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

(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. David Berson, Professor of Medical Science, Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Brown University. Dr. Berson's laboratory is credited with discovering the cells in the eye that set your circadian rhythms. These are the so-called intrinsically photosensitive melanopsin cells, and while that's a mouthful, all you need to know for the sake of this introduction is that those are the cells that inform your brain and body about the time of day. Dr. Berson's laboratory has also made a number of other important discoveries about how we convert our perceptions of the outside world into motor action. More personally, Dr. Berson has been my go-to resource for all things neuroscience for nearly two decades. I knew of his reputation as a spectacular researcher for a long period of time, and then many years ago, I cold-called him out of the blue. I, uh, basically corralled him into a long conversation over the phone, after which he invited me out to Brown, and we've been discussing neuroscience, and how the brain works, and the emerging new technologies, and the emerging new concepts in neuroscience for a very long time now. You're going to realize today why Dr. Berson is my go-to source. He has an exceptionally clear and organized view of how the nervous system works. You know, there are many, many parts of the nervous system, different nuclei, and connections, and circuits, and chemicals, and so forth. But it takes a special kind of person to be able to organize that information into a structured and logical framework that can allow us to make sense of how we function in terms of what we feel, what we experience, how we move through the world. Dr. Berson is truly one of a kind in his ability to synthesize and organize and communicate that information, and I give him credit as one of my mentors and one of the people that I respect most in the field of science and medical science generally. Today, Dr. Berson takes us on a journey from the periphery of the nervous system, meaning from the outside, deep into the nervous system, layer by layer, structure by structure, circuit by circuit, making clear to us how each of these individual circuits work and how they work together as a whole. It's a really magnificent description that you simply cannot get from any textbook, from any popular book, and frankly, as far as I know, from any podcast that currently exists out there. So it's a real gift to have this opportunity to learn from Dr. Berson. Again, I consider him my mentor in the field of learning and teaching neuroscience, and I'm excited for you to learn from him. One thing is for certain. By the end of this podcast, you will know far more about how your nervous system works than the vast majority of people out there, including many expert biologists and neuroscientists. 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 Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens every day since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens is that it covers all of my vitamin, mineral, and probiotic needs. Nowadays, there's a lot of data out there pointing to the fact that a healthy gut microbiome, literally little microbes that live in our gut that are good for us, is important to support our immune system, our nervous system, our endocrine system, and various aspects of our immediate and long-term health. With Athletic Greens, I get all the vitamins and minerals that I need, plus the probiotics ensure a healthy gut microbiome. It also tastes really good. I mix mine up with some water, a little bit of lemon juice. I'll have that early in the day and sometimes a second time later in the day as well. It's compatible with intermittent fasting, it's compatible with vegan diets, with, uh, keto diets, and essentially every diet that you could possibly imagine out there. It's also filled with adaptogens for recovery, it has digestive enzymes for gut health, and it has a number of other things that support the immune system. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim their special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs that make it really easy to mix up Athletic Greens while you're on the road, and they'll give you a year supply of vitamin D3 K2. There's now a lot of evidence that vitamin D3 supports a huge number of metabolic factors, immune system factors, endocrine factors. Basically, we need vitamin D3. We can get it from the sun, but many people are deficient in vitamin D3 even if they are getting what they think is sufficient sunlight. And K2 is important for cardiovascular health. So again, if you go to athleticgreens.com/huberman, you can claim their special offer, the five free travel packs, plus the year supply of vitamin D3 K2. Today's podcast is also brought to us by InsideTracker. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and help you reach your 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 analyzed from a quality blood test. And now with the advent of modern DNA tests, you can also get information about how your specific genes are impacting your immediate and long-term health. Now, the problem with a lot of blood tests and DNA tests out there is you get the numbers back, but you don't know what to do with those numbers. With InsideTracker, they make it very simple to figure out what to do to bring those numbers into the ranges that are right for you. They have a dashboard that's very easy to use. You can see the numbers from your blood and or DNA tests, and it will point to specific lifestyle factors, nutritional factors, as well as supplementation, maybe even prescription factors that would be right for you to bring the numbers into range that are ideal for your immediate and long-term health goals. Another feature that InsideTracker has is their InnerAge test. This test shows you what your biological age is and compares that to your chronological age and what you can do to improve your biological age, which of course is the important number. If you'd like to try InsideTracker, you can visit insidetracker.com/huberman to get 25% off any of InsideTracker's plans. Also, an interview I did with longevity research doctor and InsideTracker's founder, Dr. Gil Blander, is out now on their podcast, the Longevity By Design Podcast, and a link to that interview can be found in today's show notes.Today's episode is also brought to us by Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon is a zero-sugar, grain-free, keto-friendly cereal. Now, I don't follow a ketogenic diet. The way that I eat is basically geared toward feeling alert when I want to be alert and feeling sleepy when I want to go to sleep, which for me means fasting until about 11:00 AM or noon most days. Then I eat low-carb during the day, so I'll have some meat, or fish, or chicken and some salad. That's what works for me. And in the afternoon, I remain on a more or less low-carbish diet. And then in the evening, I eat pastas and things primarily, and I throttle back on the protein, and that's what allows me to fall asleep at night. That's just what works for me. So if I want a snack in the afternoon, I want that to be a ketogenic or low-carb snack, and that snack these days is Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon is really terrific. It has zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein, and only four net grams of carbohydrates in each serving. It's really delicious. They have a number of different flavors like cocoa, fruity, peanut butter, and frosted. I particularly like frosted. It tastes like donuts, and I really like donuts, although I try not to eat donuts too often, if ever. What I do lately is I take Magic Spoon, I put it in some Bulgarian yogurt, which is really good, and I mix that up. I put those in there, and sometimes I put some cinnamon on them. And as I'm describing this, I'm getting hungry for Magic Spoon. So if you want to try Magic Spoon, you can go to magicspoon.com/huberman to get their variety pack. Just use the promo code Huberman at checkout to get $5 off your order. Again, that's magicspoon.com/huberman and use the code Huberman to get $5 off. And now for my discussion with Dr. David Berson. Welcome.