Chapter 1 · 18 min

How We Learned to Look Inside

Chapter 1 of How the Brain Works: How We Learned to Look Inside.

How the Brain Works | Ch 1 Part 1/2: How We Learned to Look Inside ↗How the Brain Works | Ch 1 Part 2/2: How We Learned to Look Inside ↗

Visual credits

28 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

Journey of Sound to the Brain
NIH/NIDCD
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain (official NIDCD page statement)
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
[Exposition universelle de Paris, 1900, et portraits de célébrités] / Collection Félix Potin
Pierre Petit; Collection Félix Potin / Gallica
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Vue de la grande cour de l'hopital royal de Bicestre. 2, G.23130
Jacques Rigaud / Paris Musées, G.23130
View original source ↗Source licence: CC0
Cerveau de Louis Victor Leborgne dit Tantan 2
Selbymay
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Siemens Magnetom Aera MRI scanner
Ptrump16
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Camillo Golgi
Photographer unknown; historical Nobel-era publication
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Pyramidal hippocampal neuron 40x
MethoxyRoxy
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 2.5
Photographic portrait of Santiago-Ramon-Cajal M.D.
Wellcome Library, London / Wellcome Images; photographer unspecified
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
PurkinjeCell
Santiago Ramón y Cajal / Instituto Cajal, Madrid
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Golgi 1885 Plate XX
Camillo Golgi; lithography P. A. Dagheri
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Electron micrograph of neuromuscular junction (cross-section)
National Institute of Mental Health / SynapseWeb
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Apparatus used by Galvani
Wellcome Library, London / Wellcome Images
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0
Luigi Galvani Experiment
Luigi Galvani
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Galvani 1791 plate, Fig. 2 frog preparation — source crop
Luigi Galvani
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Figure or page excerpt cropped from the source publication.
Hermann von Helmholtz photographed in 1884
Julius Cornelius Schaarwächter
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Helmholtz pendulum, Berlin, Germany, 1895-1910
Wellcome Library, London / Wellcome Images; instrument maker Berliner Physikalische Werkstatten GmbH
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0
HansBerger Univ Jena
Unknown author Unknown author
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
1st-eeg
Hans Berger, 1929 report, portion of Fig. 13
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Godfrey Hounsfield
Unknown author Unknown author
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
RIMG0277
No machine-readable author provided. Gdh~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims).
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0
Schematic illustration of CT scanner, extracted from Policy implications of the computed tomography (CT) scanner (1978)
Congress of the United States, Office of Technology Assessment :
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Calibration; MRI (5940427469)
National Institute of Standards and Technology
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
FMRI BOLD activation in an emotional Stroop task
Shima Ovaysikia, Khalid A. Tahir, Jason L. Chan and Joseph F. X. DeSouza
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 2.5
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
E. Hitzig and G. Fritsch, Brain of a monkey, 19thC.
Wellcome Library, London / Wellcome Images; E. Hitzig and G. Fritsch source
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
Wilder Penfield
United States National Library of Medicine
View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain
Optogenetics imetronic
Bd008
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
One minute laser-fiber alignment procedure (for optogenetics)
Tom Davidson
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 3.0
Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.
E.D. Adrian, UCL 1955/56.
Wellcome Library, London / Wellcome Images
View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →

Visual credits

Journey of Sound to the Brain

[Exposition universelle de Paris, 1900, et portraits de célébrités] / Collection Félix Potin

Vue de la grande cour de l'hopital royal de Bicestre. 2, G.23130

Cerveau de Louis Victor Leborgne dit Tantan 2

Siemens Magnetom Aera MRI scanner

Camillo Golgi

Pyramidal hippocampal neuron 40x

Photographic portrait of Santiago-Ramon-Cajal M.D.

PurkinjeCell

Golgi 1885 Plate XX

Electron micrograph of neuromuscular junction (cross-section)

Apparatus used by Galvani

Luigi Galvani Experiment

Galvani 1791 plate, Fig. 2 frog preparation — source crop

Hermann von Helmholtz photographed in 1884

Helmholtz pendulum, Berlin, Germany, 1895-1910

HansBerger Univ Jena

1st-eeg

Godfrey Hounsfield

RIMG0277

Schematic illustration of CT scanner, extracted from Policy implications of the computed tomography (CT) scanner (1978)

Calibration; MRI (5940427469)

FMRI BOLD activation in an emotional Stroop task

E. Hitzig and G. Fritsch, Brain of a monkey, 19thC.

Wilder Penfield

Optogenetics imetronic

One minute laser-fiber alignment procedure (for optogenetics)

E.D. Adrian, UCL 1955/56.

Research references

How this film was made