All in the Mind
For some scientists, the brain has become the last frontier to conquer.
This eye-opening six-part series explores the grand themes emerging from the latest brain research that is producing a whole new model of brain function. In each program, renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, biologists, psychologists, linguists, and other experts investigate the physiological basis of why people think, feel, and act as they do.
In this first episode Greenfield talks to a woman having brain surgery while awake and relates the story of a stroke victim who cannot recognise tunes but knows whether music is happy or sad.
In the Heat of the Moment
This part focuses on one of the most indefinable human experiences. emotion. Studies show that humans have six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, anger and fear. But what is happening in our brain to trigger these emotions, and how do our responses alter according to our age and experience?
The Mind’s Eye
The illusion of vision. It feels as though we open our eyes and just see what’s out there, but the more we learn about the brain’s visual system, the further it seems this is from the truth. Patients who can’t see movement or recognize faces, reveal the tricks and short cuts the brain uses to construct an illusion of reality. Is the brain making up so much of what we think we’re seeing that vision is really just dreaming with your eyes open?
First among Equals: Why Do Humans Rule the Earth?
What is it about brains that has put us in charge of the planet? Were have humans’ unique linguistic abilities come from? Are there special structures in our brains which no other animals possess? Or is it possible that our sophisticated rich cultures are merely the result of having larger brains?
Growing the Mind
Greenfield examines the brain’s adaptability and proposes that human personality develops when our life experiences cause physical changes in the connections between the brain’s cells.
A Final Mystery
Professor Susan Greenfield grapples with the paradoxical idea that the apparently immeasurable phenomenon of consciousness is actually generated by the very physical processes of the brain.
