BRAINnet ~ media releases |
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 Inside the brain of a human emotion machine
By KYLIE KEOGH Date: 24 October 2001 Section: National Publication: The Daily Telegraph, p. 3 ACTOR Henri Szeps has donated his brain to science. The new "face" of television...Henri Szeps is wired and ready to go for his brain scan to measure emotions this week. A trained method actor with a wealth of experience on the stage and screen, including the role of Garry Macdonald's brother in the successful series Mother and Son, Szeps is providing the brain for scientists desperate for more information on what makes humans tick. And it will all be captured on television – after all Szeps is a consummate professional. Over two parts starting tomorrow, the ABC's Catalyst looks at emotions and how they affect our rational thought processes. So Szeps, strapped inside a narrow magnetic resonance imaging tube, is asked to produce real emotions on cue. "I became quite an unusual guinea pig – I was basically an emotion-machine," Szeps said. "I went through the same process as I do on stage when I need to feel a particular emotion, except in much less time. "I'd have to go through anger, grief and even nausea three of four times. The nausea was interesting, I nearly vomited." All of Szeps' generated emotions – which he said were not acting but real – were analysed by the scientists through fMRI and EEG results. "They were freaked out – they're doing a paper on it," he said. "What the information tells them is which specific parts of the brain are aroused by different emotions." Dr Lea William, acting director of the BRAINnet, said that compared with many of the brain's activities, the functions of emotions have been relatively unexplored. But six basic emotions have been distinguished: fear, anger, disgust, sadness, surprise and happiness. Dr Williams hopes the research into the "emotional brain" will shed light on clinical disorders "in which the emotions grip the brain and produce inappropriate responses and thoughts". "We are studying schizophrenia [paranoia], social phobia, stress disorders and have planned a study of problem gambling." As well, she says, "emotions may be important biasing factors that allow the brain to achieve its primary goals of maximising rewards and pleasures but minimising pain, danger and punishments". She said the work with Szeps was a specific case study. "In his training, Henri was shown how to capture memories of 'real' emotional experiences. "Henri showed very different levels of arousal for each emotion – with particularly high levels of arousal for anger and sadness." Szeps became involved in the project after he attended a lecture about the human brain organised by the University of Sydney Science Forum. "I actually have two degrees gathering dust," he said. "Before I got into acting I studied science and electrical engineering at university in the '60s. "So I attended this lecture out of interest and afterwards I approached the lecturer and suggested using my acting brain to show humans can manipulate their own emotions." Szeps was a student of method acting teacher Hayes Gordon and it was during this training he learnt to bring on whatever emotion was required. It was a similar approach to the Actor's Studio in New York in the '50s, where Marlon Brando, James Dean and Montgomery Clift were taught under the Stanislavsky method of acting. Apart from donating his time to science, Szeps is appearing in the Ensemble Theatre's production of Arthur Miller's The Price and working on his second one-man show Why Kids?
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