Airdate: The Brain That Changes Itself

SBS ONE will air The Brain that Changes Itself based on the best-selling book by Toronto psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Norman Doidge. The documentary will seek to present a strong case for reconsidering how we view the human mind.

Dr. Norman Doidge travels across North America to meet some of the pioneering researchers who made revolutionary discoveries about the plasticity of the human brain. He also visits with the people who have been most affected by this research – the patients whose lives have been forever changed – people once thought of as incurable who are now living normal lives.

Known in scientific circles as “neuroplasticity,” this radical new approach to the brain provides an incredible way to bring the human brain back to life. Some of the cases that we meet are:

• Roger Behm, a blind man who is now able to see via his tongue (and can throw a basketball into a garbage can to prove it).

• Cheryl Schiltz, who was written-off by doctors when she lost her sense of balance due to a drug’s side effect. Once sentenced to a lifetime of wobbling, her brain rewired itself through a seemingly simple therapy, and has now regained her balance and returned to a normal life.

• Michelle Mack, one of the greatest examples of the brain’s ability to adapt: she was born, literally, with just half of her brain.

• Michael Bernstein, who suffered a debilitating stroke in the prime of his life, paralysing the left side of his body. He’s now back to his former life, as his brain functions have been rerouted and re-invigorated.

It airs on SBS ONE on Tuesday, 15 June at 7.30pm in Eastern States, 7.00pm in South Australia & NT but there is no screening in Western Australia, due to live 2010 FIFA World Cup coverage.