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Do you know what Aristotle believed?

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Aristotle said that we think
with our hearts

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and the brain only cools the blood
coming from our hearts

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after thinking.

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Doesn't it sound outrageous

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that one of the most brilliant minds
in human history

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had paralleled the human brain
to a radiator?

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I think we all agree that this time
Aristotle was wrong.

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For about 10 years, I've been studying
the heart-brain relationship.

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Basically, the way in which the heart
induces neurological disease,

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like cerebral vascular accidents,

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and how the brain induces heart disease,

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like arrhythmias.

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And through this research
I came across many surprises.

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That belief that we only think
with our brain

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and that the heart only pumps blood,
is not that accurate.

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For example, how many times you were told
to "decide with your heart"?

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What does this pump of pure muscle
have to do with decision-making?

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Or maybe with the intuition,

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which sometimes we need
to make decisions?

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There is a study by Cambridge University

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that revolutionized the subject
on deciding with our hearts.

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And opened the path to what we call:

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"research in decision-making."

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In this study, subjects were asked
to participate in a game

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in which they had to make decisions

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based on simulated situations
on a computer.

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There were always two options:

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one with a favorable outcome,

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the other with a unfavorable outcome.

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While participating in the game,
they had their heart beats monitored

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in order to know how the heart reacted
just before making a decision.

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And what they found was that

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before making a decision that
would have a favorable outcome,

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the heart beat in a particular way.

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But when they were going to make
a unfavorable decision,

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it beat in a totally different way.

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So, apparently,

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the heart knew before the brain
was conscious,

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if the decision about to be taken

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was going to be favorable
or unfavorable.

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I ask you to keep this in mind

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and we'll make an exercise ourselves,
we'll experiment with our bodies.

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Please, close your eyes.

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Close your eyes and keep quiet,

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and put your hands over your knees,
until I tell you so.

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While doing this test,

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I'd like to know if you can sense
your heart beats.

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OK, please open your eyes.

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Please, raise your hands those of you
who were able to sense your heart beats.

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Perfect, approximately 50 percent.

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Among those who raised their hands

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probably many of them have developed

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an ability called interoception.

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What is the interoception?

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It's the capacity of sensing
the messages produced by our bodies,

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sent by our bodies.

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For example, in this case,
our heart beats.

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Back to the experiment carried out
at Cambridge University,

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those participating in the game
had done what you have

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and were classified in those
with good interoception,

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and those with bad interoception.

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The most interesting fact
in this experiment was that

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those with good interoception made
favorable decisions more frequently

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than those without good interoception.

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The conclusion of this seems to be
that those people able to detect,

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decode and process messages sent
by our hearts before making a decision,

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apparently can make better decisions.

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Like in any other revolutionary
experiment like this one,

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it's necessary to check results with other
scientists making similar studies.

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But, meanwhile, don't you think
that sayings like:

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"listen to your heart"
or "I have gut feeling"

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don't sound so wrong when deciding?

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But how do brain and heart
collaborate in such manner

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when making a decision?

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There's a specific area inside the brain,
the main subject of our research,

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called insula.

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It's called insula because it resembles
an island underneath the cortex,

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and is hidden, and extremely connected
to the whole brain.

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It resembles a local airport

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where all connections
arrive to and depart from.

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But the insula is also connected
to other organs

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like the heart or the bowel,
among others,

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and so, it is also an
international airport

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where all connections to other organs

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besides the brain 
come to and depart from.

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Most interestingly about the insula
is that it's made purely of neurons,

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and the heart is pure muscle.

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So you may say:

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How can these two organs communicate
being so different?

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The answer is quite surprising 
because the heart, like the brain,

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has neurons.

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Those white spots you see there
in the heart are neurons,

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group of neurons, where connections
from the brain arrive to.

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And this you are seeing
is a typical heart;

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the heart's anatomy.

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And what happened throughout 
human history for a heart like that

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to become the universal symbol of love?

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What does the heart have to do
with loving or falling in love?

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In other study,

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subjects were asked to bring pictures
of someone they loved deeply,

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and somebody who didn't mean
anything to them.

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They used a special kind of magnetic
resonance imaging, called "functional,"

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that let us see which parts 
of the brain are being activated

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after certain stimuli, 
or certain actions.

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What came out 
from this experiment is that

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when subjects saw the picture
of their loved ones,

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areas related with pleasure
and reward were activated.

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And not by chance, one of those areas
was indeed the insula.

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The insula seems to be related,
along with other areas of the brain,

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with functions

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that allow us to be aware
that we're in love.

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It allows us to say, "This is 
the person I am in love with."

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And also because of its connections
with the brain,

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with the heart and with the bowel,

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makes it possible that 
when we are with our beloved

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we have tachycardia, palpitations,

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and that feeling of having
butterflies in our stomach,

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when we are in love.

