DISCOVERING THE HUMAN BRAIN: NEW PATHWAYS TO NEUROSCIENCE

With Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D.

2007 (29 min) $250.   ISBN: 1-891340-49-2       [Available with Spanish Subtitles]

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The findings from neuroscience are having a great impact on psychology and other social sciences as discoveries about the physiology of the brain confirm earlier research and open new fields of inquiry about how it is we human function.  This film is an introduction to the methodology neuroscientists use and some of the recent directions this research has taken.   Filmed at the Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, the film illustrates how research on brain functioning was done in the past from autopsies and studies of neurologically injured patients.  Actual technicians demonstrate the newer technologies of EEG, PET and fMRI and relate how they function and compliment each other. 

Film content:

            Definition of neuroscience

            Early observations

                        Broca’s studies

                        Phineas P. Gage

                        Naming brain areas and linking them to function

            Microscopic and Electronic views

                        Electronic microscope

                                    Identifying the components of neurons and their functions

                        Electroencephalogram (EEG)

                                    Event related potential  (ERP)

            Imaging

                        Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

                        Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

            Applications

                        Study of autism-mirror neurons

                        Localization of a tumor in preparation for surgery

Visuals:

            Amazing images of neurons captured by electronic microscopes

            An on-going visuals of a grad student, demonstrating normal brain function in her daily life and at work at the Brain Mapping Center

            Animated images of neurons, showing how they transmit messages

            Illustrations of early brain research

            A person undergoing an EEG test and the images that are captured

            Another person having a PET scan and the images captured from it

            Two people undergoing fMRI studies with the images from that

            A child participating in a study of autism

            A case conference with a patient with a brain tumor showing her with MRI images the possible language losses surgery might cause

Consultant:

Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D. is a professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology at Wayne State University and did a post-doctorate fellowship in neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health.  She has continues to do research in the area of developmental disabilities and language development.  She also consults with neurosurgeons using her fMRI imaging skills to help them achieve the best possible results from brain surgeries. 

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