Beautiful Minds
(3) A Little Matter Of Gender - The Mysterious World Of The Savants
Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University is said to be one of the greatest experts in autism research in the world. He argues that there are serious differences – at least on average – between the male and the female brain. The female brain is an ’E-brain’, he says, ’E ’ for empathy, the ability to put oneself in the emotional position of others. On the other hand men are more likely to be ’S-brains’, which stands for ’System ’: motor, computer etc. The dysfunction of the extreme male brain can bring up masterminds and monsters – and savants.
As a little girl Temple Grandin didn´t speak at all. She rather repeated words and sentences she picked up like a tape recorder. Eventually she did learn the language of men like others learn foreign languages. But Temple always felt at home in the language of animals, who – like her – think in pictures and not in words. Today Dr. Temple Grandin is a leading expert in the design of cattle breeding farms because she knows the fears of cows, pigs and sheep by heart. Yet the thoughts and minds of average people are still a mystery to her, in her life she will never be able to fall in love.
Christopher Taylor wouldn´t be able to find the way to the pub in the village he has been living in for 20 years, but he can read newspapers in almost 25 different languages. Scientists like Simon Baron-Cohen think that an overdose of the male sex hormone testosterone in the embryo stage is responsible for extreme forms in the male brain that leads to autism and in some cases to the abilities of the savants.
Are men and women principally wired differently? Are men more likely to be aggressive and violent because areas deep in their brains make them that way? Is the average female brain less system-talented but good in communication, balancing and sympathy?
As a little girl Temple Grandin didn´t speak at all. She rather repeated words and sentences she picked up like a tape recorder. Eventually she did learn the language of men like others learn foreign languages. But Temple always felt at home in the language of animals, who – like her – think in pictures and not in words. Today Dr. Temple Grandin is a leading expert in the design of cattle breeding farms because she knows the fears of cows, pigs and sheep by heart. Yet the thoughts and minds of average people are still a mystery to her, in her life she will never be able to fall in love.
Christopher Taylor wouldn´t be able to find the way to the pub in the village he has been living in for 20 years, but he can read newspapers in almost 25 different languages. Scientists like Simon Baron-Cohen think that an overdose of the male sex hormone testosterone in the embryo stage is responsible for extreme forms in the male brain that leads to autism and in some cases to the abilities of the savants.
Are men and women principally wired differently? Are men more likely to be aggressive and violent because areas deep in their brains make them that way? Is the average female brain less system-talented but good in communication, balancing and sympathy?
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
