Past Programs
Brain and Nervous System - 2007
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
PANIC! A cultural history
29/12/2007
From the collective paranoia of Cold War hysteria to the medicated, disordered mind - sociologist and performance artist Jackie Orr has penned a passionate and political history of panic. She delved into the rich archives of the war-time psyche, confronted her own panic attacks, and even enrolled in the clinical trial of a drug for panic disorder, in her quest to excavate our panicky past and present.
Brain surgery on the wireless! One year on [Part 2 of 2]
01/12/2007
Last year All in the Mind first took you on an audiophonic adventure into the operating theatre and into the brain of Kia, as the tendrils of an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) were extracted from her frontal lobes. Eleven months after the surgery, meet Kia again for an update on life post-op. Surviving major brain surgery has been the easy bit. Navigating the welfare system as she recovers has been a mind-field, literally.
Brain surgery on the Wireless! (Part 1 of 2)
24/11/2007
Don your gown and mask, and prepare yourself. Natasha Mitchell takes you into the operating theatre of leading neurosurgeon Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld at the Alfred Hospital, and inside the head of Kia, his patient, as she has an arteriovenous malformation extracted from her frontal lobes. A repeat chance to catch this rare audiophonic insight into a craft of impressive dexterity, patience and courage. And, on next week's show, 11 months after the surgery, we meet Kia again for an update on life post-op. Surviving major brain surgery has been the easy bit.
The political brain
17/11/2007
As Australians stand in front of the cardboard voting booth next week what's going on in our minds? In choosing the future direction of the nation -- do we weigh up policies and promises with a rational mind, or are we emoting with our pencils? And new research has sent the left and right of the scientific community on a political bender with the idea that we're neurologically wired to support our team. All in the Mind probes your political brain.
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Dr Mindfulness: science and the meditation boom
10/11/2007
Quieten your mind. Attend to the moment. Mindfulness-based meditation is being touted as beneficial for any number of afflictions: from anxiety to asthma; social phobia to psoriasis. But what is it, and how can science scrutinise subjective states of mind? Three scientists at high powered institutions discuss how they've turned a personal passion into a professional investigation.
Mind meets matter: stress, schizophrenia, immunity and heart disease
03/11/2007
Are we really more vulnerable to colds when we're stressed? Does depression increase your risk of heart disease? Could a bad bout of the flu during pregnancy cause schizophrenia in your child? Science has long struggled with the question of whether states of mind influence the body, and vice versa. But the historic mind-body divide is being challenged as cardiologists, immunologists and neuroscientists meet across the lab bench.
Addiction: Dis-ease over diseased brains
18/08/2007
Your brain hijacked -- possessed by a chronic, relapsing brain disease. Scientists now view addiction as a disease, not a behavioural problem. Brain circuits involved in reward and pleasure, planning and control are dramatically changed. The priority is medical treatment, not shame and blame. But others challenge what they dub the 'disease rhetoric', arguing it's fatalistic and reductionist. Do we treat the brain, or the person? And, should we surrender control to the addicted brain?
Mind Reading (Part 1 of 2): Neuroscience in the witness stand
23/06/2007
'But officer, my brain made me do it!' Brain scans are becoming commonplace as evidence in US courts, in the bid to convict offenders or free them. But is the technology half-baked? Can we biologically categorise people as criminals -- mad, bad and dangerous to know? Free will, privacy and personal responsibility are all up for grabs in the collision between science and the law.
Julie's Story: Diary of a brain tumour
14/04/2007
Like many young Australians in their early 20s, writer Julie Deakin headed to Europe for her first 'Big Adventure'. But holidaying in Hungary with her sister she found herself diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour and scheduled for immediate surgery, in a land whose language she didn't speak. It was the start of an eight-year saga before her death in 1998, confronting a tumour that wouldn't go away, and the finality of a passionate young life. This week, Julie's story.
The Blind Brain: Part 1 of 2
24/03/2007
A completely blind artist paints perfect replicas of the world he's never seen. An Indian child born with cataracts miraculously gains full visual capacity at age 12. People born blind experience their 'seeing' mind in different ways, and are helping scientists challenge the dogma of a brain rigidly hard-wired for vision. And, Zoltan Torey, blinded 56 years ago in an industrial accident, shares his own wildly vivid experience of an 'inner eye'.
PANIC! A cultural history
17/03/2007
From the collective paranoia of Cold War hysteria to the medicated, disordered mind - sociologist and performance artist Jackie Orr has penned a passionate and political history of panic. She delved into the rich archives of the war-time psyche, confronted her own panic attacks, and even enrolled in the clinical trial of a drug for panic disorder, in her quest to excavate our panicky past and present.
The mind-body problem Down Under
03/02/2007
Mind. Brain. Are they the same thing, or is the mind something special? The conundrum has perplexed us for centuries. Descartes split the two - into a spiritual, soul-like mind and fleshly, material brain. But in 1956 a group of 'renegade' Oxford graduates Down Under, now international stars in philosophy, launched a challenge. Consciousness and the brain were united, and any talk of mental spooks and ghosts in the machine was out...almost. Now in their 80s, David Armstrong and Jack Smart and others reminisce on taking Descartes to task.
First Broadcast 23 September 2006
The starving brain (repeat)
06/01/2007
The pressure to be thin is more intense than ever, and with around 80% of teenage girls going on diets, some slide down the slippery slope into anorexia nervosa. Our knowledge of this puzzling disorder remains limited, but some inroads of understanding are being made into what occurs in the starving brain. Lynne Malcolm reports on the latest scientific research, and meets a young woman on the path to recovery who gives a moving insight into her experience. First broadcast 25 March 2006.
