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11 TED Talks that will help you strengthen your relationships

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Relationships are never easy. By definition they entail connections between people, and people, as we all know, are eternally complicated creatures.

Relationships also come in all sizes and colors — there are romantic relationships, work relationships, and friendships, just to name a few. 

Regardless of what kind of relationship you want to strengthen, each is fundamentally similar to the next in a number of ways.

In all healthy relationships, we are able to listen well, empathize, connect, resolve conflict, and respect others.

The following TED Talks are a great refresher course in doing all that. 

Andrew Solomon's 'Love, no matter what'

Through interviewing parents of exceptional children for several years, the author of "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity" says he has come to understand that everyone is different in some fundamental way, and this core human condition of being different is, ironically, what unites us all.

Solomon explains that all people who love each other struggle to accept each other and grapple with the question, "What's the line between unconditional love and unconditional acceptance?"

Using a number of poignant anecdotes, he helps unpack this question.

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Yann Dall'Aglio's 'Love — you're doing it wrong'

Dall'Aglio, a French philosopher and author of "A Rolex at 50: Do you have the right to miss your life?" and "I love you: Is love a has been?," says love is the desire of being desired. But in a world that often favors the self over others, how can people find the tenderness and connection they crave?

It may be easier than you think: "For a couple who is no longer sustained, supportedby the constraints of tradition, I believe that self-mockeryis one of the best means for the relationship to endure," he says.

In this surprisingly convincing talk, Dall'Aglio explains how acknowledging our uselessness could be the key to sustaining healthy relationships.

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Jenna McCarthy's 'What you don't know about marriage'

Fiction and non-fiction author McCarthy writes about relationships, marriage, and parenting in books including "If It Was Easy, They'd Call the Whole Damn Thing a Honeymoon," and in her TED Talk, shares some surprising research on how marriages really work.

One study might even entice husbands to do more housework.

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This woman captured the horror of Native Americans being forced to assimilate to white culture

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In the United States, Native American children were torn from their tribes and families and forced to assimilate into white culture for decades. The upcoming documentary "Dawnland" explores the harm these policies created and how some of these practices still persist today.

Story and editing by A.C. Fowler

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A South African vineyard employs a flock of 900 ducks to keep its grounds in pristine condition

A Swedish man invented a bicycle that looks like a car

The Czech Republic is changing its name

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The country formerly known as the Czech Republic is undergoing some pretty serious efforts to get you to call it Czechia (pronounced CHECK-ia).

The rebranding campaign, which is now going through final approval by Parliament before being officially added to the UN database of names, refers to the informal, geographic name of the country. While the old name will stay in place for official and administrative matters, the new, shorter moniker will be used to represent the country abroad.

Mainly a marketing move, officials are hoping that the shortened name will be easier to print on sports jerseys and promotional products, and that it will roll off the English-speaking tongue more easily than the cumbersome Czech Republic.

A shorter name has been on the table since the Czech Republic was born in 1993, after splitting from the former nation of Czechoslovakia. Pro-rebranders argue that "Czech Republic" only captures about two decades worth of political history, while Czechia would more accurately encompass 1,200 years of culture.

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A teacher in Afghanistan turned his bike into a mobile library and cruises the countryside giving kids a chance to read

A Hong Kong dim sum restaurant is trying to attract young customers with food you're supposed to play with

I was part of the first group of outsiders allowed to ride the entire North Korean subway system — here's what I saw

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Elliott DaviesDuring my visit to North Korea, I was part of the first ever group of foreigners given access to all stations across both lines of the Pyongyang Metro.

This may sound mundane, but the previously restricted Pyongyang Metro is surely one of the most mysterious, yet beautiful transit systems on earth. With unique themes rooted in ultra-nationalism, each metro station parades North Korea’s revolutionary goals to impressionable commuters.

In many ways, it’s a small museum, most of which was formerly hidden from outside eyes and subsequently shrouded in conspiracy theories. Sensationalism aside, here’s my journey through the beating heart of Pyongyang, the Pyongyang Metro.

The Pyongyang Metro is the deepest metro system in the world at over 360 feet, conveniently doubling as a nuclear bunker, just in case. It’s an almost four-minute descent to reach the train platform. At the top and bottom of the escalators, the hallways are protected by thick steel blast doors. You can see these most notably at Yonggwang and Kaeson stations.



To set the scene, here’s a small video snippet descending to the platforms with the sound of revolutionary anthems booming from antique loudspeakers...

