{"id":85,"date":"2008-08-27T14:21:49","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T18:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/?p=85"},"modified":"2008-09-10T15:41:28","modified_gmt":"2008-09-10T19:41:28","slug":"spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/","title":{"rendered":"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda’s Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
\"Alan<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Filming conversation between Alan and neuroscientist Scott Frey. Note the grabbing tool on the table\u2026 can Alan successfully grasp the paper cup with it?
\nPhoto \u00a9 Maggie Villiger 2008<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The first few days of shooting with Alan have nicely confirmed one of the key inspirations for the series: that many very different sciences — and scientists — are out there looking for the Spark — even if they don\u2019t know it. A couple of days ago we were in Oregon, peering with both an MRI and a brain wave monitor into Alan\u2019s brain to find out how he employs it for two of the most distinctively human traits, language and tool use.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Alan<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alan models the EEG cap that will measure Event Related Potentials through his skull as he listens to spoken language.
\nPhoto \u00a9 Larry Engel 2008<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

It turns out that the places in his brain involved in both talking and planning how to use a tool are physically quite close together. Is there an evolutionary connection? We’ll see…<\/p>\n

These days with Alan have also confirmed how key he is to the project.<\/p>\n

He patiently endured perhaps an hour in the claustrophobic and noisy MRI scanner imagining how he would use a tool, and another hour in what looks like a swimmer\u2019s rubber hat studded with electrodes watching animated penguins talking gibberish<\/a> (but grammatically correct<\/em> gibberish).<\/p>\n

Then he conducted lively and probing conversations with the scientists doing the studies — and also made them laugh, something you don\u2019t see too much of in the average science documentary.<\/p>\n

— Graham Chedd<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Filming conversation between Alan and neuroscientist Scott Frey. Note the grabbing tool on the table\u2026 can Alan successfully grasp the paper cup with it? Photo \u00a9 Maggie Villiger 2008 The first few days of shooting with Alan have nicely confirmed one of the key inspirations for the series: that many very different sciences — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,505,652],"tags":[572,571,923,730,570,457],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-blog","category-neuroscience","tag-alan-alda","tag-brain","tag-grammar","tag-language","tag-mri","tag-tools"],"yoast_head":"\nSpark Blog: Inside Alan Alda's Brain | The Human Spark | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda's Brain | The Human Spark | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Filming conversation between Alan and neuroscientist Scott Frey. Note the grabbing tool on the table\u2026 can Alan successfully grasp the paper cup with it? Photo \u00a9 Maggie Villiger 2008 The first few days of shooting with Alan have nicely confirmed one of the key inspirations for the series: that many very different sciences — […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Human Spark\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-27T18:21:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-09-10T19:41:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tanner vea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tanner vea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"tanner vea\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#\/schema\/person\/e33ac33f469a2ae4a244e43934b22847\"},\"headline\":\"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda’s Brain\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-27T18:21:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-09-10T19:41:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\"},\"wordCount\":268,\"commentCount\":10,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alan Alda\",\"brain\",\"grammar\",\"language\",\"MRI\",\"tools\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Behind the Scenes\",\"Blog\",\"Neuroscience\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\",\"name\":\"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda's Brain | The Human Spark | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-27T18:21:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-09-10T19:41:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#\/schema\/person\/e33ac33f469a2ae4a244e43934b22847\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg\",\"width\":610,\"height\":350,\"caption\":\"Alan Alda and neuroscientist Scott Frey\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda’s Brain\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/\",\"name\":\"The Human Spark\",\"description\":\"Alan Alda visits scientists to find the answer to one question: What makes us human?\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#\/schema\/person\/e33ac33f469a2ae4a244e43934b22847\",\"name\":\"tanner vea\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/author\/tanner-vea\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda's Brain | The Human Spark | PBS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda's Brain | The Human Spark | PBS","og_description":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Filming conversation between Alan and neuroscientist Scott Frey. Note the grabbing tool on the table\u2026 can Alan successfully grasp the paper cup with it? Photo \u00a9 Maggie Villiger 2008 The first few days of shooting with Alan have nicely confirmed one of the key inspirations for the series: that many very different sciences — […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/","og_site_name":"The Human Spark","article_published_time":"2008-08-27T18:21:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-09-10T19:41:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"tanner vea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tanner vea","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/"},"author":{"name":"tanner vea","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#\/schema\/person\/e33ac33f469a2ae4a244e43934b22847"},"headline":"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda’s Brain","datePublished":"2008-08-27T18:21:49+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-10T19:41:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/"},"wordCount":268,"commentCount":10,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg","keywords":["Alan Alda","brain","grammar","language","MRI","tools"],"articleSection":["Behind the Scenes","Blog","Neuroscience"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/","name":"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda's Brain | The Human Spark | PBS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg","datePublished":"2008-08-27T18:21:49+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-10T19:41:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#\/schema\/person\/e33ac33f469a2ae4a244e43934b22847"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/files\/2008\/08\/610_blog5_frey.jpg","width":610,"height":350,"caption":"Alan Alda and neuroscientist Scott Frey"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-inside-alan-aldas-brain\/85\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spark Blog: Inside Alan Alda’s Brain"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/","name":"The Human Spark","description":"Alan Alda visits scientists to find the answer to one question: What makes us human?","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/#\/schema\/person\/e33ac33f469a2ae4a244e43934b22847","name":"tanner vea","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/author\/tanner-vea\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}