A series of 13 programmes presented by Colin Blakemore
The famous Professor Aitken could do long division in his head to 40 decimal places as fast as he could speak. As she plays the Brahms Concerto, violinist Nadja Salemo-Sonnenberg feels strong emotions, but her exquisite performance is based on months of intense mental work and precise analysis. Professor BIakemore asks, why does the brain have mechanisms that can perform such biologically useless activities?
The frontal lobes may have evolved to help us plan ahead, navigate and communicate - but now they give us the powers of higher thought: to build imaginary models in the mind, to move others with music, and even to conceive of the beginning of the universe.
A co-production with WNET New York
(Repeated next Sunday)