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This is Puhung Station, the metro terminal of the Chollima line. Before 2010, Puhung was one of only two metro stations foreign visitors were allowed into, even with mandatory guides. The other, Yonggwang Station, is just one stop ahead. Both stations are regarded as the most lavish and were the final two to be completed, likely the reason they were chosen as showcase stations for tourism itineraries. The mural to the back is entitled ‘The Great Leader Kim Il-Sung Among Workers’.



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The 30 best places to travel to this summer

We tried Juicero, the $700 mess-free juicer that Silicon Valley investors and celebrities are crazy about — here's what it's like

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Juicero

"Oh my God," I caught myself saying, as I put down my first glass of Juicero juice.

The bright green glass of "Sweet Greens" had just been pressed for me by Doug Evans in the San Francisco office of his new startup, Juicero.

And it should taste darn good. The juice came from a WiFi-connected kitchen appliance Evans' team wants to start selling this summer for about $700 — about at cost. That makes it one of the most expensive juicers in the world, although there are some that retail for more than $1,000. That doesn't include the necessary juice packets themselves, which sell for between $5 and $7.

Evans, who formerly ran the healthy food chain Organic Avenue, spent 39 months working on a dozen prototypes to build the perfect juicer. His goal was to find a way to make the freshest juice anyone has ever tasted, and rumor has it that celebs like Justin Timberlake to Gwyneth Paltrow tried and enjoyed the results. His startup has raised about $100 million from investors to date.

So, is Juicero juice really all it's cracked up to be? Here's what it was like.

Juicero has three big warehouses in the Bay Area. This is the building where most of the 70 full-time employees work, and it's also a factory where Juicero parts are made and tested. It's a pretty crazy operation inside, but I was asked not to take photos of any of the testing facilities.



I walked up one flight of stairs where the employees were stationed to meet Juicero's founder and CEO, Doug Evans. Along the way, there were some strange contraptions lined up against a wall. It turns out they were Juicero prototypes Doug and his team built before landing on the current model. The oldest to newest go from left to right.



Doug worked on Juicero for three years in "stealth mode" before he publicly launched his juicer in March 2016 with about $100 million in funding from investors. There were 12 prototypes in total.



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The 50 richest people on earth

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The wealthiest 50 people in the world control a staggering portion of the world economy: $1.46 trillion — more than the annual GDP of Australia, Spain, or Mexico.

That's according to new data provided to Business Insider by Wealth-X, which conducts research on the super-wealthy. Wealth-X maintains a database of dossiers on more than 110,000 ultra-high-net-worth people, using a proprietary valuation model that takes into account each person's assets, then adjusts estimated net worth to account for currency-exchange rates, local taxes, savings rates, investment performance, and other factors.

Its latest ranking of the world's billionaires found that 29 of the top 50 hail from the US and nearly a quarter made their fortunes in tech. To crack this list, you'd need to have a net worth of at least $14.3 billion. And for the most part these people weren't born with a silver spoon. More than two-thirds are completely self-made, having built some of the world's most powerful companies, including Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Google, Nike, and Oracle.

From tech moguls and retail giants to heirs and heiresses, here are the billionaires with the deepest pockets around the globe.

SEE ALSO: The 20 most generous people in the world

DON'T MISS: The wealthiest people in the world under 35

49. TIE: Aliko Dangote

Net worth:$14.3 billion

Age: 58

Country: Nigeria

Industry: Diversified investments

Source of wealth: Self-made; Dangote Group

At 20, Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote borrowed money from his uncle to start a business that dealt in commodities trading, cement, and building materials. He quickly expanded to import cars during the country's economic boom. Four years later, in 1981, he formed Dangote Group, an international conglomerate that now holds diversified interests that include food and beverages, plastics manufacturing, real estate, logistics, telecommunications, steel, oil, and gas. At $14.3 billion, Dangote's fortune is the largest in Africa and equal to 2.5% of Nigeria's GDP.

The majority of Dangote's wealth stems from his stake in Dangote Cement, which is publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He owns cement plants in Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania, and South Africa, and in 2011 invested $4 billion to build a facility on the Ivory Coast. Dangote bought back a majority stake in Dangote Flour Mills — which had grown unprofitable after he sold a large stake to South African food company Tiger Brands three years ago for $190 million — in December for just $1. He is also chairman of The Dangote Foundation, which focuses on education and health initiatives, including a $12,000-per-day feeding program.



49. TIE: James Simons

Net worth:$14.3 billion

Age: 77

Country: US

Industry: Hedge funds

Source of wealth: Self-made; Renaissance Technologies

Before revolutionizing the hedge fund industry with his mathematics-based approach, "Quant King" James Simons worked as a code breaker for the US Department of Defense during the Vietnam War, but was fired after criticizing the war in the press. He chaired the math department at Stony Brook University for a decade until leaving in 1978 to start a quantitative-trading firm. That firm, now called Renaissance Technologies, has more than $65 billion in assets under management among its many funds.

