Beautiful Minds
(3) A Little Matter Of Gender - The Mysterious World Of The Savants
Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University is considered one of the world’s leading experts in autism research. He argues that there are significant differences — at least on average — between the male and the female brain. The female brain, he says, is an “E-brain”: E for empathy, the ability to put oneself in another’s emotional position. Men, by contrast, are more likely to have “S-brains” — S for systemising: motors, computers and the like. The extreme male brain, when dysfunctional, can produce both masterminds and monsters — and savants.
As a little girl, Temple Grandin didn’t speak at all. Instead, she repeated words and sentences she had picked up, parrot-fashion. Eventually she did learn to speak like others learn a foreign language — with effort and method rather than instinct. But Temple always felt more at home in the language of animals, who — like her — think in pictures rather than words. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a leading expert in the design of livestock facilities, because she understands the fears of cows, pigs and sheep from the inside. Yet the thoughts and minds of ordinary people remain a mystery to her — and she says she will never be able to fall in love.
Christopher Taylor wouldn’t be able to find his way to the pub in the village he has lived in for 20 years — yet he can read newspapers in almost 25 different languages. Scientists like Simon Baron-Cohen believe that an overdose of the male sex hormone testosterone during the embryonic stage is responsible for extreme variations in the male brain, leading in some cases to autism and, in others, to the extraordinary abilities of savants.
Are men and women fundamentally wired differently? Are men more prone to aggression and violence because of deep-seated structures in their brains? Is the average female brain less system-oriented but stronger in communication, empathy and balance?
As a little girl, Temple Grandin didn’t speak at all. Instead, she repeated words and sentences she had picked up, parrot-fashion. Eventually she did learn to speak like others learn a foreign language — with effort and method rather than instinct. But Temple always felt more at home in the language of animals, who — like her — think in pictures rather than words. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a leading expert in the design of livestock facilities, because she understands the fears of cows, pigs and sheep from the inside. Yet the thoughts and minds of ordinary people remain a mystery to her — and she says she will never be able to fall in love.
Christopher Taylor wouldn’t be able to find his way to the pub in the village he has lived in for 20 years — yet he can read newspapers in almost 25 different languages. Scientists like Simon Baron-Cohen believe that an overdose of the male sex hormone testosterone during the embryonic stage is responsible for extreme variations in the male brain, leading in some cases to autism and, in others, to the extraordinary abilities of savants.
Are men and women fundamentally wired differently? Are men more prone to aggression and violence because of deep-seated structures in their brains? Is the average female brain less system-oriented but stronger in communication, empathy and balance?
Facts
3 part-sereis shot in HDTV on original locations in Germany, France, USA, Australia, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom
Beautiful Minds was licenced to more than 50 countries around the world.
It was nominated for the German TV Prize (Deutscher Fernsehpreis), the Adolf- Grimme-Prize and for Prix Europa.
First aired:
22nd February 2006, 19.00 pm on Arte, 23rd March 2006, 23.45 pm on ARD, 28th April 2006, 20.15 pm on 3 Sat, 24th May 2006, 20.15 pm on Phoenix.
Credits
Written, directed and produced by: Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus
Director of Photography: Axel Petrovan
Video Editor: Jörg Wegner
Producer: Francesca D‘Amicis, Ralf Hoppe, Friederike Schmidt-Vogt
Line Producer: Svenja Mandel
Narration: Benjamin Völz
Commissioning Editors: Gerhard Widmer (Radio Bremen)
A colourFIELD production commissioned by Radio Bremen and ARTE
