The Secret Life of the Brain (2002) [repost]

A startling new map of the human brain has emerged during the past decade of neuroscience research, contradicting much of what was previously believed. Narrated by Blair Brown and directed by David Grubin, this series tells stories through a mix of personal histories, expert commentary, and cutting-edge animation. Viewers learn startling new truths about the brain as they journey inside about this complicated organ.

Episodes Include:

The Baby's Brain: Wider Than The Sky
The Child's Brain: Syllable From Sound
The Teenage Brain: A World of Their Own
The Adult Brain: To Think By Feeling
The Aging Brain: Through Many Lives

The human brain is the most complicated thing on earth. If you beg to differ, let PBS’s five-part series The Secret Life of the Brain change your mind. Personal stories combine with expert opinion to illustrate the brain's nearly incomprehensible powers. In "The Baby’s Brain" viewers learn, for example, that by the fourth week of gestation, an embryo’s first brain cells form at a rate of half a million neurons per minute. Far from being "blank slates," babies are miniature scientists who explore and construct their worlds. "The Child’s Brain" underscores that a toddler’s acquisition of language is the brain’s greatest feat. Parents may be surprised to learn in "The Teenage Brain" that adolescence is a period of enormous brain development, akin to that in infancy–the executive functions of future planning, personal responsibility, and self-control are cementing in the brain’s neural pathways. "The Adult Brain" explores the relationship between thought and emotion, explaining the brain’s role in producing feelings. Finally, "The Aging Brain" gives us all hope by debunking the conventional wisdom that brain cells cannot be regenerated.