Pleasure and Pain

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Description

Exactly how much chocolate can someone eat before enjoyment turns into disgust? Why do people choose to experience the terrifying sensations of bungee-jumping? Can forcing a smile actually create happiness? Using entertaining experiments and person-on-the-street interviews, this program takes a look at the science behind pleasure, pain, and the link between the two. Viewers meet new parents high on the hormone oxytocin, a man who cut off his own arm when he became trapped in farm machinery, and a child born with congenital insensitivity to pain. The role of the brain's reward system in these and other, more common activities - falling in love, the anticipation of pain - is examined.