Painting the mind.

This programme presents a fascinating look at the origins of art in the brain through unusual neurological case studies. We meet Tommy McHugh, a Liverpudlian labourer, who couldn't stop painting after having suffered a stroke; John Sarkin who started painting after a stroke and the autistic savant artist Ping Lian who cannot talk but paints like a genius at the age of 10. We also visit Franco Magnani, an extraordinary Italian 'memory artist' who can reproduce scenes in detail of the village of Pontito which he left over 30 years ago. Professor Allan Snyder experiments with trans-cranial magnetic stimulation to see if he can stimulate artistic creativity in students' brains.