About This Episode

Welcome back for Part 2 of our 3-Part tour of the human brain, guided by neuroscientists Mayim Bialik and Dr. Heather Berlin. Join host Neil deGrasse Tyson, co-host Eugene Mirman, guests Bill Nye, Michael Ian Black and Paul Rudd and the audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as we learn about NASA’s studies on neuroplasticity in space and how adaptable the brain is. Find out why sleep is necessary and how it impacts memory and Alzheimer’s Disease. Learn about the difference between how the brain stores procedural memory and declarative memory. Get an update from the cutting edge of neuroscience, where mapping the underlying structure of the brain is just the beginning of understanding how to fix it when it’s broken or malformed. You’ll learn about the new technique called optogenetics, which injects a virus carrying photo-receptive genes from algae into the brain to monitor and control individual neurons, and about neuroprosthetics which could help blind people to see.

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: StarTalk Live: Big Brains at BAM (Part 2).