Neuroscience Guide: Visual/Audio

Troubled Minds is a series of four short animated films, narrated by young people who have been real-life sufferers from a range of psychological illnesses and syndromes. In this programme, a young woman describes the dangerous eating disorders of binging and purging from which she has now recovered but which once threatened her life.

Steve Pinker, professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT, proposes in a lively and humorous lecture that the mind has been shaped by natural selection to solve problems faced by our ancestors.

The life and work of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century, Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel. a compelling blend of autobiography and history that recounts the life of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century and illuminates scientific developments in our understanding of the brain's role in recording and preserving memory. In addition to archival footage and dramatic re-creations of Kandel's childhood experiences in Nazi-occupied Vienna and his formative years as an emigrant in New York, the film features discussions with Kandel, friends and family, as well as his public lectures in Vienna and New York, which explore both his professional and personal life, especially his emotional ties to Judaism.

Professor of applied neurobiology Susan Standring conducts a basic anatomical examination of the human brain and its connections in the skull using museum specimens. During the process, Standring identifies the cerebral lobes, optic nerves, arachnoid granulations, and blood vessels. Examining the cranial cavity with the brain removed, she points out the frontal bones, orbital plates, crista galli, and the cribriform plate. Cerebrospinal fluid and the tentorium cerebelli are shown. Using a brain specimen and resin model, the ventricular system is explained.

This series explores the startling new map of the brain that has emerged from the past decade of neuroscience and shares a revelatory view of this most complicated organ, which now contradicts much of what we previously believed. Narrated by actress Blair Brown, the series tells stories through a mix of personal histories, expert commentary and cutting-edge animation. Viewers will not only learn startling new truths about the brain, they will voyage inside it.

The problem of consciousness -- The Indian rope trick -- Stage magic of the mind -- Computationalism -- Reverse engineering the magic show -- Dilemma of the subject -- The magic of consciousness