Looking at signs versus symptoms, neurologist Dr Allan H Ropper and his co-writer Brian D Burrell take us behind the scenes at the Harvard Medical School's neurology unit.

"In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," says Ropper, "Alice jumps into a rabbit hole and finds herself in a bizarre realm where everything bears little relation to the outside world. It is a place where, as the Red Queen mentions to Alice, it helps to believe six impossible things before breakfast. I have no need to believe six impossible things before breakfast because I know that on any given day I will be confronted with six improbable things before lunch..."

Read by Colin Stinton

Written by Dr Allan H Ropper and Brian D Burrell
Abridged by Pete Nichols

Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2015. Show less