AIRING TONIGHT
The Globe and Mail, John Doyle
December 4, 2008

The Nature of Things - The Brain that Changes (Newsworld, 10 p.m.) is a repeat of last week's excellent program, which explores the revolutionary science of "neuroplasticity" - a concept that expands not just our knowledge of how our brains work, but also how we use them. For centuries, the human brain has been thought of as incapable of fundamental change. People suffering from neurological defects, brain damage or strokes were usually written off as "hopeless cases," according to the program. But recent and continuing research into the human brain is radically changing how we look at the potential for neurological recovery.

HIGHLIGHT: THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF
Globe and Mail, Henrietta Walmark
November 21, 2008

"What we have here is a new way of looking at the brain," director Mike Sheerin (Bravo Company: Kandahar, The Secret Mulroney Tapes) said as he described tonight's documentary, which he also co-wrote with Norman Doidge based on the Toronto psychiatrist's bestselling book about revolutionary discoveries of the human brain's plasticity and stunning ability to transform itself.

"It is, in the correct use of the phrase, a paradigm shift; it is a new way of looking at things," the filmmaker said. "Once you do make that shift, all of a sudden there is a wonderful world of opportunity that didn't exist before. In the film, we visit with some of these opportunities, with some of these people whose lives have been positively affected by this new way of looking at the brain."

Midway through filming, Sheerin said to himself, "I think this is the most important documentary I have made so far because it affects everybody. There is not a single person on this planet who is not in some way affected by how we view the brain.

"The ramifications of this new way of looking at the brain are going to be very important down the road," he added. "Maybe not right now. Right now, some of these case studies that we look at seem almost too fantastical. They're not actually within our realm of experience, but 10 years down the road they'll have built on these sorts of experiments and research. Eventually it will be commonplace in terms of how we treat everything."


WORTH WATCHING
Telegraph-Journal
November 21, 2008

The Nature of Things With David Suzuki will get you thinking as it features the documentary The Brain That Changes Itself. Some scientists believe the brain may have the ability rewire itself and overcome disabilities such as blindness. This film is based on the book of the same name written by psychiatrist Dr. Norman Doidge. (CBC)