All In The Mind

How the human brain perceives music, how composers exploit our instinctive reaction to it and the relationship between music and emotion

Impulsive, impatient, easily bored, chaotic and need to multi-task?  Adult ADHD is quite common but not well understood and managed.

How the chemistry in our brain drives us to love, and why happiness is good for us.

Ants can teach, rats have a sense of humour, chimpanzees can deceive and elephants grieve. Fascinating research now shows that the cognitive and emotional processes of animals are far more sophisticated than we once thought.

What turns someone to violent crime? We discuss the biological roots of crime and how they interact with social factors.

The power of drama and theatre to change and heal.

The psychology of paedophilia. Are there differences in the brains of paedophiles or is attraction to children on a universal continuum, controlled only by socialisation?

Comedian Ruby Wax speaks about why our minds can send us mad and how we can rewire our thinking.  

Young people with severe mental illness have a 15–20 years lower life expectancy than the general population. We hear the story of a young man who after a psychotic episode put on 30kg. Now he’s back to surfing, with the help of an innovative mental health program which links mind and body.

Are you a curious explorer? Curiosity is the missing ingredient in our search for a more fulfilling life, says Todd Kashdan.

Being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome makes a big difference to some people’s lives—providing them with an identity and an explanation for their daily challenges. The latest version of the psychiatric Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM V) which is due out this month does away with a separate category for Asperger's. In this program we get an insight into being on the autism spectrum and w...

For most people the ability to interact and communicate with each other seems almost second nature—but for those with a condition on the autism spectrum social skills can be difficult to grasp and challenging. We hear from the pioneering autism researcher from the UK Uta Frith and neuroscientist Chris Frith about what autism and Asperger's Syndrome can teach us about our Social Brain. 

Do you have a monkey mind? New Yorker Daniel Smith does. He says chronic anxiety is the only mental disorder which can be both excruciatingly painful and funny at the same time.

Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist who’s turned his mind to the unconscious. Not the unconscious mind of Freudian fame which was examined through psychoanalysis in the 19th century – but a new science of the unconscious made possible by technologies which reveal the physiology of our brains. We discuss the hidden forces that rule our behaviour. 

We feel we should be able to recall all sorts of things at will—but how often do our individual memories fail us? As part of a study on social memory, a group of cognitive psychologists and philosophers heard the shared histories of long term married couples to investigate how they combine their memories. The strategies they use could help people with dementia.

Are you a sensitive flower -- like a vulnerable orchid, or more like a hardy dandelion? We explore the intriguing orchid–dandelion hypothesis which suggests that the genes that underlie our greatest weakness may also be the basis for our most positive traits, given the right environment.

Memory – it’s the thread that runs through our lives. Psychologists are finding that the way we talk with our young children affects their early memories and we hear why we soon forget what we learn when we cram for an exam.

James Doty emerged from a disadvantaged background in the United States to become a neurosurgeon, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist—only to let his fortune go and dedicate his professional life to the scientific study of compassion and altruism.

If you sign up to a weekend personal development workshop, you don’t really expect to emerge 10 years later a shadow of your former emotional self. What sets many groups apart from what we regard as cults is a range of powerful psychological techniques which can be difficult to see through—particularly if you are at a vulnerable time of your life. We hear the story of one woman’s escape from a cul...

Ever heard of Cotard's delusion – the belief that you are dead, or Capgras delusion – that your loved one is an imposter?  These persistent beliefs can have serious consequences. In some fascinating work, researchers at Macquarie University are now using hypnosis to recreate some delusions in healthy volunteers in the lab, to help understand and treat them more effectively.  And Lynne Malcolm find...

For centuries scientists have grappled with the concept of memory—what is it, how does it work and can we really rely on it? US historian Alison Winter traces the history of the way we have conceptualised memory—from the use of truth serums and hypnotism to the science of forgetting. She describes the way memory has been compared to filing cabinets, flashbulbs and motion pictures over the past cen...

Craig now lives as a man, and Julie lives as a woman. They have no doubts about their gender identity. The science now says it's reflected in the brain.

Many heads are now coming together to improve the lives of those who experience schizophrenia. Join Lynne Malcolm for this public discussion on art, science and schizophrenia.

New empirical research suggests that language has a powerful influence over the way we think and perceive the world.

We explore how speaking more than one language influences our cognitive capacity.