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Brain story Common sense series Human senses New living body The Living Body War of the sexesSummary: This Science Screen Report examines the sense of touch not only as a means of physical sensation, but also as the most basic way of communicating and interacting with one's environment. The program highlights the human body's methods for detecting and evaluating external stimuli, and outlines scientific approaches to helping people with an impaired tactile sense. Presenting human touch as a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the biological reasons why humans have the most amazing sense of taste on the planet. Persuading a family raised on Chinese food to try ripe Stilton cheese and a group of gourmet cheese lovers to try a Chinese delicacy of fermented raw duck eggs, host Nigel Marven assesses how we end up with such extraordinary tastes that vary across different cultures. Yale University...
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: Synesthesia may be a brain disorder, but those afflicted rarely complain about the symptoms. This program examines the unusual condition, outlines its appearances in medical history, and describes new theories and speculation surrounding it. Identifying well-known artists, writers, and musicians who may have experienced "crossed signals" in their sensory perceptions-including Wassily Kandinsky...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Sensing the thoughts and feelings of others may be a natural talent for most people, but how do we do it? Rebecca Saxe studies the way we think about the inner lives of our fellow humans. In her laboratory at MIT, she uses fMRI scans to identify what happens in our brains when we consider the motives, passions, and beliefs of others. In this TEDTalk, Saxe shares some of her fascinating findings...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why are humans so responsive to touch? This program calculates the different sensitivities of the body's most receptive parts. The density of touch sensors in the skin explains why some parts of the body seem to have a much lower pain threshold-a microscopic splinter in a finger can be extremely painful, while a cut on your leg may not hurt as much. University College London professor Tony...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the noise of our urban landscape to the musical cocoons created by high-tech devices, sound may be our most lively and versatile interface with the world. This program takes viewers on a sonic odyssey that assesses the frequently overlooked impact of what we hear. Defining the concept of sound, the documentary takes a mind-blowing CGI tour through the human ear and its vibration-decoding...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the role that our senses play in providing us with information about the world around us. Our brain depends upon the information from all our senses being integrated so that the brain is provided with consistent data that it can use to direct our actions. The program demonstrates how the senses of sight and balance operate as well as how they interact with each other. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Pawan Sinha researches how our brains interpret what our eyes see - and, equipped with that knowledge, he gives blind children the gift of sight. In this TEDTalk, he details his groundbreaking investigation into the neurology of the human visual system, as well as his insights into engineering, autism, and other subjects. Sinha explains how his vision-restoring treatment can help us better...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program argues that the human visual system is skillful at some things, but that we miss an amazing amount of what is going on right in front of our eyes. Whether spotting attractive people in a crowd, gauging depth and distance, or even predicting where things end up, the eyes are at their most perceptive. But clever experiments conducted at a nightclub by scientists from Sussex...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Packing the trunk, finding the right road, parking in a tight spot-are these masculine tasks, best accomplished with a man's mechanical aptitude and spatial reasoning? This program resists broadly brushed stereotypes, but does identify disparities in the ways men and women operate machines, manipulate tools, focus on tasks, and navigate. Accompanying two teams as they race to organize and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program focuses on the components of our sense of balance. Stunt coordinator Marc Cass demonstrates how the balance organs inform us of how we are moving. At the Circus School, in San Francisco, a troupe of acrobats illustrates how eyes control balance by calculating what our bodies are doing in relation to the outside world. Dr. Ros Davies, from the National Hospital for Neurology and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: We think in words-without access to them, how does one construct thoughts? Adam and Mark are 12-year-old boys born deaf and blind. With no exposure to language, how do they communicate with their parents? This fascinating program provides a window into the world of those who are deafblind. Gaela and Graham, two remarkable deafblind adults who lost their hearing after childhood, describe their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program is devoted to the senses that bring information of more distant events. The camera shows a reckless driver careening down a road-and then takes the viewer inside his eye, where the image of the potential crash site is pictured. The camera enters the ear, showing how the linked bones vibrate in response to a sound, and by using a computer graphic sequence, shows how the eye focuses...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The human brain is made up of the same biological building blocks as the rest of the body, and yet somehow it manages to generate consciousness. In this program, Dr. Susan Greenfield seeks to understand the human body's most remarkable phenomenon-and explains why the existence of each mind's private world of experiences and feelings is actually more incredible than the fact that life on Earth...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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: 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: This program investigates how psychological principles determine a smell's level of repellence. After testing natural smells found to be offensive to most people, scientists at Monell Chemical Services Center and the University of California propose that our reactions are heavily shaped by personal experience. Demonstrations of how olfactory lobes work are featured. Host Nigel Marven observes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Cognitive neuroscientist Al Seckel takes great delight in visual illusions and the brain mechanics that they reveal. In this TEDTalk, Seckel - "acknowledged as one of the world's leading authorities on illusions," says Edge.org - explores the subject of perceptual illusions using eye tricks that help him prove that not only is the brain easily fooled, such deceptions can actually make us feel...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Tom Wujec studies how we share and absorb information. He's an innovative practitioner of business visualization - using design and technology to help groups solve problems and understand concepts. Much of his work focuses on areas of the brain that enable us to comprehend words, images, feelings, and connections. In this TEDU talk, Wujec asks: How can we best utilize our brains to help us...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the significance and the beauty of tactile sensation. The sensory impact of touch and feel on quality of life is studied through mother/baby bonding; touch therapy for preemies and victims of physical abuse; Tadoma, a touch-based form of communication for people who are Deaf and blind; and an experimental touch-based interface designed to help people without sight to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The brain-the "Enchanted Loom," as Sir Charles Sherrington, one of the founders of modern brain research, called it-is the most intricate, almost unfathomably complex product of evolution. It is a tapestry woven of a hundred billion threads-the fibers of all its nerve cells. Computers have large memories and prodigious abilities to calculate, but are slow at interpreting visual images that the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program deconstructs the emotional effects evoked by music and other sounds. Experiments by Dr. Mark Blagrove at the Sleep Laboratory in Swansea show that our sense of hearing is constantly alert, even while asleep, and Dr. Sarah Collins, from Nottingham University, explains why deep voices are so attractive to the opposite sex. Scientists assert that we have certain automatic responses to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The nation's children are everybody's future, and what happens in those first three years, before school, really, really matters to that future, says child development expert Penelope Leach. In this program, ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer reports on the neurological connections that form in a child's brain during pregnancy and early childhood and the long-term effects of sensory stimulation and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009