Harnessing Autonomic Arousal to Think & Do Better – Andrew Huberman

In this episode of The Human Upgrade Podcast, we talk about how you can increase cognitive capacity by leveraging your stress; how the brain is wired for fear; advances in virtual reality; and why a daily dose of real brain science on Instagram is good for just about everyone.

My guest is neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, Ph.D. He studies comparative neurology to better understand the human brain and human brain evolution. He’s also working to make neuroscience more accessible and relevant to people’s everyday life. And he’s in a particularly good position to do just that at Stanford School of Medicine where he’s an associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology and the Department of Ophthalmology. His own Huberman Lab performs clinical trials using molecular, genetic, physiological and virtual reality tools.

His work includes developing ways to regenerate the brain after injury and in neurodegenerative disorders, mainly those causing blindness. Another aspect of his research parses the mechanisms for stress, “courage” (adaptive action toward potential threats), and testing treatments and protocols for anxiety disorders and trauma.

Dr. Huberman has made numerous—and award-winning– contributions to the fields of brain development, brain plasticity, and neural regeneration and repair.