sally satel is our guest co-author of "brainwashed: the seductive appeal of mindless neuroscience.". elaine in michigan. go ahead. >> caller: i have read about differences in males and females brain. the book about educating boys and girls, could you expand on the differences between male brains and female brains. thank you. >> guest: well, actually -- it isn't very helpful to talk about the male brain and female brain although i understand that is how it is referred to. i think a little to much is made of that. -- too -- i do believe there are some differences that are innate. i certainly believe that. it manifest in the brain in certain ways. but in terms of teaching children these kind of differences are quite subtle and don't figure in at all. there are not even -- we have heard a lot about learning st e styles and even that is overblown. there is visual and odd tory and people that manipulate things. that is exaggerated. children learn by understanding the meaning and that is what educators need to focus on. some people may have different skills. some more musical and some more

daniel pierce is a neuroscience professor suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. >> jimmy: was he schizophrenic? >> not from birth. nobody -- it usually happens for most people around -- >> jimmy: mostly to men? right? >> more men than women but this happens to women. and it's usually in their late teens, 20s, often pressures of college and change in life. next week we're going to have a flashback where we find out what happened to him before the pilot. if you haven't seen the show, next tuesday is a good time. >> jimmy: it's interesting, your character goes off his medication to help him with his job. which seems very ill advised. >> on the fbi's part, so you're not on your meds? you're hired. >> jimmy: like the opposite of "homeland." and you have another show that you're working on, it's lighter fare. >> this is a new show for the fall which i think -- i don't know if we have -- >> jimmy: i believe we do have a clip of it, yes. then you might -- >> this is the first time. >> jimmy: i think it's the full trailer for the show. >> great. >> jimmy: take a look. >> this fall, where there's a will

she is making contributions to my field, neuroscience. take a look. >> my name is petra, i'm 18. i'll go to stanford university. when i found i qualified for isef it was unbelievable. my promote was about birds, fimption. they -- finches, they learn how to sing like we learn to talk using foxp2. it's involved in speech development in humans and songbirds. scientists can study foxp2 in songbirds and learn about it for humans. this is my love in the life sciences building at u.c.l.a. >> reporter: petra is part of a team investigating foxp2. it's the on single gene that when mutated results in human speech and language disorder. dr nancy day was interested in reaching out to young women and helping to train them in science. >> we have excellent undergraduates at u.c.l.a. , but petra. >> she plays songs on her perch. >> she brought some of her background from working in robotics so we could have a cage that would serve a multitude of functions. that is her cage. to have petra's promote recognised above and beyond that was beyond my imaginatio

neuroscience. it is the final scientific frontier, and that is very true, but we should not get too seduced into thinking to mechanically about ourselves and to productively about human nature similar because we are learning more and more about how we function. thank you so much. [applause] i guess there might be time for two questions. does anyone? a --ere >> from your experience -- >> i do not think your thing was on, but the question was does aa work? aa short answer is works for whom it works. i do not mean to be flip, but for some people it saves lives. most of treatments do not have the greatest rates. aa does not, either. so at an individual level, yes, it can be lifesaving, but the average person won't stop drinking right away. thathe kinds of treatments work the best or once we don't used, we do not use these contingencies, these rewards and sanctions very much, which is a shame -- unless you are a doctor or a pilot, and then if you lose your license, we have all kinds of built in continge

. >> reporter: a decade ago, he was heading to college to study neuroscience, ready to take the biotechld by storm with brain computer interfaces. >> on that path, passionate about it. >> reporter: it was his brain, though, that was changed after spending time doing malaria research in kenya and seeing real poverty real close. >> i wanted to do something about it and i have no idea what to do. >> reporter: after much research and plenty of trial and error, tevis had his something, trees. komaza, swahili for "to make mature" is what he named his nonprofit. they sign up small farmers and planting trees on their profit. the goal is to give the farmers a good, reliable source of income while at the same time slowing the rampant deforestation of the continent. >> we've planted over 1.5 million trees with nearly 6,000 farmers, and that's been quite a bit of work. >> reporter: that, however, is not enough for tevis. >> what's really exciting is putting in place wood treatment plants. >> reporter: he spent the last week at santa clara university's global service incubator seeking advice from me

so, tell me what has changed in the field of neuroscience, dr. coles. i mean, brain aging and memory loss are so much in the news these days. in fact, i recently read that the u.s. government has now made solving memory loss one of its core missions. why is that? why is it so important? >> well, the reason is that we've made great strides in the past 20 years in extending the life-span of the body, but we now face a daunting reality that, for many of us, means that our brains may give out before our body does. this is a very real prospect and why i devote a good deal of my research to unlocking the secrets of healthy brain aging. and it's important to note that the government recognizes this, as well. and they're so concerned, that they recently set aside a $110 million grant to accelerate research to address mental decline and brain longevity. and this is just the beginning. >> oh, it's very exciting. so let's get right into it, then. now, i want to hear about research for the future, but i want to know what, right now, is available to slow down brain

