Watch Moments Of Clarity Streaming' title='Watch Moments Of Clarity Streaming' />Your Brain on Computers Studying the Brain Off the Grid, Professors Find Clarity. GLEN CANYON NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, Utah Todd Braver emerges from a tent nestled against the canyon wall. He has a slight tan, except for a slim pale band around his wrist. Buy TiVo BOLT 500 GB DVR Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player 4K UHD Compatible Works with Digital Cable or HD Antenna Streaming Media Players. For the first time in three days in the wilderness, Mr. Braver is not wearing his watch. I forgot, he says. It is a small thing, the kind of change. Trevor Noah and The Best Fking News Team tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and pop culture. Watch Moments Of Clarity Streaming MovieFor the first time in three days in the wilderness, Mr. Braver is not wearing his watch. I forgot, he says. It is a small thing, the kind of change many vacationers notice in themselves as they unwind and lose track of time. But for Mr. Braver and his companions, these moments lead to a question What is happening to our brains Mr. Braver, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was one of five neuroscientists on an unusual journey. They spent a week in late May in this remote area of southern Utah, rafting the San Juan River, camping on the soft banks and hiking the tributary canyons. It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects. Cellphones do not work here, e mail is inaccessible and laptops have been left behind. It is a trip into the heart of silence increasingly rare now that people can get online even in far flung vacation spots. As they head down the tight curves the San Juan has carved from ancient sandstone, the travelers will, not surprisingly, unwind, sleep better and lose the nagging feeling to check for a phone in the pocket. But the significance of such changes is a matter of debate for them. Some of the scientists say a vacation like this hardly warrants much scrutiny. But the trips organizer, David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, says that studying what happens when we step away from our devices and rest our brains in particular, how attention, memory and learning are affected is important science. Attention is the holy grail, Mr. Strayer says. Everything that youre conscious of, everything you let in, everything you remember and you forget, depends on it. Echoing other researchers, Mr. Strayer says that understanding how attention works could help in the treatment of a host of maladies, like attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia and depression. And he says that on a day to day basis, too much digital stimulation can take people who would be functioning O. K. and put them in a range where theyre not psychologically healthy. The quest to understand the impact on the brain of heavy technology use at a time when such use is exploding is still in its early stages. To Mr. Strayer, it is no less significant than when scientists investigated the effects of consuming too much meat or alcohol. But stepping away is easier for some than others. The trip begins with a strong defense of digital connectedness, a debate that revolves around one particularly important e mail. On the Road. The five scientists on the trip can be loosely divided into two groups the believers and the skeptics. Tyson Full Movie Part 1 there. The believers are Mr. Strayer and Paul Atchley, 4. University of Kansas who studies teenagers compulsive use of cellphones. They argue that heavy technology use can inhibit deep thought and cause anxiety, and that getting out into nature can help. They take pains in their own lives to regularly log off. The skeptics use their digital gadgets without reservation. They are not convinced that anything lasting will come of the trip personally or scientifically. This group includes the fast talking Mr. Braver, 4. 1, a brain imaging expert Steven Yantis, 5. Johns Hopkins, who studies how people switch between tasks and Art Kramer, 5. University of Illinois who has gained attention for his studies of the neurological benefits of exercise. Also on the trip are a reporter and a photographer, and Richard Boyer, a quiet outdoorsman and accomplished landscape painter, who helps Mr. Strayer lead the journey. Among the bright academic lights in the group, Mr. Kramer is the most prominent. At the time of the trip he was about to take over a 3. Beckman Institute, a leading research center at the University of Illinois with around 1,0. He is also intense personally someone who has been challenging himself since early in life he says he left home when he was a teenager, became an amateur boxer and, later, flew airplanes, rock climbed and smashed his knee in a high speed skiing accident. They are driving six hours from Salt Lake City to the river, and they stop at a camping store for last minute supplies. Mr. Kramer waits out front, checking e mail on his Black. Berry Curve. This sets off a debate between the believers and skeptics. Back in the car, Mr. Kramer says he checked his phone because he was waiting for important news whether his lab has received a 2. He has instructed his staff to send a text message to an emergency satellite phone the group will carry with them. Mr. Atchley says he doesnt understand why Mr. Kramer would bother. The grant will still be there when you get back, he says. Of course youd want to know about a 2. Mr. Kramer responds. Pressed by Mr. Atchley on the significance of knowing immediately, he adds They would expect me to get right back to them. It is a debate that has become increasingly common as technology has redefined the notion of what is urgent. How soon do people need to get information and respond to itThe believers in the group say the drumbeat of incoming data has created a false sense of urgency that can affect peoples ability to focus. In his case, Mr. Kramer says there have been few side effects the only time he could recall being overly distracted by technology was when he became too immersed in writing a paper, and was late to pick up his teenage daughter. As academics, we live on computers, he says. The scenery has turned spartan as they drop down into a red rock desert. The group stops for gas in Green River, where Mr. Kramer checks his e mail again. Mr. Strayer quips that he shows signs of addiction. Some people think only others have the problem, Mr. Strayer says. But he concedes of Mr. Kramer, whom he likes and under whom he earned his doctorate Hes under a lot of pressure. On the River. They awaken at the Recapture Lodge, a rustic two story motel surrounded by cottonwood trees. There are no phones in the rooms, but there is wireless Internet access, installed a few years ago because, the proprietor says, people could not stand to be without it. Mr. Kramer still has not received any news on the grant. He stuffs his laptop into a backpack and stores it at the motel office. Hours later, the group arrives at the raft launching site, Mexican Hat, named for a sombrero shaped rock outcropping. The travelers assemble and pack the rafts, loading food for five days, beer, water jugs, a portable toilet, tents and sleeping bags, kitchen and first aid supplies. Then theyre off. A short distance downstream they see it a narrow steel bridge 1. Its the end of civilization, Mr. Atchley jokes. Late in the afternoon, they make camp on the banks. They eat pork chops, the Big Dipper brilliant above, the thousand foot canyon walls narrowing their view of the heavens. A few bats dart and dive, seeking bugs drawn to the flashlights. The men drink Tecate beer and talk about the brain. They are thinking about a seminal study from the University of Michigan that showed people can better learn after walking in the woods than after walking a busy street. The study indicates that learning centers in the brain become taxed when asked to process information, even during the relatively passive experience of taking in an urban setting. By extension, some scientists believe heavy multitasking fatigues the brain, draining it of the ability to focus. Mr. Strayer, the trip leader, argues that nature can refresh the brain. Our senses change.