The human mind. Pt. 1, Get smart.

Professor Robert Winston presents a three-part journey into the mechanics of the brain. In the opening episode we are shown that our brains have greater capacity than we think and are shown some ways to unlock our learning potential. Learning new skills, like Alison Ross, a 43-year-old woman who is training to become a midwife, means physically restructuring our brains. Computer graphics help explain that learning sets up new pathways between neurons in the brain. Schoolboy Elliot Best had poor concentration, reading and writing skills, but after taking part in an Oxford University trial that involved taking Omega-3 tablets he changed from a tv-loving couch potato into an avid reader whose schoolwork improved dramatically. Gymnast Rebecca Owen learns a new, compliated movement, partly by visualising it in her mind. Andy Bell, World Memory Champion of 2002, explains his memory techinique of matching images to familiar locations. Creating a simple story to remember facts sets up several pathways to a memory so that we are more likely to be able to retrieve it. The subconcious memory is examined with the example of fireman Andy Kirk who, during the fighting of what seemed to be a routine fire, suddenly ordered his crew out of a building just before a rare backdraught sent a fireball hurtling towards them. Scientists believe that his subconcious mind compared the current fire with others he had seen and gave him the feeling that something about this one was different. Professor Winston looks at ancient stone tools in an African cave, and cites the 'bright spark' who thought of creating an axe by combining a stone hand axe with a stick as having the first original thought. Winston is then wired up so that we can see the different signal of the brain during an original thought or 'aha moment'. These moments usually occur when the brain is relaxed. The programme ends with qualified midwife Alison successfully delivering a baby solo for the first time.