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So, we fall in love with our brains,
and not with our hearts.

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This level of interconnection

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with our brain and also the insula,

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has many functional repercussions,

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but it also may result 
in health problems.

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For example, I would like
to show you this graphic:

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In the horizontal axis we have
the months of May, June and July.

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And in the vertical axis,

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the number of heart attacks in Munich.

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In 2003, the number of heart attacks
stayed constant,

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there were no changes.

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In 2005, something similar happened.

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In 2006, during May
everything stayed the same;

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during June and July there was a sudden
rise in the number of heart attacks.

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What happened?

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OK, many of you already noticed:
the 2006 World Soccer Cup.

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(Laughter)

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And each match played by Germany,

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is represented by each peak
you see in this graphic.

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Most interesting is that peak number 5,

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is the match for quarter finals
between Germany and Argentina

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which final result 
I'd rather not mention.

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(Laughter)

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This match was being watched by a friend
called Hans at his house.

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Hans was sitting in front of the TV,

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and saw the first and the second half
which ended even

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and all the definition by penalty.

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Germany was winning 4 to 2,

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the last penalty pending,

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Cambiasso prepares to kick
and Lehmann is at the soccer goal.

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Cambiasso kicks, Lehmann gets it,
Germany classifies,

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and Hans, a extremely passionate fan,

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(Laughter)

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screams like ever, releases all 
his energy and adrenaline accumulated

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during those 90 minutes plus penalties,

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and after finishing screaming

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ends up in hospital with a heart attack.

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Like many other Germans

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that day when the number
of heart attacks in Munich tripled.

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Hans is a living example

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of how some emotions affecting our brain

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result in cardiac problems.

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The stress suffered by Hans,
that adrenaline overdose

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compromised his heart
and resulted in a heart attack.

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So, here we ask ourselves,

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do we have to give up
and accept that we are exposed

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to what this complex brain-heart system

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exposes us to, regarding our emotions?

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Or is there something we can do?

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Science is opening many doors,
one of them to ancient techniques.

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Techniques that albeit having 
thousands and thousands of years,

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have only been explored serious
and intensively during the last years.

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One of them is "mindfulness."

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Mindfulness is somewhat
a form of meditation

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that allows us to concentrate
in what's going on around,

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in physical sensations, emotions,

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and in messages from our bodies.

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Does this "messages from our bodies"
ring a bell to you? Interoception?

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When I heard about mindfulness
10 or 12 years ago,

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I was absolutely skeptical
because, sure enough,

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there was no scientific evidence, none.

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And as we tend to think 
with scientific and medical minds,

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if is not proven, it's useless.

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So look at what happened
during the last 10 years.

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From 2005 to 2015:

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Scientific publications which have
the word "mindfulness" in their title.

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An important increase and most of them,

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the most important part
of the publications you're seeing,

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is related to how useful mindfulness
can be to alleviate things like stress.

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I know you are skeptical

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and have a curious mind

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and you won't believe anything I say.

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So let's pretend you're scientists,

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and I ask you to think which
stressful situation we may use

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to prove whether mindfulness
is useful in fighting stress or not.

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Which is the worst-case scenario?

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War.

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In California, there is a center

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where Marines are trained
before being sent to combat.

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It's the last training 
when a drill is carried out,

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most stressful,

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where Marines are faced
with soldiers resembling

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those they will confront.

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Noises are the same,

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smells are the same,

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and said by they themselves,

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it's the most stressful moment
before going to war.

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In this training center,

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half the Marines were offered to do
mindfulness during eight weeks.

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The rest had usual training.

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They did mindfulness training,
and went through this terrible drill,

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and afterwards,
they completed a questionnaire

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assessing how stressed they were.

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Interestingly, those who underwent
mindfulness training,

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were much less stressed out,
than those who didn't.

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You may say, "Of course, 
they were biased,

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as they did mindfulness, they were
bound to say they were less stressed."

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But they were also measured a protein
in their blood released by the brain

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in extremely stressful situations.

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And those who had done mindfulness
had much lower levels

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than those who had not.

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So, there's an objective
and a subjective demonstration

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that there is something
we can do to diminish stress.

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And there are plenty of experiments
like this one, portrayed in this graphic.

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Thus, it seems that thanks to practices
existing for a long time,

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and which science is proving nowadays,

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we may have the possibility of decreasing
the impact some emotions have

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on our health and
on our heart-brain system.

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Maybe in the future, science will tell,

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even diseases like stroke
and heart attacks may be prevented

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by these kind of practices.

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For now, I think we all have

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to acknowledge the genius
of Aristotle, the first to think

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that heart and brain act as a system.

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And I think it is good to remember 
the words by a wise man who said,

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"A good head and a good heart 
are always a formidable combination."

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)