Chinanews.com, January 14 -- The documentary "Two Hundred Years of Surgery" team launched a masterpiece after three years, focusing on several major research directions of the "China Brain Project", combined with the latest scientific research results, and invited top experts participating in the "Brain Project" to participate in the program, planning a documentary "Deep in the Brain" with the theme of "brain cognition". For the first time, the film systematically shows the efforts made by Chinese scientists in the field of brain science research, in order to awaken the public to understand the human brain, and understanding the human brain is to understand ourselves. The film is produced by the Film and Television Documentary Center of China Central Radio and Television Corporation, and will premiere on CCTV-9, the documentary channel of CCTV, and China Central Radio and Television from January 15 to 20, 2023.
The brain is the most mysterious and complex structure known to man, it does not feel pain, it contains 86 billion nerve cells, through the brain, we can think, see, hear, distinguish beauty from ugliness, good from evil, hate and love. The brain is also a place for madness and delirium, fear and panic. Insomnia, sleepwalking, memory loss, forgetting... All are caused by brain causes.
From ancient times to the present, for this mysterious human organ, human beings have not stopped the pace of exploration, as early as the 19th century, doctors through the study of the physical characteristics of the deceased's skull, developed the theory of "phrenology", after the 20th century, with the development of various science and technology, people's understanding of the brain gradually deepened. Since 2013, the United States, Europe and Japan have launched large-scale "brain science" programs, facing the world's scientific and technological frontiers, and the mainland's support for basic research is also constantly strengthening, from the 13th Five-Year Plan to the 14th Five-Year Plan, brain science has been listed as key cutting-edge science and technology projects. In 2021, the "China Brain Project" --- "Brain Science and Brain-like Research" that have been brewing for many years were officially launched, the project mainly revolves around the whole brain mesoscopic neural connection map, the international big science plan, the diagnosis and treatment of heavy brain diseases, brain health and medical industry, brain-computer intelligence technology, brain-like intelligence industry three directions, in 2023, the National Science and Technology Work Conference pointed out that the mainland has achieved major original achievements with international influence in the field of brain science.
Human beings continue to understand the brain and explore the mysteries of the brain, which is an important part of the construction of the "China Brain Project" and the common goal of neuroscientists around the world, and its promotion will have positive significance for scientists to reveal the human brain, break through the understanding of brain diseases and the mechanism of neural work.
Poster for the documentary "Deep in the Brain"
It is reported that the documentary "Deep in the Brain" has a total of 6 episodes, each 25 minutes, which are "Brain Planet", "Reshaping the Brain", "The World in the Brain", "The Strongest Brain", "The Opposing Brain" and "Brain Map". Topics cover brain networks, brain plasticity, brain memory, decision-making and brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence. In the film, you can not only see how brain injury patients who were awakened during craniotomy undergo brain function tests; There are also similarities and differences between the brains of children, murderers, and professional divers who can live healthy after removing half of their brains, and how to control external devices with their minds, the oldest brain-computer interface subjects in China; There is also China's most cutting-edge brain network mapping research, the significance of the research of Alzheimer's disease, autism, depression patients... Behind all the practical problems that people care about, it shows the unremitting efforts and great contributions of Chinese neuroscientists, as well as the courage and wisdom of human beings to constantly explore the mysteries of the brain.
Overcoming the impact of the epidemic, the production team spent two years and visited 28 important participating units of the national "brain plan" such as the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences of Peking University, the IDG/McGovern Institute of Brain Science, and the Beijing Brain Science and Brain-like Research Center, as well as more than ten large hospitals such as Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing Tiantan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, and Beijing Children's Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University. Academician Luo Qingming, Academician Cheng Heping, Academician Lu Lin, Academician Duan Shumin and Academician Zhao Jizong are 6 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including 50 experts in the field of neuroscience.
Poster for the documentary "Deep in the Brain"
The film has made a new attempt in the innovation of science documentary form. The whole film unfolds from different latitudes such as biology, medicine, neurology, psychology, etc., adopts fragmented narrative techniques, in each episode of 25 minutes, through 6-7 paragraphs, for a theme, in the story cases, experimental experience, historical retrospective, animation display intertwined loops, the doctors, scientists, scientific and technological means in the process of brain research to make a panoramic display. Narrative techniques such as fragmentation take into account the communication needs of integrated media, and the series will be broken down into more than 100 popular science micro-videos to be simultaneously disseminated on various media platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and public accounts.
In terms of creation, the film uses a more international expression, through the exploration of scientific speakers, with a stronger sense of substitution, close to the audience, and strengthen the understanding of scientific knowledge. This film specially invites Wei Kunlin, professor of the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences of Peking University and scientific advisor of "The Strongest Brain", as a science keynote speaker to participate in the program. In addition, "Deep in the Brain" shows part of the functions and structures of the brain from multiple angles in an animated way for the first time.
Wei Kunlin, professor of the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences of Peking University and scientific advisor of "The Strongest Brain", served as the science keynote speaker.
"Deep in the Brain" is produced by the Film and Television Documentary Center of China Central Radio and Television Corporation, and is another masterpiece of the documentary "Two Hundred Years of Surgery" team after three years. After being broadcast in June 2019, "Two Hundred Years of Surgery" won almost all the important awards in the documentary industry that year, and was evaluated by documentary industry scholars as "the re-emergence of Chinese science documentaries after many years of silence". Therefore, it is more motivating the main creative team to continue to pay attention to medical science popularization, first of all, the brain and the heart as the two core topics of in-depth interpretation, began to produce two series of "Open a Heart" and "Deep in the Brain", and began to deeply explore and interpret the complex and sophisticated "instrument" of the human body.
Poster for the documentary "Deep in the Brain"
Since its establishment, the production team of this film, Central New Film Discovery Documentary Media, is a leading team in the creation of domestic science documentaries, which has not only inherited the fine tradition of Beijing Science Film for 60 years of scientific documentary creation, but also actively explored the innovative development path of scientific documentaries in the new era. In recent years, many phenomenal scientific documentaries such as "Climbing the Peak", "Two Hundred Years of Surgery" and "Mendeleev is Busy" have been continuously launched. Deep in the Brain innovates again, enabling new challenges and attempts.