The prospect of manipulating thought and behavior with machines has captured human imaginations for decades, but recent conceptual and technological advancements in brain sciences are turning science fiction into genuine medical reality for the millions suffering from brain disorders. ELECTRIC MIND is a filmic journey into the heads and hearts of four people suffering from debilitating brain disorders: Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Epilepsy and Dystonia.

Are left-handers really better at tennis? And more broadly in sports? The answer is yes! Even better: this finding is true in many other activities that have nothing to do with competition. Moreover, left-handers have always existed in the population of all time, on all continents, in all cultures and always in the same small proportion (10%). If they have never disappeared, they have certainly held an advantage allowing them to survive in this world of right-handed…

How can we live with a brain injury, damaged in an accident? How can one learn to walk, speak, reason, interact with others when we coming out of coma? How to rehabilitate a brain that no longer works as before? In short, is one still himself after such an ordeal? These are the questions that face every day brain-damaged people and therapists who accompany them. Together they must find ways to circumvent the problems caused by brain injury. Painstaking work, which requires on both sides patience and, above all, a lot of courage.

The prospect of manipulating thought and behavior with machines has captured human imaginations for decades, but recent conceptual and technological advancements in brain sciences are turning science fiction into genuine medical reality for the millions suffering from brain disorders. ELECTRIC MIND is a filmic journey into the heads and hearts of four people suffering from debilitating brain disorders: Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Epilepsy and Dystonia.

The Institute of Neuroscience in Bordeaux is one of the places were fundamental research into how the memory works takes place. From behavioural studies in mice to molecular level, the researchers decode the very first traces of memory, an essential concept in discovering how our brains work in order to one day lead a more efficient fight against certain effects of ageing on memory.

And if the French actually had less capacity than the Dutch to learn languages, as claimed Yves Leterme before becoming Prime Minister? And if the reality of the world by changing the language we speak? Also, why people who already speak several languages as they are easy to learn new ones? In our bilingual country, where, depending on your point of view, language can be an asset or a handicap, it could be useful to examine the scientific basis of language. Gray Matter has done, until the depths of our neurons.

The two hemispheres of the brain manage distinct tasks. This was reported more than a century ago by observing patients affected by brain damages. Today, thanks to the Functional MRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, the working of the brain can be finely investigated and analyzed on healthy volunteers. In the laboratory Ci-naps (Center of Imaging - Neurosciences and Applications to Pathologies), many experiments are realized in order to obtain a cartography of the functioning of our brain.

In official competition

Many people are more or less disabled as the result of a traumatism. Science endeavours to develop solutions so that those men and women recover maximum autonomy. Speech recognition software makes it possible to use the voice to give computer commands. Other solutions exist if people are unable to speak. Simple head movements make it possible to direct a light beam that interacts with a virtual keyboard on the computer screen. Robots can help disabled people by making it possible for them to handle the objects.

"I'm as graceful as a dancing elephant on speed in a glass shop." - Paul Nadler

He was a world-traveler and bon vivant who enjoyed the company of hippie chicks and fellow artists. Nothing was too daring. No one was more intense.

So, how does a creative maverick like thisówith a sexy job in the fast-paced world of televisionódeal with traumatic brain injury? Ask Paul Nadler, an award-winning television director and producer. In Braindamadj'd…Take II, Nadler beats the odds, emerging from a six-week coma to fight for his independence.

A disturbing biological disease, autism seems to be on the rise. In Quebec alone, 500 new cases are diagnosed each yearóthat's four times more than in the seventies. What has research into the disease uncovered? Are vaccines responsible for autism? What role do genetics play? What do we know about how an autistic brain works? Découverte takes a look.