The Brain with David Eagleman

An experiment in a shop window demonstrates why teens feel far more self-conscious than adults in the same situation. The activity in the teenager’s medial prefrontal cortex plays an important role in how young adults perceive themselves.

A typical 2-year-old is building 2 million new connections every second, but after the age of two this growth is halted, and a process of pruning begins. The process of becoming someone is about pruning back the brain’s connections.

The brains of London taxi drivers were tracked before, during and after their training, and results showed that a part of their brain had grown. The adult brain isn’t fixed. Its networks can reconfigure themselves according to our experiences and our environment.

Electrochemical signals travel through dense networks of neurons. The brain scans through this non-stop incoming stream of information in search for patterns which becomes your reality.

David Eagleman experiences a new visual reality – with nauseating consequences. He experiences the enormous effort his brain goes to construct the world around him.

Hannah describes her synesthesia, a reminder that person to person, and brain to brain, our experiences of reality can be quite different.

In the same way that the economy of a city doesn’t take place in one district, there is no single spot in the brain that works in isolation. The brain is a vast interconnected network of areas that are in constant communication with each other.

Why does time seem to slow down when we are in life-threatening situations? Wingsuit pilot Jeb Corliss describes his agonizing experience of time distortion, David explains what is happening in the brain.

David explains how the brain is tricked by the checker shadow illusion. What we see doesn’t necessarily match on to the reality beyond our senses.

David invites subjects to recreate an experiment that demonstrates how much our brains leave out of our perception of reality. One brief look is enough for the brain to model a picture of the situation but just how detailed it that model?

Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores the human brain in an epic series that reveals the ultimate story of us, why we feel and think the things we do. This ambitious project blends science with innovative visual effects and compelling personal stories, and addresses some big questions. Premieres Wednesdays, October 14-November 18, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET on PBS.

Many newborn animals are born ready for the world, compared to human babies who are born helpless. The unfinished brains of young humans allows them to develop and adapt to whichever environments they are born into.