purely from a neuroscience perspective, there are these connections that someone like robin williamsakes in his brain that few people can do. they don't see those connections. it informed his comedy and genius and something few of us could do on our own. it can't be taught. sometimes as one researcher put it, sometimes you realize that over time, the connections that you have in your brain they don't really exist in the real world. and that can be quite jarring, it could be something associated with meant illness. so i think there are some real connections there. the idea that people who have this sort of genius, this creative genius use their minds in different ways, i think is real. there does seem to be a real interplay or connection between mental illness and creativity. just really quick, there was a fascinating study looking at character traits of comedians. they looked at all sorts of different character traits. where they scored the highest was int enttro vertive anahedonia, people who sit at home and do nothing, no joy and people compulsive, completely compulsive, breaking r

have you any thoughts on the emerging studies in neuroscience that are indicating there may be a hard the brain for one to be predisposed to either fundamentalist or conservative beliefs and behaviors versus a liberal, the liberal shades of gray type mentality and how that might impact the concept of faith? >> guest: yes, yes. very good. so there are actually two emerging studies, and they're interconnected but sort of separate. one of them says that the very conception of faith, faith experience is a product of chemical inducements in the brain. and, indeed, there have been hult billion studies in which -- multiple studies in which those chemicals were affected by scientists to produce a spiritual experience. connected to that are these other it'ds that show -- studies that show there may be a genetic component that is maybe even hard wired in our dna that predispose us to extreme beliefs, what could be termed fundamentalism if you'd like, as opposed to more skeptical or perhaps one can even say as you put it, more liberal beliefs. let me address these two studies separately, because

settling in this is unintended -- [inaudible] part of our hearing today where we're dealing with neuroscience b and medical research and physics. well, physics when dr. gay gets -- arrives. so panel two, i will introduce you from mr. cleland on down. mr. cleland is the assistant director, division of advertising practices at the federal trade commission. we have ian heaten, student ambassador for the national council on youth sports safety. and if i might editorialize, i think jan did a great job of juxtaposing a face of tbi and concussions on each panel. and each, as a high school lacrosse player, is that face for the more scientific-based panel. so thank you, ian, for taking your day away from school. i know how tough it is to be pulled out of school and come testify before congress. just like a normal high school student. [laughter] then dr. robert graham, chair committee on sports-related concussion in youth at the institutes of medicine. dennis molfese, ph.d. director center for brain, biology and behavior at the famed university of nebraska. then -- thank you, there. then mr., dr. james

first, we need more neuroscience research, radiological and longitudinal research methods can lead to earlier, more accurate diagnosis, better understanding of the risk factors and maybe as treatment, better treatment options for brain injuries. second doctors legal associations, coaches, parents and players need to work together to establish health regulations, game rules, a sporting culture that reflects the seriousness of brain injury and put the athletes held first. third, we must address the health and safety risks associated with the athletic equipment and pursue a better understanding how this equipment might be improved. three years ago, congress and betterfield and i wrote to the chairman at the time of the subcommittee and full committee chairman calling for hearings about inadequate testing standards, lack conditioning standards and economic disparities regarding safety of football helmets used by millions of american athletes, we will touch on those beaches today but i believe those issues merit deeper consideration than they are likely to get at today's hearing and the su

to us followed by sally who will talk about what those two authors, advances and limitations in neurosciencewe will talk with sandra day o'connor and the daughter of malcolm x throughout the day and finally doris kerns goodwin. in the history and biography room at the end of the day, she will be talking about the bully pulpit, no ordinary times, and we will be doing a call in with historian doris kerns goodwin right here on booktv so you will have a chance to talk with her as well. that is an update on our general schedule. if you want the first scheduled go to booktv.org. you will see the national book festival listed there and you will be able to look at the full schedule of the day so you can get exact times and we will be sending updates throughout the day, twitter.com/booktv and facebook.com/booktv, follow-up to like a son those platforms, you get scheduled updates and behind-the-scenes photos as well throughout the day so that is just a quick look at what we have coming up and if you happen to be on the area grab a booktv bag. i don't have one in my hand. if someone could hand me one,

certainly in alzheimer's disease the idea you can bring together people who know something about neuroscience, people who know something about clinical medicine, people who know about imaging technologies people who are engineers, robotics experts, big data is a big part of this now. that's where a lot of the excitement is. increasingly what we need to do the modern version is to come up with teams that are made of many brains sort of working together and that is very much the way science has now proceeding. the brain initiative which dr. landis co-leads for us is a great example of how to achieve that. maybe you can say a word about how that is coming together that reflects a change in the dynamics. >> it's very clear that we made excellent advances in understanding brain structure. we know we have crude wiring diagrams for the brain but we don't know how information is processed along those wires how the vision of a rose actually gets translated through many, many different way stations in the brain to recognition that this is a rose and the expectation it will smell sweet. what we really n

there's also a neuroscience component as well. to have lesser er tone serotonin, one of the feel good transmitters in the train brain. it can could worsen signs of depression that already existed. >> one of the interesting ironies, robin williams had done work for parkinson's disease with michael j. fox who everyone knows has been dealing with parkinson's disease. he sent out a tweet "stunned to learn robin pd. pretty sure his support for our foundation pre-dated his diagnosis. true friend i wish him peace." >> holly robinson peat said the same thing, her father died from the disease, sometimes exercise can help and if he had a fear he couldn't continue the biking and exercise because of the disease maybe is would lend to more of a depressed state. >> sanjay we talk about parkinson's disease, usually diagnosed as an absence of something else, you look at it, i guess what i'm saying no one knows what causes it but people looked into over the years whether there's a link between cocaine abuse and parkinson's. robin williams admitted