Past Programs
Brain and Nervous System - 2005
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
The Emotional Brain: Part 2, Anger
03/12/2005
Emotions are complex reactions that engage our bodies and minds and anger is one of our most commonly felt emotions. Each day, be it at home, work or school, we may find the deeds of others maddening. To respond to these often minor irritations with a 'blind fury' can be destructive, but more tempered feelings of annoyance may fuel productive change. Anger is the emotion that can motivate us to act against perceived injustices but it can also provoke fear and violence. We explore the 'good, the bad and the ugly' of our angry selves.
Epilepsy: The 'falling sickness'.
19/11/2005
Shakespeare wrote of Julius Caesar's 'falling sickness'. Epilepsy was a mystery then and remains an enigmatic condition. It affects around 400,000 Australians and is typified by seizures and commonly a temporary loss of consciousness during the seizure. For centuries it has been associated with prophets, mystics and witchcraft. Most famously the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky believed epilepsy deepened his religious beliefs and gave him intense feelings of joy or 'ecstatic auras'. More recently, studies have recorded that a small minority of epileptics do develop a powerful religious faith, seemingly as a result of their condition. Professor Michael Trimble, from the Institute of Neurology in London, and Professor Bryan Kies from Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa discuss the continuing challenges and puzzles of epilepsy.
Do You See What I See? Delusions
24/09/2005
Cotard's syndrome is the belief that you have died, and for sufferers it is a terrifying state. Delusions can take many forms, from widespread paranoia to a specific and singular delusion - you might think an impostor has replaced your spouse. These misbeliefs are commonly associated with schizophrenia, but they can also occur in people with brain injuries, Huntington's and Parkinson's disease and dementia. The Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science is seeking to explain delusions by developing a model of how we all come to accept or reject beliefs. We see how this research is progressing.
Missing the Point! - The mysteries of Autism
17/09/2005
One of the common first indicators of autism is the inability of the 18-month-old child to point with their index finger. Autism shapes behaviour and severely limits a person's ability to form relationships and communicate. But the complex causes of this disorder are obscure. We look at some of the research seeking answers, and a mother with a 3-year-old autistic son portrays life with this mystery.
Remember This! - Recovering the Memories (Part 3 of 3)
20/08/2005
The impact of memory loss can be utterly profound. We depend on our capacity to remember at every turn - from shopping lists to the names of our children. Brain injury can put a devastating spanner in the works. What memories can be recovered, what must be relearned, and what might be compensated for if you suffer the trauma of brain damage? In Part 3 of this BBC series on the science of memory, some new technologies to aid those with fractured memory. And, the phenomenon of the super-memory - how do memory whizzes do it?
NOTE: No podcast or Real Audio versions of this series are available online, because of BBC copyright. Likewise for Radio Australia listeners. Instead you have the chance to download or listen online to an MP3 of a popular program from our audio archives. Archive Transcript: (Psychedelics on the Mind - Part 2)
Remember This! - The Origins of Memory (Part 1 of 3)
06/08/2005
Do you remember your first kiss? The smell of your grandmother's perfume? How to do calculus? From birth through to death our brains will file away impressive amounts of information - names, faces, sounds, smells, and events, and the emotions that we bundle up with all of these. We're ever reliant on our ability to plunder our mind's memory vault at a moment's notice. But what are the neurological processes that give birth to a memory? The first in a series of 3 programs exploring memory, from the BBC World Service.
NOTE: No podcast or Real Audio versions of this series will be available online, because of BBC copyright. Likewise for Radio Australia listeners. Instead you have the chance to download or listen online to an MP3 of a popular program from our audio archives: V.S Ramachandran: what is art?
That's Disgusting!
30/04/2005
Blurrrrgh! Cultures the world over express it in the same way - the wrinkling of the nose, the recoiling of the body, a nauseous cry. But why is disgust such a universal emotion? And if its expression has deep evolutionary origins, can any one theory account for why we're equally repelled by things sticky, seething and smelly - as we are when social or moral boundaries are crossed? Feel a little squeamish, as two leading researchers help Natasha Mitchell probe for a neurobiology of revulsion.
Count Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Neurology and the Novel
09/04/2005
This week, get the garlic and crucifixes out as Natasha Mitchell digs for more curious tales of narrative and neurology. The late 19th Century horror classics, Dracula and The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde, offer unexpected insights into developments in brain research at the time, and the controversies it provoked. From double brains and literary lobotomies, to brain stems and missing souls - Dracula and Dr Jekyll were as much characters of science as of great literature.
Insomnia - I just can't sleep
26/03/2005
Australians love to sleep, and recent research proves it. While most of the world stays up past midnight, over half of Australians are tucked up by 11pm. And if we don't get a good 8 hours kip, we're complaining. But a significant number of the rest of us are obsessed by sleep for a different reason. We know we need it. We really want it. But try as we might, the Elysian fields of sleep elude us. Has chronic insomnia become the great affliction of the 21st Century? Self confessed insomniac Gretchen Miller investigates, hoping she too might find the key to slumber.
Brain Injury in Children: A Neglected Epidemic?
12/02/2005
This week, what happens when little heads hit hard surfaces? When Byron was 4 years old he walked into the path of a car and was left severely brain damaged. 21 years later he's just graduated with a maths degree - against all odds. But new evidence is starting to challenge long-held beliefs about the incredible plasticity of young brains, and their needs years after childhood injury. Is brain injury a neglected epidemic among children and adolescents?
