The science of lifespan — and the impact of your five senses | Christi Gendron
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2024
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
What you experience through your senses — sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch — can impact how healthy you are and how long you live, says neurobiologist Christi Gendron. She explores how environmental cues like temperature, light and even just the sight of death have influenced the lifespan of fruit flies, suggesting your everyday perceptions may have direct repercussions on your ability to live a long, healthy life.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ted Audio Collective. |
| 0:02.0 | Audio Collective. |
| 0:04.0 | You're listening to Ted Talks Daily, |
| 0:10.0 | where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:14.7 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. |
| 0:16.4 | Studies show how environmental cues, what we see, smell, taste, and touch have an impact on our lifespans. What is it in our sensory |
| 0:26.5 | environment that leads to bodily changes that help us live longer or cut our lives |
| 0:31.3 | shorter? Molecular biologist Christie Gendron shares the research behind this link after the break. Like TED Talks, you should check out the TED Radio Hour with NPR. |
| 0:45.0 | Stay tuned after this talk to hear a sneak peek of this week's episode. |
| 0:50.0 | And now our TED Talk of the day. |
| 0:54.0 | I'm here to tell you that what we sense, |
| 0:57.0 | meaning what we see, smell, here, taste, and touch, |
| 1:02.0 | can impact how long we live. Now this may seem extraordinary, but it really |
| 1:09.8 | isn't. Let's say that you wake up one morning and are trying to decide whether to go to an |
| 1:16.7 | amusement park. One of the very first things you might do is to step outside and check the weather. When you do, you |
| 1:27.6 | see that the sky is blue, that the sun is out, you hear that the birds are chirping, |
| 1:37.0 | you feel how warm it is on your skin. |
| 1:42.0 | Based on all of this information, |
| 1:45.0 | you decide it is a perfect day for going to the park. |
| 1:49.0 | You have used your senses to impact your decision. Now gathering this information does more than |
| 1:58.6 | simply impact your behavior. It also can affect your emotions as well as how your body |
| 2:06.8 | physically responds. To demonstrate, let's say you've arrived at that amusement park and one of the very first things that you |
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