Simons has always dreamed big. About 10 years ago, he announced that he was starting a fund that he claimed would be able to handle $100 billion, about 10% of all assets managed by hedge funds at the time. That fund, Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, never quite reached his aspirations — it currently handles about $10.5 billion— but his flagship Medallion fund is among the best-performing ever: It has generated a nearly 80% annualized return before fees since its inception in 1988.

In October, Renaissance shut down a $1 billion fund — one of its smaller ones — "due to a lack of investor interest." The firm's other funds, however, have been up and climbing. Simons retired in 2009, but remains chairman of the company.



47. TIE: Laurene Powell Jobs

Net worth:$14.4 billion

Age: 52

Country: US

Industry: Media

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Disney

The widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs inherited his wealth and assets, which included 5.5 million shares of Apple stock and a 7.3% stake in The Walt Disney Co., upon his death. Jobs' stake in Disney — which has nearly tripled in value since her husband's death in 2011 and comprises more than $12 billion of her net worth — makes her the company's largest individual shareholder.

Though she's best recognized through her iconic husband, Jobs has had a career of her own. She worked on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs before earning her MBA at Stanford in 1991, after which she married her late husband and started organic-foods company Terravera. But she's been primarily preoccupied with philanthropic ventures, with a particular focus on education. In 1997, she founded College Track, an after-school program that helps low-income students prepare for and enroll in college, and in September she committed $50 million to a new project called XQ: The Super School Project, which aims to revamp the high-school curriculum and experience.

Last October, Jobs spoke out against "Steve Jobs," Aaron Sorkin's movie about her late husband that portrays him in a harsh light, calling it "fiction." Jobs had been against the project from the get-go, reportedly calling Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale to ask them to decline roles in the film.



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The Japanese would never use this popular 'superfood' knockoff — here's why

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Matcha green tea powder

If you've heard the buzz about the "superfood" health benefits of matcha, a type of powdered green tea, you might want to read on.

China is known to produce knockoffs for almost every kind of popular product imaginable, and they do it so well that sometimes even the employees at the knockoff stores believe it's the real deal.

So it's no surprise that when Japanese matcha tea grew in popularity, China began to export its own version as Chinese "matcha" green tea powder. However, the Chinese version, while cheaper and more accessible, is not the perfect substitute for Japanese matcha. 

What makes Japanese matcha tea popular — as well as its knockoff versions — are its alleged health benefits. Like traditional green tea, matcha contains a compound called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). But its levels are typically much higher in match than in traditional tea. A 2003 study, for example, found that matcha had three times more EGCG than most traditional green teas. 

A series of preliminary Mayo Clinic studies showed promise for the potential use of EGCG in reducing the number of cancer cells in patients with a specific type of cancer: chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Research on green tea in people with other forms of cancer has been too limited to say for sure how beneficial it is. Other studies have suggested EGCG may play a role in maintaining heart and metabolic health, and still others— though limited and typically in cells, not people — suggest its anti-inflammatory properties could be beneficial for people with rhuematoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

How is matcha made?

"Matcha" translates into "powdered tea" and is exactly that — steamed and air-dried green tea leaves that are stone-ground into super-fine powder. Traditionally, tea is made by steeping tea leaves in hot or boiling water for a few minutes and then discarding them. With matcha tea, however, the fine powder is stirred into hot, not boiling, water until it froths. Then the entire beverage — ground leaves and all — is consumed.

Matcha bowl and whisk

While tea-powdering is believed to have originated in China with a Buddhist monk in around 1191 CE, the farming techniques for matcha were refined and perfected over several centuries in Japan. Preparing Japanese matcha is an intricate process which has been part of Japanese culture for nearly 800 years. In Japan, tea leaves are grown in the shade to preserve its green color, and dried quickly to prevent them from long exposure with oxygen, which can dull the earthy flavor.

Matcha quality color screenshot

Chinese "matcha" only approximates these farming techniques: Chinese tea leaves are not generally grown in the shade, and are "pan-fried" to stop oxidation.  As a result, Chinese "matcha" does not froth as much and its texture is more sandy.

Additionally, the soil in Japan, specifically Ise and Uji, and South West China are have different characteristics, which are also believed have an impact on the tea.

Chinese teas have also come under fire for their potential toxicity. In 2013, the environmental organization Greenpeace randomly tested 18 chinese green tea samples, and found that 12 of them contained banned pesticides. Japanese matcha tea, on the other hand, abide by more stringent standards on use of pesticides.

