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The Monday Documentary: The Mysteries Of The Brain

The Documentary: The Mysteries of the Brain

The Mysteries of the Brain

11/10/2010

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The Mysteries of the Brain

Examining the link between the brain and consciousness

How do our brains work in everyday life? In the last of a four-part series examining the mind’s complexities, Professor Barry Smith examines the link between the brain and consciousness.

How do our brains work in everyday life?

The experiences that we take for granted – talking to a friend, listening to a piece of music, lifting a cup of coffee, tasting a peach – depend for their existence on the intricate and silent workings of several cooperative regions of the brain.

Why do some people see numbers as coloured? Do we have five or twenty-five senses? How much of the brain do we need to understand language? Can we cure chronic pain or depression at the flick of an electrical switch? Do we decide how to act before we know about it?

For this four-part series, Professor Barry Smith from the Institute of Philosophy, explores the way neuroscience is addressing the ultimate scientific challenge: namely, how our brain makes us the conscious creatures we are – capable of language, thinking and feeling.

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