Episode Summary
Whilst I was researching the previous episode of this podcast looking for information on what happens in the brain, I stumbled across an amazing video animation.
I was blown away by the quality of the animation and the message it portrays. But most of all I was shocked by the emotional impact it had on me. In this episode I share my experience and and explain where you can see this video too.
Episode Show Notes
00:19 – How I found this video – I was looking for resources to help explain what is going on in the brain of a depressed person.
00:51 – Where I first saw it – The National Geographic Website.
01:14 – The video is called Adam Grey Matters by Emma Allen in conjunction with Daisy Thompson-Lake.
02:04 – When I first watched it, I didn’t really understand what was being depicted.
03:12 – On the artist’s website at there is a scene by scene explanation. The third time I watched it, I got quite emotional.
03:27 – This video gives me hope that my brain can make that transition too.
03:40 – More about Emma Allen, the artist.
04:07 – More about Daisy Thompson-Lake, the neuroscientist.
05:17 – A scene by scene breakdown of this video that you can also find on YouTube:
Episode Transcript (Edited)
Welcome to today’s episode of Hope, Help, Happiness.
What I wanted to do today is talk about a video I’ve seen that is a beautiful illustration of what goes on in the brain when you struggle with depression. Encouragingly, it also shows what happens when you come out of it too.
To give you some background about how I found this video, I stumbled across it whilst doing some research for one of my earlier episodes.
I was trying to understand what was going on in my brain to see if I could do things to impact and create a more positive neurochemical environment for the challenges I’ve been facing.
I thought a great place to learn is by seeking out videos on the topic. So I did a Google search for videos with the term “what goes on in the brain when I’m depressed”.
I came across a video on the national geographic webpage that had a promising headline. I had to suffer a coffee advert for the first 30 seconds or so but persisted through that. And I’m so glad I did because the video I saw was absolutely stunning.
It was called Adam Grey Matters. It’s an animation of a number of things that go on in the brain before, during and after depression.
When I first watched it, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was seeing. It took me a while to realise that the canvas for the animation was a man’s bald head.
This is a two minute video that must have taken weeks to put together because of the animation is so good. Essentially you have different views of this person’s head with the animation taking place on it.
The first time I watched I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. I looked at it and I thought, this is really nice. I made a note of it and then moved on.
But it kept coming back to me in my memory so I thought I’ll go and have another look at it and find out a little bit more about the artist.
I found the artist’s website and discovered the video’s on there as well. It’s also on Youtube and I’ll give you the links to these so you can go and watch it for yourself too.
The artist’s website explains the background to the video but more importantly also explains it scene by scene.
So the third time I watched it I understood better what was going on.
Today I realised I wanted to do a podcast episode about it so I went back and watched it again.
This time it was a much more emotionally powerful experience because I now understood what it was depicting.
It shows what goes on in the brain during the transition of someone suffering from depression through to dealing with it.
Here is why I found it an emotional experience.
Just watching this video gave me hope.
It gave me a better understanding of what’s going on in my brain. This knowledge is empowering and makes me feel that I can do something about it. Even though I’m not exactly sure what that is yet, I believe even more that my salvation from this condition is within my grasp.
Here’s a bit of background to where the video comes from.
The artist is a lady called Emma Allen and quoting directly from her website, she is based between Sri Lanka and the UK. She’s an award winning artist and it says “a maker at heart and combines painting, body painting, animation, sculpture, textiles, and even light in her work. Despite such breadth her work has clear focus on the human condition and how it interacts with nature”.
She’s the artist, but the video came about as a collaboration with a neuroscientist called Daisy Thompson-Lake. She has worked in clinical neuropsychology for over 15 years focusing on mental health and substance use disorders. She’s got a master’s in neuroscience and has or is soon to have a PhD in psychology from Queen Mary University.
Daisy saw another amazing video by Emma called Ruby, which is a similar animation on the artist’s face filmed over 5 days. Daisy suggested it could be a great way of demonstrating what goes on in the brain during depression.
I’m delighted they got together because you’ve got this amazing artist coupled with someone who understands what’s going on in the brain and between them they’ve created this beautiful depiction of what goes on.
Here’s the scene by scene breakdown from Emma’s website at www.emmaallen.org with a few additional comments from me.
It starts with someone’s face and a shadow growing that represents depression.
You then see a side view of what’s happening with the network of neurons in the brain. The artistry on this is absolutely amazing.
Then there’s a closeup of the back of the head where you see and animation of the synapse, which is the gap between neurons, with neurotransmitters not being uptaken as they should be.
If you look at yesterday’s episode, I talked about the basics of neuroscience and what happens with the neurotransmitters. And so it’s just a beautiful illustration of exactly what’s going on there.
Then the video shows a top view of the brain and you see a positron emission tomography (PET) scan of a depressed brain.
Then it shows a cross section of the brain with activation in the hippocampus and frontal lobe.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of those models of our head with different functional regions of the brain on it. I think it is called a phrenology diagram. Well the head is drawn like that.
About halfway through the video, the person shifts to a brain that’s running normally. And so you see the PET scan return. But what happens is it turns slowly from a depressed brain to a non depressed brain.
You see a brain with lots of dark areas suddenly light up and become brighter as the depression eases and normality returns. It’s a very moving experience to watch this. And this is why I find it such a great source of hope to see this happening.
I’m not sure why I feel that way, but it just gave me hope.
Then there’s an animation of the synapse again with the firing of the neurotransmitters operating normally.
As the video closes, there is a return to the starting imagery with a silhouette of two faces, but now one of those faces is more caring. Before it was a source of darkness.
And then finally a lotus flower blossoms up to the top of the head. There’s a quote in the description that says, “Just like the lotus, we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world”. The source of that quote is unknown.
This is a beautiful video on so many different levels. You can find it here on YouTube and your can also see it on Emma Allen’s Own Website.
Until tomorrow.