As a result of these differences, Japanese matcha tea can be pricier than the Chinese versions. An ounce of Japanese matcha can range from $26-$32, whereas Chinese "matcha" tea can cost as little as $7/ounce

The process of growing and harvesting the tea is what makes Japanese matcha. So it may be worth the extra cash, to reap the full benefits of matcha's flavor, history, and quality. 

SEE ALSO: Everything you think you know about genetically modified food is about to change

DON'T MISS: I went to the source of the world's best coffee — and saw firsthand why the industry is in trouble

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NOW WATCH: This is matcha — the trendy green tea that could make coffee obsolete

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Because you can't legally get high in a Colorado hotel, this man launched his own "Bud & Breakfast"

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In 2012, Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. Joel Schneider like many people moved out west to take advantage of the new industry. He realized people who came to Colorado on vacation had no place to smoke because you can't legally smoke in hotels. 

His wife, Lisa, always had a dream to retire and run a bed and breakfast. Joel realized there was a gap in the cannabis marketplace and combined his wife's dream with his love for marijuana. Together they formed a "bud and breakfast."

Produced by Sam Rega. Cinematography by Alana Kakoyiannis. Edited by Josh Wolf

Production manager Lauren Browning.

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This is the only solution for balding men to get full heads of hair again

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Elon Musk

No guy wants to lose his hair. Period.

Luckily, with modern science, the process isn't quite as permanent as it used to be, according to hair transplant surgeon Dr. William Yates of Dr. Yates Hair Science in Vernon Hills, Illinois.

Surgery is the only thing that can actually reverse hair loss.

"No one gets more hair as you age," Yates told Business Insider. "If your hair is looking better as you are aging, you're doing something other than a fancy shampoo and broccoli."

So when it seems like a man who had a receding hairline suddenly no longer does, that's most likely the result of a hair transplant.

It's no secret, it's routine, and there aren't very many downsides.

Here's how it works:

It starts with an overview of the scalp, where your doctor will identify which areas need additional hair to thicken.

The hair on the back and the sides of the head is then taken and transplanted to the front. Yates says this hair is more stable, and it's genetically different enough to be resistant to thinning.

"So we kind of rob from Peter to pay Paul," he said.

The technique Yates uses is called folicular unit extraction, which only extracts individual hairs, not long strips, so as to prevent scarring.

"Basically it's almost like farming. It's just re-allocation of resources," he said.

It's not creating any new hair. It's just relocating the same hair you already have in different areas of the scalp. After a procedure, the patient should have permanent hair all over, but the sides and the back are also a little bit thinner by the same amount the front is fuller.

The good news: this transplanted hair won't fall out like the hair before it did. Hair loss is not a scalp problem; it's a hair follicle problem, Yates said. He added that hair transplants are generally very successful, and they work around 90% of the time.

One word of caution: it takes a little while for the hair to grow — around 3-4 months.

"Everyone now wants instant gratification, but it's not one of those deals," Yates said.

Now comes the sticker shock: Yates says his average hair transplant procedure runs around $8,000 to $10,000, but that will depend on how many hairs need to be transplanted. This price point seems to put it more in the realm of billionaires like Elon Musk, who many speculate (and Yates confirmed, according to the pattern of hair growth) likely underwent a hair transplant. Still, Yates claims many of his patients are of an average income level.

"The majority of my practice is just the regular guy," he told us.

SEE ALSO: How you should wash your hair if you're starting to lose it

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A couple who quit their jobs to bike across the US explains how they stretched $6,000 over 4,000 miles

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Kathleen Ventura, 31, started planning her bike ride across the US in 2011.

"We didn't even have bikes!" she remembers. "When we decided to rid, it started with micro actions — and first, we had to get bikes."

She and her husband Brock Delinski, 33, were living just outside Chicago at the time, her working as an account executive in sales at Groupon and him working as an operations supervisor for a waste-services company. They had their hearts set on an extended period of international, nomadic travel and figured a cross-country adventure, where they spoke the language and knew the currency, would be a good place to start.

Ultimately, they ended up biking over 4,200 miles in around five months. Ventura spoke with Business Insider to share the victories, challenges, and costs of traversing the US on a bike.

SEE ALSO: A couple who quit their jobs to spend 7 months traveling the world explain how they stretched $8,000 across 13 countries

The spring of 2012 was full of change for Ventura and Delinski: They got married in March, their Chicago lease was up in May, and they left for their marathon ride on June 7.

Before they set off, they spent a month living with Ventura's parents in order to stockpile a few paychecks' worth of savings. Between a year of saving and planning, selling their cars and furniture, and the last-minute influx of cash, they had about $50,000 saved for their bike trip and whatever came next.



