer lugar.
snowy night in Montreal,
en Montreal,
a combination lock next to the door,
de combinación junto a la puerta,
el mismo, una forma fácil de recordarlo.
an easy to remember combination.
that haven't been sorted,
cartas que no he ordenado,
that I haven't gone through.
que no he leído.
as a gradual process,
como un proceso gradual,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Daniel Levitin - NeuroscientistDaniel Levitin incorporates findings from neuroscience into everyday life.
Why you should listen
Dr. Daniel Levitin is a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, dean at Minerva Schools in San Francisco and a musician. His research focuses on pattern processing in the brain.
His three books This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, and the recent The Organized Mind are all bestsellers. A polymath at heart, he has performed with top musicians and holds a few gold and platinum records.
Levitin earned his B.A. in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science at Stanford University, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Oregon, researching complex auditory patterns and pattern processing in expert and non-expert populations. He completed post-doctoral training at Stanford University Medical School (in Neuroimaging) and at UC Berkeley (in Cognitive Psychology). He has consulted on audio sound source separation for the U.S. Navy, and on audio quality for several rock bands and record labels (including the Grateful Dead and Steely Dan), and served as one of the “Golden Ears” expert listeners in the original Dolby AC3 compression tests. He worked for two years at the Silicon Valley think tank Interval Research Corporation.
He taught at Stanford University in the Department of Computer Science, the Program in Human-Computer Interaction, and the Departments of Psychology, Anthropology, Computer Music, and History of Science.
Daniel Levitin | Speaker | TED.com