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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Pain has a clear purpose: warning the body of invasion and other dangers. But the connection between pain and the human mind is more mysterious. This program examines various types of pain and their frequently elusive neurological aspects; it also presents methods, both clinical and alternative, that help long-term sufferers cope with debilitating pain. Distinguishing between acute and chronic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using sophisticated 3-D animation, this program, divided into two parts, takes viewers on a journey deep into the brain to study the effects of the three substances. The first part illustrates the major functions of the brain and shows how its principal cells, the neurons, communicate with each other through electrical and chemical signals. In the second part, animated molecules of nicotine,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Reudiger Gamm performs complex arithmetic instantly and without help-his brain stores numbers like a calculator. Orlando Sorrel remembers exactly what he was doing on any date, at any hour, and can accurately predict the day of the week thousands of years in the future. Kim Peek-the original "Rain Man"-has read 12,000 books and hasn't forgotten a single word. What lies behind these astonishing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program from The Doctor Is In studies the cases of three patients with Lou Gehrig's disease. Expert medical commentary is provided by Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., science director of the ALS Association, and Jeffrey Cohen, M.D., a neurologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. In addition, a family care provider talks about the challenges one faces in that role. Although there is currently no...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program from The Doctor Is In, families who are caregivers provide practical information on how to manage the in-home care of a loved one who has Alzheimer's. Important decisions, such as whether to use outside day care or in-home health aides, are discussed. Several hints on how younger family members can participate in the caregiving include reading or telling stories to the patient....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The experience of the family members and spouses in this program reflects that of thousands of Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers who struggle daily with the heartfelt conflict of love and obligation. This program presents examples of caregivers who have learned to cope effectively with these stresses, restoring balance in their own lives. The importance of caregiver support groups and other...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Which is more enjoyable-the satisfaction of desire, or the sensation of longing itself? This program looks at the emotional, neurological, and genetic aspects of seeking and gaining pleasure, analyzing close ties between the search for gratification and the preservation of self and species. Examining a wide range of ways to follow one's bliss-including sex, artistic creation, the consumption of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the brain and nervous system, using the analogy of computers and the Internet. Topics discussed include electrical impulses and how nerve messages travel; parts of the brain and their functions; how the brain and spinal cord are protected; the senses; and diseases, drugs, and their effects on the brain and nervous system.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Several years after he was given less than a year to live, David, a patient with glioblastoma multiforme, is alive and cancer-free. In this program, Henry Friedman, of the Duke University Medical Center; Michael Prados, of the University of California at San Francisco; and other medical experts use case studies to show how scientific advances in the areas of brain mapping, laser surgery, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program follows the physiological development of the human brain from conception through the growth of the neurological system in utero, to the moment of birth, when an amazing variety of brain functions are already apparent. The camera continues to follow a child to the age of eight, as a whole range of motor and cognitive skills appears-some as simple as focusing the eyes, others as...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: IQ used to be the standard by which all were judged. Today, EQ allows for a broader understanding that encompasses attributes such as logical, linguistic, musical, kinetic, and emotional intelligences. This program provides an in-depth analysis of intelligence, including how it is defined and its neural components. Leading experts such as Harvard's Howard Gardner; Daniel Goleman, author of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This Science Screen Report describes the anatomy and functions of facial features, and the evolutionary development of the human face. It explains how the mouth and nose work together to identify food, the process of chewing and swallowing, and the varying functions of the taste buds, saliva, teeth, tongue, and jaws. Combining principles in anatomy, anthropology, psychology, and zoology, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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: 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: 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: Who should have access to our thoughts, and to what degree? This program presents some of the current scientific research on the thought processes of the human brain, with special attention paid to its clinical applications and its ethical implications. German philosophers Thomas Metzinger and John-Dylan Haynes explain neuroethics, or the social, legal, and ethical repercussions of brain...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Perhaps the most intriguing field of medicine is the one that seeks to understand consciousness itself. This program provides a tour of the most advanced work in brain research and cognitive science, as well as the latest applications of these discoveries in treating patients with brain disorders. Using MRI and EEG to determine areas of brain activity, researchers explore the connection between...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Until a cure for MS is discovered, medical science is doing all it can to help people delay the onset of MS and manage its symptoms so they can continue living physically active lives. In this program, Jerry Wolinsky and Staley Brod, of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and patients with primary-progressive and relapsing-remitting MS share their insights. After...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program discusses the development, organization, and functions of the nervous system and the input organs that stimulate it. Beginning with an introductory overview of neural anatomy, the video outlines the organization of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the processes of sensation, transduction, and perception. In addition, the senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using the illness of Michael J. Fox as a springboard, this program theorizes that most Parkinson's cases are the result not of heredity but of viral attacks and environmental toxins that severely damage the substantia nigra, the "gearbox of the brain." Fox, Oliver Sacks, neurologists from The Parkinson's Institute and The University of British Columbia, and others share insights drawn from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Nick van Bloss possesses astonishing musical talent. He is also afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. As this program illustrates, the two are often linked, leading those born with the disorder to view it as both a curse and a gift. Nick's journey-taking him from the humiliating loss of his career as a concert pianist toward a more self-assured acceptance of his condition-is not only inspiring;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: With cutting-edge experiments and intriguing case studies, this program explores the science of dreams-revealing their impact on our memories, learning processes, and mental health. Contrasting REM-sleep dreams with those occurring in non-REM sleep, the film examines the roles of the amygdala and the parietal lobe and the ways in which depression and stroke affect, or are affected by, dream...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: How well do we understand the neurology of learning? Why does the brain's ability to learn diminish as we age? Can science find a way to extend brain "fitness," even for the very old? This program addresses those questions as it describes important medical experiments and studies. Topics include the central role of nerve cell connections in learning and cognitive development; cerebral...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009