Summary: Are the brain and the mind one and the same? How big a role does environment play in cognitive development? Does consciousness have a physical location? This program explores these and other fundamental questions concerning the evolution and function of the human brain. Computer graphics and commentary from an array of leading international neuroscientists provide insights into the human...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Although it's smaller than some varieties of grapefruit, the human brain remains a vast, unexplored territory-and a marvel of design and function. This classic program evokes lingering questions about the brain's structure, how it works, the roles that experience and genetic history play in its development, the biology behind emotion and memory, and what happens when things go wrong inside the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The human body manufactures its own painkillers to ensure survival when injured. This program shows how opium and its derivatives, heroin and morphine, hijack that natural pain-numbing ability. Illustrating the brain's ability to alter its own chemistry when attacked by drugs, the program depicts the process by which brain receptors become desensitized and thus addicted. Tranquilizers-and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program looks at the various areas that brain researchers are now exploring: What kind of brain chemistry can explain memory? If long-term memory is a kind of permanent pattern on the fabric of the mind, what structural changes occur in the brain? Are different types of memory located in different areas of the brain? Are specific memories stored in separate places? What is the process of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Recent studies of cardiac arrest survivors suggest that near-death experiences may occur at times when the brain has actually stopped functioning. Drawing conclusions from that research, The Day I Died dares to suggest that the mind is not dependent on the brain-and that NDEs may confirm it. "That the mind is located in the brain is just a hypothesis. It's never been proven," says cardiologist...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Dr. Susan Greenfield expresses her belief that all aspects of human experience will eventually be explained in terms of the physical processes of the brain. Cases drawn from the history of brain research-from the earliest and crudest studies of the effects of brain injury to the latest data derived from brain surgery on patients who are awake and alert-offer insights both...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Professor of Philosophy Patricia Smith Churchland is probing a new frontier in the area of brain research, convinced that exploration into the physical function of our "wonder tissue" can help us better understand what our thoughts mean and how we can control them. In her book, Neurophilosophy, she describes how recent discoveries about the brain call into question such basic philosophical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: How does the brain create that internal space called consciousness? In this stimulating program, top names in cognitive science such as Daniel Dennett, Rodney Brooks, Endel Tulving, and John Searle delve into the mechanics of perception and cognition and speculate on the meaning of consciousness. Using advanced technology, they and other experts seek to understand the brain, leading to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although the human brain remains a mystery, it is gradually yielding to scientific inquiry-either as the main focus of study or in comparison with other forms of intelligence. This program features doctors and scientists who work with human, animal, or artificial brains in order to understand emotion, anatomical movement, and decision making. Experiments and case studies include the treatment...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Is it possible to gain a complete picture of one's own consciousness? Or will the mind always remain an unsolved jigsaw puzzle? In this program, University of Oxford professor Dr. Marcus du Sautoy takes part in fascinating experiments that probe the complexities of the brain and awareness. After an overview of the mirror-recognition test, du Sautoy undergoes an MRI scan that identifies which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is the difference between the mind and the brain? Are they separable? Are they even quantifiable? And where does the soul fit in? In this thought-provoking program, experts including Oxford mathematician Sir Roger Penrose, cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Dennett, and cyber-age techno-visionary Jaron Lanier contemplate the social and moral impact of brain research and questions such as how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As far as Dr. Susan Greenfield is concerned, learning, memory, and even the process of individuation should be understood as a restless brain adapting moment by moment to the environment it encounters. This program charts the changes in the human brain as it develops from infancy to adulthood. The brain's extraordinary adaptability, as demonstrated by its ability to reorganize its neural...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The question of animal intelligence has been debated for centuries. In recent years, science has come closer to proving that animals think and feel-perhaps not at the level of humans, but in ways that are nevertheless authentic. This classic program brings viewers into the midst of eye-opening zoological, neurological, and psychological research, revealing what many scientists believe to be...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program uncovers what happens in our minds when we learn, remember, and imagine. It reveals how neurons and synapses lay down knowledge in the brain; ways to improve our ability to acquire knowledge, including increased intake of omega-3 fatty acids; how to manipulate memory to recall information more easily; the powerful influence of subliminal messages; and what actually happens during a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The 100 billion cells that make up the brain communicate electrically over 1,000 trillion neural connections at up to 250 miles per hour-and from this sparking of electrical power grows the personality and its behavior. This program explores how personalities are shaped during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, exposing how traits such as extroversion and introversion develop. Additional...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005