The Neuroscience of Speech, Language & Music | Dr. Erich Jarvis

(peaceful music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, my guest is Dr. Erich Jarvis. Dr. Jarvis is a professor at the Rockefeller University in New York City, and his laboratory studies the neurobiology of vocal learning, language, speech disorders, and remarkably, the relationship between language, music, and movement, in particular, dance. His work spans from genomics, so the very genes that make up our genome and the genomes of other species that speak and have language, such as songbirds and parrots, all the way up to neural circuits, that is the connections in the brain and body that govern our ability to learn and generate specific sounds and movements coordinated with those sounds, including hand movements, and all the way up to cognition, that is our ability to think in specific ways based on what we are saying and the way that we comprehend what other people are saying, singing, and doing. As you'll soon see, I was immediately transfixed and absolutely enchanted by Dr. Jarvis's description of his work and the ways that it impacts all the various aspects of our lives. For instance, I learned from Dr. Jarvis that as we read, we are generating very low levels of motor activity in our throat. That is, we are speaking the words that we are reading at a level below the perception of sound or our own perception of those words. But if one were to put an amplifier to measure the firing of those muscles in our vocal cords, we'd find that as we're reading information, we are actually speaking that information. And as I learned and you'll soon learn, there's a direct link between those species in the world that have song and movement, which many of us would associate with dance, and our ability to learn and generate complex language. So, for people with speech disorders, like stutter, or for people who are interested in multiple language learning, bilingual, trilingual, et cetera, and frankly, for anyone who is interested in how we communicate through words, written or spoken, I'm certain today's episode is going to be an especially interesting and important one for you. Dr. Jarvis's work is so pioneering that he has been awarded truly countless awards. I'm not going to take our time to list off all of the various important awards that he's received. But I should point out that in addition to being a decorated professor at the Rockefeller University, he is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the so-called HHMI. And for those of you that don't know, HHMI investigators are selected on an extremely competitive basis that they have to re-up, that is they have to re-compete every five years. They actually receive a grade every five years that dictates whether or not they are no longer a Howard Hughes investigator, or whether or not they can advance to another five years of funding for their important research. And indeed, Howard Hughes investigators are selected not just for the rigor of their work, but for their pioneering spirit and their ability to take on high-risk, high-benefit work, which is exactly the kind of work that Dr. Jarvis has been providing for decades now. Again, I think today's episode is one of the more unique and special episodes that we've had on the Huberman Lab Podcast. I single it out because it really spans from the basic to the applied. And Dr. Jarvis's story is an especially unique one in terms of how he arrived at becoming a neurobiologist. So, for those of you that are interested in personal journey and personal story, Dr. Jarvis's is truly a special and important one. I'm pleased to announce that the Huberman Lab Podcast is now partnered with Momentous supplements. We partnered with Momentous for several important reasons. First of all, they ship internationally, because, uh, we know that many of you are located outside of the United States. Second of all, and perhaps most important, the quality of their supplements is second to none, both in terms of purity and precision of the amounts of the ingredients. Third, we've really emphasized supplements that are single ingredient supplements and that are supplied in dosages that allow you to build a supplementation protocol that's optimized for cost, that's optimized for effectiveness, and that you can add things and remove things from your protocol in a way that's really systematic and scientific. If you'd like to see the supplements that we partner with Momentous on, you can go to livemomentous.com/huberman. There, you'll see those supplements, and just keep in mind that we are constantly expanding the library of supplements available through Momentous on a regular basis. Again, that's livemomentous.com/huberman. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles 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'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is InsideTracker. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better meet your immediate and long-term health goals. I've long been a believer in getting regular blood work done, for the simple reason that many of the factors that impact your immediate and long-term health can only be a- analyzed from a quality blood test. And nowadays, with the advent of modern DNA tests, you can also get insight into, for example, what your biological age is and compare that to your chronological age. The problem with a lot of DNA tests and blood tests, however, is you get information back about metabolic factors, lipids, and hormones and so forth, but you don't know what to do with or about that information. 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If you'd like to try LMNT, you can go to DrinkLMNT, that's LMNT.com/Huberman, and you'll get a free sample pack with your order. That's DrinkLMNT.com/Huberman. And now for my discussion with Dr. Erich Jarvis. Eric, so great to have you here.