This episode introduces neuroplasticity—which is how our brain and nervous system learn and acquire new capabilities. I describe the differences between childhood and adult neuroplasticity, the chemicals involved and how anyone can increase their rate and depth of learning by leveraging the science of focus. I describe specific tools for increasing focus and learning. The next two episodes will cover the ideal protocols for specific types of learning and how to make learning new information more reflexive.
For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com.
<h2>Thank you to our sponsors</h2>
AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman
Waking Up: https://www.wakingup.com/huberman
Momentous: https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman
<h2>Timestamps</h2>
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:00:32) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT, Waking Up
(00:03:50) Plasticity: What Is it, & What Is It For?
(00:06:30) Babies and Potato Bugs
(00:08:00) Customizing Your Brain
(00:08:50) Hard-Wired Versus Plastic Brains
(00:10:25) Everything Changes At 25
(00:12:29) Costello and Your Hearing
(00:13:10) The New Neuron Myth
(00:14:10) Anosmia: Losing Smell
(00:15:13) Neuronal Birthdays Near Our Death Day
(00:16:45) Circumstances for Brain Change
(00:17:21) Brain Space
(00:18:30) No Nose, Eyes, Or Ears
(00:19:30) Enhanced Hearing and Touch In The Blind
(00:20:20) Brain Maps of The Body Plan
(00:21:00) The Kennard Principle (Margaret Kennard)
(00:21:36) Maps of Meaning
(00:23:00) Awareness Cues Brain Change
(00:25:20) The Chemistry of Change
(00:26:15) A Giant Lie In The Universe
00:27:10) Fathers of Neuroplasticity/Critical Periods
00:29:30) Competition Is The Route to Plasticity
00:32:30) Correcting The Errors of History
00:33:29) Adult Brain Change: Bumps and Beeps
(00:36:25) What It Takes to Learn
(00:38:15) Adrenalin and Alertness
(00:40:18) The Acetylcholine Spotlight
(00:42:26) The Chemical Trio For Massive Brain Change
(00:44:10) Ways To Change Your Brain
(00:46:16) Love, Hate, & Shame: all the same chemical
(00:47:30) The Dopamine Trap
(00:49:40) Nicotine for Focus
(00:52:30) Sprinting
(00:53:30) How to Focus
(00:55:22) Adderall: Use & Abuse
(00:56:40) Seeing Your Way To Mental Focus
(01:02:59) Blinking
(01:05:30) And Ear Toward Learning
(01:06:14) The Best Listeners In The World
(01:07:20) Agitation is Key
(01:07:40) ADHD & ADD: Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder
(01:12:00) Ultra(dian) Focus
(01:13:30) When Real Change Occurs
(01:16:20) How Much Learning Is Enough?
(01:16:50) Learning In (Optic) Flow/Mind Drift
(01:18:16) Synthesis/Summary
(01:25:15) Learning With Repetition, Forming Habits
As always, thank you for your interest in science!
Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac
Disclaimer
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
- My name is Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. This podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University. I'm a professor of psychology and ophthalmology
At Stanford. It is however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I want to thank the first sponsor of today's podcast.
Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2000.
So I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens
I like Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it helps me cover all of my basic nutritional needs.
Any deficiencies that I might have. In addition, it has probiotics, which are vital for...
Microbiome health. I've done a couple of episodes now on the so-called gut microbiome and the ways in which the microbiome.
Interacts with your immune system, with your brain to regulate mood, and essentially with every biological system relevant to health throughout your brain and body.
I get the vitamins I need, the minerals I need, and the probiotics to support my microbiome.
- Try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman and claim a special offer.
Five free travel packs plus a year supply of vitamin D3K2.
A ton of data now showing that vitamin D3 is essential for various aspects of our brain and body health. Even if we're getting a lot of sunshine, many of us are still deficient in vitamin D3.
And K2 is also important because it regulates things like cardiovascular function, calcium in the body, and so on.
Go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the year supply of vitamin D3 K2.
This episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the exact ratios of electrolytes are an element.
And those are sodium, magnesium, and potassium, but it has no sugar. I've talked many times before on this podcast about the key role of hydration and electrolytes for nerve cell function, neuron function, as well as the function of all the cells
and organ systems of the body. If we have sodium, magnesium, and potassium present in the proper ratios, all of those cells function properly and all our bodily systems can be optimized. If the electrolytes are not present and if hydration is low.
We simply can't think as well as we would otherwise. Our mood is off, hormone systems go off, our ability to get into physical action, to engage in endurance and strength and all sorts of other things is diminished.
So with Element, you can make sure that you're staying on top of your hydration and that you're getting the proper ratios of electrolytes. If you'd like to try Element, you can.
You can go to drink element that's lmnt.com/huberman, and you'll get a free element sample pack with your purchase. They're all delicious.
If you want to try Element, you can go to elementlmnt.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by Waking Up. Waking Up is a meditation app.
That includes hundreds of meditation programs, mindfulness trainings, yoga nidra sessions, and NSDR, non-sleep deep rest protocol.
I started using the Waking Up app a few years ago because even though I've been doing regular meditation since my teens, and I started doing yoga nidra about a decade ago, my dad mentioned to me that he had found an app, turned out to be the Waking Up app which could teach you meditations of different durations and that had a lot of different types of meditations to place the brain and body into different states and that he liked it very much. So I gave the Waking Up app a try and I too found it to be extremely useful because sometimes I only have a few minutes to meditate, other times I have longer to meditate and indeed I love the fact that I can explore different types of meditation to bring about different levels of understanding about consciousness, but also to place my brain and body into lots of different kinds of states depending on which meditation I do. I also love that the Waking Up app has lots of different types of yoga nidra sessions. For those of you who don't know, yoga nidra is a process of lying very still but keeping an active mind. It's very different than most meditations and there's excellent scientific data to show that yoga.
And something similar to it called non-sleep deep rest or NSTR can greatly restore levels of cognitive and physical energy, even with just a short 10 minute session. If you'd like to try the Waking Up app, you can go to wakingup.com/huberman and access a free 30 day trial. Again, that's wakingup.com/huberman to access a free 30 day trial. Today we're talking about neural plasticity, which is this incredible feature of our nervous systems that allows it to change in response to experience. Neural plasticity is arguably one of the most important aspects of our biology. It holds the promise for each and all of us to think differently, to learn new things, to forget painful experiences, and to essentially adapt to anything that life brings us.
To view this and other transcripts, as well as support the generation of new transcripts,
please subscribe.