The Secret Life of the Brain, a David Grubin Production, reveals the fascinating processes involved in brain development across a lifetime.The five-part series, informs viewers of exciting information in the brain sciences, introduces the foremost researchers in the field, and utilizes dynamic visual imagery and compelling human stories to help a general audience understand otherwise difficult scientific concepts.
A startling new map of the human brain has emerged during the past decade of neuroscience research, contradicting much of what was previously believed. This series tells stories through a mix of personal histories, expert commentary, and animation.
1. The Baby's Brain:
Wider than the Sky. A baby's brain is a mystery whose secrets scientists are just beginning to unravel. The mystery begins in the womb - only four weeks into gestation the first brain cells, the neurons, are already forming at an astonishing rate: 250,000 every minute.
2. The Child's Brain:
Syllable from Sound. A child's brain is a magnificent engine for learning. A child learns to crawl, then walk, run and explore. A child learns to reason, to pay attention, to remember, but nowhere is learning more dramatic than in the way a child learns language. As children, we acquire language -- the hallmark of being human.
3. The Teenage Brain:
A World of Their Own. When examining the adolescent brain we find mystery, complexity, frustration, and inspiration. As the brain begins teeming with hormones, the prefrontal cortex, the center of reasoning and impulse control, is still a work in progress. For the first time, scientists can offer an explanation for what parents already know -- adolescence is a time of roiling emotions, and poor judgment.
4. The Adult Brain:
To Think by Feeling. The adult brain is the apotheosis of the human intellect, but what of emotion? The study of emotion was once relegated to the backwaters of neuroscience, a testament to the popular conception that what we feel exists outside our brains, acting only to intrude on normal thought. The science has changed: Emotion is now considered integral to our over-all mental health.
5. The Aging Brain:
Through Many Lives. At the age of 95, Stanley Kunitz was named poet laureate of the United States. Still writing new poems, still reading to live audiences, he stands as an inspiring example of the brain's ability to stay vital in the final years of our lives. The latest discoveries in neuroscience present a new view of how the brain ages. Overturning decades of dogma, scientists recently discovered that even into our seventies, our brains continue producing new neurons.
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