Your Brain's Logic & Function | Dr. David Berson

In this episode, my guest is Dr. David Berson, Professor and Chairman of Neuroscience at Brown University. Dr. Berson discovered the neurons in your eye that set your biological rhythms for sleep, wakefulness, mood and appetite. He is also a world-renowned teacher of basic and advanced neuroscience, having taught thousands of university lectures on this topic. Many of his students have become world-leading neuroscientists and teachers themselves. Here Dr. Berson takes us on a structured journey into and around the nervous system, explaining how we perceive the world and our internal landscape, how we balance, see and remember, how we learn and perform reflexive and deliberate actions, how we visualize and imagine in our mind and how the various circuits of the brain coordinate all these incredible feats. We discuss practical and real-life examples of neural circuit function across the lifespan. Dr. Berson gives us a masterclass in the nervous system—one that, in just under two hours, will teach you an entire course's worth about the brain and how yours works. For an up-to-date list of our current sponsors, please visit our website: https://www.hubermanlab.com/sponsors. Previous sponsors mentioned in this podcast episode may no longer be affiliated with us. Social: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab Twitter - https://twitter.com/hubermanlab Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hubermanlab Website - https://hubermanlab.com Newsletter - https://hubermanlab.com/neural-network Links: InsideTracker Interview - https://blog.insidetracker.com/longevity-by-design-andrew-huberman Dr. Berson's Webpage - https://vivo.brown.edu/display/dberson Eyewire - (Contribute to Neuroscience Research from Home/Computer - https://eyewire.org/explore Best Neuroscience Textbook (NOTE this is a TEXTBOOK) - https://amzn.to/3lZWrL4 Book - We Know It When We See It by Richard Masland - https://amzn.to/31S60Vp Timestamps: 00:00:00 Dr. David Berson 00:02:55 Sponsors: Athletic Greens, InsideTracker, Magic Spoon 00:08:02 How We See 00:10:02 Color Vision 00:13:47 “Strange” Vision 00:16:56 How You Orient In Time 00:25:45 Body Rhythms, Pineal function, Light & Melatonin, Blueblockers 00:34:45 Spending Times Outdoors Improves Eyesight 00:36:20 Sensation, Mood, & Self-Image 00:41:03 Sense of Balance 00:50:43 Why Pigeons Bob Their Heads, Motion Sickness 01:00:03 Popping Ears 01:02:35 Midbrain & Blindsight 01:10:44 Why Tilted Motion Feels Good 01:13:24 Reflexes vs. Deliberate Actions 01:16:35 Basal Ganglia & the “2 Marshmallow Test” 01:24:40 Suppressing Reflexes: Cortex 01:33:33 Neuroplasticity 01:36:27 What is a Connectome? 01:45:20 How to Learn (More About the Brain) 01:49:04 Book Suggestion, my Berson Appreciation 01:50:20 Zero-Cost ways to Support the HLP, Guest Suggestions, Sponsors, Patreon, Thorne Please note that The Huberman Lab Podcast is distinct from Dr. Huberman's teaching and research roles at Stanford University School of Medicine. The information provided in this show is not medical advice, nor should it be taken or applied as a replacement for medical advice. The Huberman Lab Podcast, its employees, guests and affiliates assume no liability for the application of the information discussed.

Andrew HubermanhostDr. David Bersonguest

Dec 13, 20211h 52mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: December 13, 2021
Duration: 1h 52m
Channel: Huberman Lab
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this episode, my guest is Dr. David Berson, Professor and Chairman of Neuroscience at Brown University. Dr. Berson discovered the neurons in your eye that set your biological rhythms for sleep, wakefulness, mood and appetite. He is also a world-renowned teacher of basic and advanced neuroscience, having taught thousands of university lectures on this topic. Many of his students have become world-leading neuroscientists and teachers themselves. Here Dr. Berson takes us on a structured journey into and around the nervous system, explaining how we perceive the world and our internal landscape, how we balance, see and remember, how we learn and perform reflexive and deliberate actions, how we visualize and imagine in our mind and how the various circuits of the brain coordinate all these incredible feats. We discuss practical and real-life examples of neural circuit function across the lifespan. Dr. Berson gives us a masterclass in the nervous system—one that, in just under two hours, will teach you an entire course's worth about the brain and how yours works. For an up-to-date list of our current sponsors, please visit our website: https://www.hubermanlab.com/sponsors. Previous sponsors mentioned in this podcast episode may no longer be affiliated with us. Social: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab Twitter - https://twitter.com/hubermanlab Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hubermanlab Website - https://hubermanlab.com Newsletter - https://hubermanlab.com/neural-network Links: InsideTracker Interview - https://blog.insidetracker.com/longevity-by-design-andrew-huberman Dr. Berson's Webpage - https://vivo.brown.edu/display/dberson Eyewire - (Contribute to Neuroscience Research from Home/Computer - https://eyewire.org/explore Best Neuroscience Textbook (NOTE this is a TEXTBOOK) - https://amzn.to/3lZWrL4 Book - We Know It When We See It by Richard Masland - https://amzn.to/31S60Vp Timestamps: 00:00:00 Dr. David Berson 00:02:55 Sponsors: Athletic Greens, InsideTracker, Magic Spoon 00:08:02 How We See 00:10:02 Color Vision 00:13:47 “Strange” Vision 00:16:56 How You Orient In Time 00:25:45 Body Rhythms, Pineal function, Light & Melatonin, Blueblockers 00:34:45 Spending Times Outdoors Improves Eyesight 00:36:20 Sensation, Mood, & Self-Image 00:41:03 Sense of Balance 00:50:43 Why Pigeons Bob Their Heads, Motion Sickness 01:00:03 Popping Ears 01:02:35 Midbrain & Blindsight 01:10:44 Why Tilted Motion Feels Good 01:13:24 Reflexes vs. Deliberate Actions 01:16:35 Basal Ganglia & the “2 Marshmallow Test” 01:24:40 Suppressing Reflexes: Cortex 01:33:33 Neuroplasticity 01:36:27 What is a Connectome? 01:45:20 How to Learn (More About the Brain) 01:49:04 Book Suggestion, my Berson Appreciation 01:50:20 Zero-Cost ways to Support the HLP, Guest Suggestions, Sponsors, Patreon, Thorne Please note that The Huberman Lab Podcast is distinct from Dr. Huberman's teaching and research roles at Stanford University School of Medicine. The information provided in this show is not medical advice, nor should it be taken or applied as a replacement for medical advice. The Huberman Lab Podcast, its employees, guests and affiliates assume no liability for the application of the information discussed.

SPEAKERS

Andrew Huberman
host
Dr. David Berson
guest

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Huberman Lab, featuring Andrew Huberman and Dr. David Berson, Your Brain's Logic & Function | Dr. David Berson explores inside Your Brain: How Vision, Balance, and Time Circuits Work This episode features neurobiologist Dr. David Berson explaining how the nervous system is organized, with a focus on vision, balance, circadian rhythms, and action control. Starting from photons hitting the retina, he walks through how different photoreceptors and retinal ganglion cells encode color, brightness, and time-of-day information for the brain. He describes how specialized pathways influence circadian clocks, melatonin, mood, balance, motion sickness, and reflexive behaviors via structures like the SCN, hypothalamus, cerebellum, and midbrain. The conversation also covers higher-level control systems such as the basal ganglia and cortex, extreme brain plasticity, and new mapping technologies like connectomics, ending with concrete ways people can learn and even contribute to neuroscience.

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