Culture of Fear • 2017 • episode "S1E5" • Meet the Humans

59:15

The Psychedelic Drug Trial has exclusive access to a ground-breaking new trial at Imperial College London. The trial sees, for the first time ever under controlled conditions, a psychedelic drug tested head-to-head against a standard antidepressant as a treatment for depression. The film follows a pioneering team of scientists and psychotherapists, led by Professor David Nutt, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris and Dr Rosalind Watts, as they compare the effects of psilocybin (the active ingredient of magic mushrooms) with an antidepressant (an SSRI called escitalopram) on a small group of participants with clinical depression. This is scientific research at its most cutting edge. With over seven million people being prescribed antidepressants each year in England alone, this drug trial is an important milestone in understanding a completely different treatment for depression.

2021 • Brain

21:35

How much of the sensations we feel is determined by our physical bodies? Maybe our minds play a bigger role than we know. I’ll see if people can be tricked into feeling intense physical pain, even though it’s all in their heads. I’ll also look at a machine that makes it possible for you to tickle yourself, and I’ll show you a weird physical illusion you can do at home.

S1E6 • Mind Field • 2017 • Brain

48:39

In today's world, looks count especially with the popularity of social media. In this episode, Dr Michael Mosley invites 10 singletons to the country house on a dating weekend with a difference. He strips down the dating game to animal attraction and puts their very basic instincts to the test. With the help of behavioural psychologist Tracey Cox and dating expert Emma Kenny

S1E2 • Meet the Humans • 2017 • Brain

118:15

Chris Packham helps autistic people illustrate how their minds work, helping them connect with their friends and family in a new, more authentic way. Chapter 1: Since sharing his own autism diagnosis with the world, naturalist and presenter Chris Packham has been flooded with letters and emails from other autistic people, frustrated that their friends, families and co-workers don't understand them. And in this series, Chris wants to bridge the gap. By teaming up with top film-makers, graphic designers, animators and musicians, Chris helps a group of autistic people create short films to reveal to their family and friends how they're truly feeling inside – what's really going on in their autistic minds. He helps an autistic comedian reveal to her mum what's really going on inside her head, gives a non-speaking autistic man the chance to take his message to the world and visits the only state school in the country exclusively for autistic girls. Chapter 2: Chris meets Anton, a teaching assistant and trance DJ with a deep love of Middlesbrough FC, and Ethan, a 19-year-old student and aspiring rapper from Essex. He helps them make films to reveal to their friends and classmates how Anton feels about change and Ethan about hypersensitivity to noise. Chris also meets Dr Luke Beardon, an expert in autistic hypersensitivity, and Dr Punit Shah, who helps him to understand both Anton's restrictive and repetitive behaviours and Chris's own need for order in his life.

2023 • Brain

46:22

Our brain is always making decisions - Nigel explores how it does this, and if we can help it to make better ones? Is it possible to change the brain we’re born with to a supercharged brain?

S1E3 • The Curious Mind • 2020 • Brain

28:36

What is memory? How do our memories change from childhood to adulthood? How we can build up greater brain reserves to power our mind into old age? Brain epigenetics, how the expression of our DNA can be changed by our experiences, is an intriguing new area of science with huge health implications.

6/10 • Catalyst: Season 1 • 2015 • Brain