Using maps from the Adventure Cycling Association, they plotted their way through the TransAmerica Trail, starting in Yorktown, Virginia and ending in Astoria, Oregon.

"When I say maps, I think people think I was on trails," Ventura says. "We were on streets and roads and in some cases, the interstate." The maps the nonprofit association provides describe not only the route, but also an elevation chart and notification about local cycling-friendly resources.

"They'll say in this town there's a grocery store, in this town there's fuel," Ventura says. "The route we took was the most established, so they could be like 'There's a grocery store in this town that lets cyclists camp in the backyard, or this church will let you use the kitchen and take a shower for a donation.' We were able to plan based on that."



"I felt like the whole thing was like a video game," Ventura remembers. "Every day was a new day with new challenges: dogs trying to bite you, headwinds trying to knock you over, 105 degrees."

They carried a small camping stove and most days would make ramen or other noodles along with some vegetables, for nutrients. Most nights, the pair would pitch a tent — in a campground out west, or in a church, or in a city park in a small town, where they were usually lucky enough to find outlets to plug in their phones.



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How to find out your Uber passenger rating

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Every Uber driver wants a 5 star rating. They'll do their best to ensure that you have a pleasant ride and may even directly ask you to rate them as a 5 star driver.

But passengers should be on their best behavior – drivers rate them as well. Here's how to check your rating.

Produced by Justin Gmoser 

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Mind-blowing new images show how LSD transforms brain activity in unprecedented detail

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LSD

Tripping on psychedelics may actually free the mind, a new study suggests.

The new research, complete with the first modern brain scans of volunteers who got high on (illegal) LSD, shed light on how the drugs affect brain activity in order to produce their mind-blowing effects. 

The findings build on previous studies that looked at the effects of other psychedelics like magic mushrooms, whose psychoactive ingredient is a compound called psylocibin.

For their new paper, researchers had 20 healthy volunteers visit a clinic on two different days. On one day, they got a 75-microgram LSD injection (considered a "common" oral dose from the non-profit psychoactive drug database Erowid); on the second day, they got a placebo.

Then, they used three different brain imaging techniques to measure and compare blood flow, brainwaves, and functional connections within and between brain networks in people on the placebo and under the influence of the drug.

'Seeing sounds' and 'hearing colors'

Their scans were illuminating: People high on the drug appeared to process their visual world in fundamentally different ways from people who were not using. This suggests that — rather than simply getting their data on images from the visual cortex — the users were pulling data from multiple parts of their brains.

In other words, regions of the brain that normally don't exchange information were chatting it up with one another, creating patterns of activity unseen in people who aren't using the drugs.  

Here's an image from the new study showing activity in different areas of the brain for people either on the placebo or after being dosed with LSD:

lsd brain scan robin cahart harris david nutt pnas

Both of these observations build on previous studies looking at magic mushrooms, which appear to encourage the brain to virtually sprout new links across previously disconnected areas, temporarily altering the brain's entire organizational framework. 

This is markedly different from the way our brains normally work — typically, the activity in our noggins flows along specific information highways called neural networks. In those injected with psilocybin, cross-brain activity showed distinctly different patters, as if freed from its normal, rigid framework.

Here's a data visualization from a 2014 magic mushroom study comparing the brain connections in the brain of a person on psilocybin (right) and the brain of a person not given the drug:

shrooms brain networks

"The brain does not simply become a random system after psilocybin injection," the authors of the magic mushroom (psilocybin) study wrote, "but instead retains some organizational features, albeit different from the normal state."

These new connections are likely responsible for psychedelic users' descriptions of things like "seeing sounds" or "hearing colors."

Psychedelics, depression, and anxiety

The new patterns also provide some insight into what may influence some of the antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects some users have described experiencing during and after their trips. 

In a 2012 study, Imperial College London neuroscientist David Nutt, one of the authors of the newest LSD study, found that in people drugged with psilocybin, brain chatter across traditional areas of the brain was muted, including in a region thought to play a role in maintaining our sense of self. In depressed people, Nutt believes, the connections between brain circuits in this sense-of-self region have become overpowering. "People who get into depressive thinking, their brains are overconnected," Nutt told Psychology Today. Negative thoughts and feelings of self-criticism become obsessive and overwhelming.

Loosening those connections and creating new ones, Nutt thinks, could provide intense relief for some.

READ MORE: How tripping on mushrooms changes the brain

DON'T MISS: What 9 common drugs including caffeine, weed, and booze do to your brain

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NOW WATCH: Here’s what happens to the human brain on LSD

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