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A musician plays the clarinet during her own brain surgery  November 6, 2025

 

Hey there, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in for Coy 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 froma 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.

 

off-year【美】非大选年；歉收年

 

In New York, 34-year-old Zoran Mamdani 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 Spanberger will become the first female governor in Virginia's history, and New Jersey congresswoman Mikie Sherrill will become the first female democratic governor to lead the Garden State.

 

OK, which part of the brain is most involved in processing music and rhythm?

 

Hippocampus, Cerebellum, Amygdala, or Hypothalamus?

 

Hippocampus [͵hɪpəˋkæmpəs] n. 海马回; 海马体

Cerebellum [͵sɛrəˋbɛləm] n. 小脑

Amygdala [əˋmɪgdələ] n.【解】大脑中杏仁核(负责情绪反应)，杏仁体

Hypothalamus [͵haɪpəˋθæləməs] n.【解】丘脑下部; 下视丘

 

If you said cerebellum, you're using your noggin. The cerebellum, which is Latin for little brain, makes up only about 10 percent of the brain's total volume, but it contains more than half of all the brain's neurons.

 

noggin [ˈnɑɡən] n. 脑袋

 

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.

 

clarinet [͵klærɪˋnɛt] n. 单簧管；黑管

 

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 used 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.

 

music to someone’s ears（对某人）是悦耳的声音，是佳音;是中听的话

 

Now yesterday we asked you to submit any questions youmight 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 CNN10 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 prefrontal cortex will determine if what you're looking at is truly scary or if you are overreacting.

 

prefrontal cortex【解】前額葉皮質（大腦處理痛覺經驗的情緒和認知區域）

 

And then up here in the frontal lobes, that's where your brain decides if you should fight, flight, or freeze. Got to tell you, we love hearing from your curious minds.

 

frontal lobe 额叶

freeze [friz] v.（尤指出于恐惧）僵住，呆住

 

What other questions do you have about the brain? Email us @cnn10 @cnn.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.

 

vampire bat【动】吸血蝙蝠

 

But for one Mexican ecologist, it's all just another day in the field. So today on Call to Earth, we visit with Rodrigo Medellin, who is part of the Rolex Perpetual Planet initiative, has spent the last four decades campaigning to save bats in his home country.

 

perpetual [pɚˋpɛtʃʊəl] adj. 永久的；长期的；【口】无休止的；连续不断的

initiative [ɪˋnɪʃətɪv] n. 倡议；新措施; a new plan or process to achieve something or solve a problem

 

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 Medellin 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.

 

And a group of local students, educators and farmers, who he aims to inspire through up-close interactions with his favourite winged mammal.

 

This is the moustached bat. This is a very common insectivorous species from all of tropical Mexico, Central America and South America.

 

moustached bat 裸背蝠

moustache [məsˋtæʃ] n. 髭；八字须

insectivorous [͵ɪnsɛkˋtɪvərəs] adj. 食虫的

 

As you can see, it has really beautiful wings.

 

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.

 

despise [dɪˋspaɪz] v. 鄙视；看不起

 

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 Stoker in the 1800s.

 

It's the furry-legged vampire bat. Look at his hairy legs.

 

furry [ˋfɝɪ] adj. 毛皮的；覆有毛皮的

 

Can you see? The furry-legged vampire bat. Bats are certainly not more full of diseases than your dog or your cat. So that has been horribly exaggerated and the bats are the losing end of this equation.

 

losing end 不利的处境或失败的一方

 

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 a hundred snakes around it.

 

nectar [ˋnɛktɚ] n.【植】花蜜

 

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.

 

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 Zombieland or The Social Network. He says he's donating one of his kidneys next month.

 

It's what's known as an altruistic or non-directed 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.

 

altruistic [͵æltrʊˋɪstɪk] adj. 利他的；爱他的；利他主义的

 

And the seriously selfless act may save someone's life.

 

You know, in the United States alone, more than 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. Richburg 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.