1. A Hole in the Head

Dr Geoff Bunn's ten-part history is a journey through 5000 years of our understanding of the most complex thing in the known universe.

From Neolithic times to the present day, Geoff journeys through the many ideas of what the brain is for and how it fulfils its functions.

What soon becomes obvious is that our understanding of this most inscrutable organ has in all periods been coloured by the social and political expedients of the day no less than by the contemporary scope of scientific or biological exploration.

In this episode, the focus is on trepanation, the practice of drilling holes in the skull believing that such operations might correct physiological or spiritual problems.

It reveals much about the understanding of the brain from Neolithic to recent times.

The Ancient Egyptians, however, rarely trepanned, even though their Secret Book of the Physician, one of the oldest medical texts in the world, shows that they recognised how damage to the brain can paralyse limbs on opposite sides of the body. Believing the heart to be the core organ, they discarded the brain altogether at death, since it had no part to play in the afterlife.

Featuring the voices of:

* Paul Bhattacharjee
* Jonathan Forbes
* Hattie Morahan

Producer: Marya Burgess

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.