2 HN users recommended this documentary3 months2023–2025score 4
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Recommended in threads on consciousness, anesthesia and perception as a fascinating look at how much of experience the brain constructs.
A NOVA documentary with neuroscientist Heather Berlin exploring the subconscious and what drives our decisions. It uses sleepwalking, anesthesia, improvised rap in an MRI and game theory to probe how much of the brain's work is hidden.
“Both of these videos are great resources on how much of what you experience of reality is made up or filled in by your brain” (HN, 2024)
The topic, but not this exception, is touched on in “Your Brain: Who's in Control? | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS“ Episode 2 of a two-part series, premiered May 24, 2023. Both episodes are fascinating and eye opening. 08:36 Anesthesia and the Brain [this video] [link]
NOVA documentary episode touching on anesthesia and the brain.
Perception Deception: Nova [link] Your Brain - Who's in control: Nova [this video] Both of these videos are great resources on how much of what you experience of reality is made up or filled in by your brain at any given moment. I believe it's the Perception Deception episode that shows us how little of our vision is actual HD quality and that an external observer doing eye tracking on you can present a different reality to you than a 3rd party looking at the same object you are (on a screen at least, little bit harder in the real world).
Great resources on how much of reality the brain fills in.
When talking about vision and what you see and don't I like bringing up the Your Brain: Perception Deception Nova PBS episode. [link] Also Your Brain: Who's in control Nova PBS [this video]
Companion NOVA episode to Perception Deception on vision.
I think the title suggests larger questions. What is Flow? How many different kinds of flow states are there? To what extent are they equal? I recently listened to "Your Brain: Who's in Control?" [1], a PBS documentary that looked at a musician in an MRI rapping a memorized piece vs an ad-hoc rap. They found the musician's prefrontal cortex was inhibited when doing the ad-hoc exercise. The prefrontal cortex is used as a "filter" center, to predict and evaluate the potential outcome of actions and basically to tell you when something is a bad idea. When developers are in flow, and they are creating brand new code - do their prefrontal cortex'es also become inhibited? Is that the same kind of flow state? I believe there are multiple types of flow state: - gardening/choirs, time drops away and you lose yourself in the trimming, edging and mundane gardening tasks - gaming, when I was younger and after an approx 16 hour binge of Civilization, my mind was still in the game. I was asleep and was still thinking in-game, solving problems, and wondering "where is the end turn button." Being in that level of flow state, the thoughts of 'end turn', 'move unit' - just occurred, my mind's connection to the game through my body was erased, the motor movements to click, hotkeys, all gone from conscious thought and just automatic. - music: Type (A) - playing a well known piece, it just happens. Type (B) Improv, jazz musicians do this all the time for hours on end. - biking/exercise: after a f
Musician in MRI shows prefrontal cortex inhibition during improvised rap.
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