Addiction included in PBS series on inner workings of brain

A new PBS science series that will help viewers understand why they feel and think the way they do will include an addiction component, incorporating the story of an addicted woman who tries to train her brain to suppress urges to use. “The Brain with Dr. David Eagleman,” featuring six one-hour episodes, premieres on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

Eagleman is a neuroscientist who directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he also heads the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. PBS press material for the series states that Eagleman “will take viewers on a fascinating journey through our inner cosmos, exploring the brain's neural landscape while asking profound questions like 'What is reality?' and 'Who is in control?'”

In the addiction-related content of the series, the viewer will see brain images of a woman who has used crack cocaine for decades and is exposed to drug-using imagery and other stimuli designed to induced cravings.

Eagleman's New York Times bestselling book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain explored the aspects of neural function to which humans have no access. Among awards that Eagleman has received, the Society for Neuroscience honored him as its Science Educator of the Year.

If you tune in on the six Wednesdays in which the series will run, you can say you're engaged in the PBS science and nature programming that its executives refer to as making up “the smartest night on television.”