From mind games to the Black Death

Our brain puts together feedback from our senses, along with information about how our bodies should look and feel. Sometimes these processes can go wrong, giving the sensation of an extra limb, the belief that body parts do not belong to us, or the feeling that someone else is controlling our actions. By using a system called the MIRAGE we can play with the information that our brain receives about our bodies and create illusory experiences that allow us to investigate these clinical conditions. This talk will introduce the audience to the world of somatosensory disorders and body illusions.

This talk by a University of Lincoln professor well-known from Channel 4’s long running archaeological series, 'Time Team', will show how our understanding of the origins and impact of the Black Death is being transformed by recent new research. This talk will show how new evidence is throwing new light on the causes and scale of the Black Death’s catastrophic impact on medieval society - and also on its long-term effects on the world we inhabit today. The audience will be invited to consider what can be done to stop history’s biggest killer striking again…