Dr. Amir Raz performs magic trick at the Lyman-Duff auditorium with assistance from a student volunteer
for French-language version, read here...
The Neuro brings the magic of Dr. Amir Raz’s world-class research in cognitive neuroscience to CBCs’ celebrated science series The Nature of Things. The hot topic is whether our belief in pills has given rise to the substitution of placebos in the current spectrum of healing. If so, what discretionary measures must be considered in the future of medicine?
In early November 2012, Leora Eisen of The Nature of Things brought her crew to the Neuro-based Raz Lab, and then on to the sub-terrain MEG lab – that’s magnetoencephalography to its imaging director Dr. Sylvain Baillet – and finally to an auditorium of magic-enthused students in the Duff. The Nature of Things also traveled to Boston and Harvard University, where they asked more scientists to weigh in on the matter.
Dr. Raz, in collaboration with Oxford PI Dr. Kia Nobre, holds one of the first Oxford-McGill partnerships in neuroscience seeded by Brain@McGill. These McGill partnerships continue to span the globe, with new prospects being explored in Paris, France and São Paulo, Brazil.
Bringing high-calibre research into the realm of public health discourse is an important goal for Brain@McGill. In November, it did just that: The Nature of Things series has brought science journalism to Canadian audiences for 52 years, with episodes that broadcasts in more than 80 countries.
The episode Brain Magic: The Power of Placebo with Dr. Amir Raz hits the airwaves this Thursday, October 24, 2013 at 8PM on CBC-TV. Watch it online the following day, here >