Dr. Michael Kilgard

This is in Ron Davis' lab at Baylor College of Medicine.

But when I closed my eyes, I didn't see what I normally saw.

What I saw were these bands because I'd been staring every day at these patterns.

And that happened to me several more times when I spent a lot of time with that focus and that friction you're talking about.

Suddenly you start thinking about it differently.

I had a conversation with a young man a few days ago.

His native language is Spanish, but he told me, I think my native language is English because I only think in English.

And when I talk to my mom, I have to translate.

And they told me when I took Spanish, you'd eventually dream in Spanish.

And I did a few times, but I never quite got good enough.

So that idea that when you have a really significant experience, you can close your eyes and see it.

I believe that baseball pitchers are seeing it.

Balls being thrown, the signs being given.

I believe that someone who's playing violin really well or a neuroscientist who's doing surgery, they see those things.

And that's a repetition.

We now know from Olympic skiers that if you do all your time skiing, you're going to wreck your knees.

So they spend a lot of time in visualization.

You spend a lot of time imagining what's going on, stepping through the motions because it's too dangerous to go down the hill at that speed too many times.

You'll eventually wreck your knees or break your back.

But practicing it can be done offline.