[Music]
Hey there, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta in for
Koi Wire today. I am so excited to be
here, excited to bring you your news. It
is Thursday, November 6th. A lot of
exciting topics to talk about. Not a lot
of time to do it. So, let's get started.
We begin with the results from a
historic election day. Voters across the
country went to the polls on Tuesday to
cast their ballots for everything from
local offices like mayor to governor in
two states. And even though this was an
off-year election when neither the
president nor members of Congress are on
the ballot, there were plenty of notable
firsts. In New York, 34year-old Zoron
Mdani became the first Muslim to be
elected mayor of New York City, beating
out the state's former Democratic
governor, Andrew Cuomo. He's also the
youngest person in over a century to
hold the position. Not as young as many
of you, though. Also, get this. A pair
of women made history in two states,
sweeping governor's races in Virginia
and New Jersey. Former Congresswoman
Abigail Spamberger will become the first
female governor in Virginia's history
and New Jersey Congresswoman Mikey
Charelle will become the first female
Democratic governor to lead the Garden
State.
Okay. Which part of the brain is most
involved in processing music and rhythm?
Hippocampus,
cerebellum, amygdala, or hypothalamus?
If you said cerebellum, you're using
your noggin. The cerebellum, which is
Latin for little brain, makes up only
about 10% of the brain's total volume,
but it contains more than half of all
the brain's neurons. Playing a musical
instrument can be hard work, but do you
think you could do it while undergoing
brain surgery? That's exactly what one
patient in the United Kingdom did as
part of this incredible technique to
monitor her reaction to a brain
procedure in real time. Denise Bacon
suffers from Parkinson's disease. That's
a neurological disorder that affects
movement, balance, and coordination.
Doctors performed what's known as deep
brain stimulation procedure, inserting
tiny wires into nuclei deep inside
Denise's brain to help ease the symptoms
of tremor and stiffness and slowness.
Denise was not only awake for the
procedure, she actually played the
clarinet.
[Music]
Now, patients are typically awake during
these operations so that doctors can
assess improvements to things like
tremor or speed of movement. In this
case, they use Denise's clarinet playing
as sort of the benchmark.
>> She had some clear goals. One of them
was being able to go back and play the
clarinet. So obviously we thought that
the best way to assess that would be to
have her awake during the operation
playing the clarinet so we could test
her finger movements and speed of the
movements. And while there is no cure
for Parkinson's, Denise says the
procedure has had a marked impact on her
ability to continue one of her favorite
hobbies as a neurosurgeon. That is music
to my ears. Now, yesterday we asked you
to submit any questions you might have
about the brain, which I brought, and
neurosurgery, and you guys delivered.
Here are just a few questions. Mrs.
Brownfield's class from Eric White
Elementary in Selma, California, asks,
"What foods are best to feed your
brain?" All right, let me make this
simple. fatty fish, berries, leafy
greens, nuts, especially walnuts, and my
favorite, dark chocolate. Here's one way
of remembering this. What is good for
the heart is generally good for the
brain. Eat real whole foods. Mr. Wells
class from Willow Springs High School in
North Carolina asks, "Does the entire
brain ever power down?" It's a great
question, and the answer is not really.
It's kind of amazing. Even when you are
sleeping, the brain is still active. It
is imagining. It is storing memories and
your brain is still consuming energy.
And from our CNN 10 Instagram followers,
what happens to the brain when we are
scared? Well, first of all, here's the
brain. You have an area deep in the
brain known as the amygdala. The
amygdala is sort of your emotional
center. This area will activate. Before
that, your preffrontal cortex will
determine if what you're looking at is
truly scary or if you are overreacting.
And then up here in the frontal loes,
that's where your brain decides if you
should fight, flight, or freeze. Got to
tell you, we love hearing from your
curious minds. What other questions do
you have about the brain? Email us at
CNN10@cn.com
and I will come back tomorrow to answer
even more questions.
It's the stuff of nightmares. Vampire
bats and snakes in dark caves. But for
one Mexican ecologist, it's all just
another day in the field. So today on
Call to Earth, we visit with Rodrio
Medí, who as part of the Rolex Perpetual
Planet Initiative has spent the last
four decades campaigning to save bats in
his home country.
This is an area of tropical forest, but
this is the dry season. So you can see
that the ecosystem is very, very dry.
It's very, very hot. So bats are not
going to be very active tonight, but
this is going to help us hopefully catch
two, maybe three bats. Crossing fingers.
>> Mexican ecologist Rodrigo Melein has
spent more than 40 years studying,
educating, and campaigning to protect
bats in his country.
My dedication to bats is very tightly
linked to convincing other people that
bats are incredibly important for your
everyday well-being.
On this trip, he's accompanied by two of
his own teammates
[Music]
>> and a group of local students,
educators, and farmers who he aims to
inspire through uplose interactions with
his favorite winged mammal.
>> This is the mustache bat. This is a very
common insectal species from all of
tropical Mexico, Central America, and
South America. As you can see, it has
really beautiful wings.
[Music]
There's wenos. Weno.
>> Globally, bat populations are declining
because of a number of threats,
including habitat loss, climate change,
and disease. But Rodrigo believes their
biggest problem is a bad reputation.
>> Bats are very mysterious.
Many people fear them. Many people
attack them, despise them. Where did it
come from? Why do they have that
negative public image? Very likely, it
has something to do with an incredible
novel called Dracula, written by Bram
Stalker in the 1800s.
It's the furrylegged vampire bat. Look
at his hairy legs. Can you see the
furrylegged vampire bat?
Bats are certainly not more full of
diseases than your dog or your cat. So
that's has been horribly exaggerated and
the bats are the losing end of this
equation. So what we do many times is
just to explain to people that bats are
not dangerous.
This is a baby nectar feeding bat. For
the moment, it's safe, but there's more
than 100 snakes around it.
Any second, one of them can come and
grab it. One of my projects is to
document ecosystem services provided by
bats all around the world. This time,
we're surrounded by many thousands of
bats that feed on insects.
nectar and pollen from flowers and
fruit. Those three provide incredible
ecosystem services for all of us.
>> In other words, bats help control pests,
disperse seeds, and pollinate key crops
here and across the planet.
>> Mexico is a very lucky country. We are
one of the very few mega diversity
countries. That is an incredible
privilege, but also an amazing
responsibility for all of Mexicans. We
need to defend our nature, our
biodiversity, and our bats. They're
amazing, and they give you benefits
every day of our lives.
[Music]
[Applause]
Now, today's story getting a 10 out of
10. A Hollywood star making this
incredible and potentially life-saving
donation to a complete stranger, Jesse
Eisenberg. You may know him from movies
like Zombie Land or The Social Network.
He says he's donating one of his kidneys
next month. It's what's known as an
altruistic or nondirected donation. And
that means it's not destined for a
family member or a friend, but instead
Jesse's kidney will be donated to a
complete stranger who's in need. And the
seriously selfless act may save
someone's life. You know, in the United
States alone, more than a 100,000 people
are on the organ transplant list. A vast
majority of them in need of a kidney.
Eisenberg is donating his kidney through
the National Kidney Foundation's Family
Voucher Program. That means if his own
family ever needed a kidney in the
future, they would then move up on the
priority list. All right, everybody.
That's all the time we have for today.
Time for a shout out, though. This one
is going to Mr. Richberg at Kelly Mill
Middle School in Columbia, South
Carolina. I hear you may be ordering a
pizza or two for your students now. Hope
you all have a fantastic day. I'll see
you back here tomorrow. I'm Dr. Sanjay
Gupta and this is CNN 10.