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It鈥檚 the size and shape of a cauliflower, and weighs about 3 lbs. And yet the average human brain has so many intricate and complex connections that if you counted one connection every second it would take you more than three million years.

Professor Anil Seth has devoted his career to trying to understand the brain, puzzling over the mystery of consciousness itself. He鈥檚 Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the Sackler Centre at the University of Sussex, and the author of a popular book, 鈥淭he 30-second Brain鈥�. In Private Passions, he muses on how our consciousness of the world, and of ourselves, is 鈥渙ne of the big central mysteries of life鈥�. And it鈥檚 a mystery we face every day 鈥� when we fall asleep and when we wake up. In conversation with Michael Berkeley, Anil Seth explores the concept of free will (he doesn鈥檛 believe in it); why music evokes such strong memories; and how meditation changes the structure of the brain.

Music choices include Chopin, Bach, Nina Simone, and an ancient Hindi mantra.

A Loftus production for 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke