AMA #14: 2023 Philanthropy, Evening Routine, Light Therapy, Health Metrics & More

Andrew Huberman opens this live session with annual and lifetime members of the Huberman Lab premium channel. Before the questions, he explains where their subscription support went. He says the channel funds "important research," which he defines as research done on humans, with their consent, that the team believes has the highest probability of leading to new, quality treatments and improvements in mental health, physical health and performance.

He describes the main grants as year-long gifts. Speaking from his own long experience running a laboratory, he says gifts of this size let researchers do work they could not otherwise do, because they pay salaries, laboratory materials and the other costs that make research possible.

Laboratory gifts named for 2023: - Dr. Alia Crum (Stanford, Department of Psychology): how mindsets affect mental and physical health in children and adults. Huberman hopes for a report soon on how mindsets can improve performance in school, work, athletics and other areas. - Dr. Satchin Panda (Salk Institute for Biological Studies): a study of intermittent fasting as a specific tool for improving mental health. - Dr. Carla Shatz (Stanford University School of Medicine): how the immune system and maternal conditions, especially infections during pregnancy, can affect the developing fetal brain. This work also involves stem cells, and Huberman promises an update when he can. - Dr. Joanna Steinglass (Columbia University School of Medicine): new treatments for eating disorders based on neuroscience and habit formation. - Dr. Nolan Williams (Stanford): transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for depression and PTSD, including work that combines TMS with psychedelic treatments, in particular ibogaine but also psilocybin.

Huberman explains why the Steinglass grant matters to him. He calls anorexia nervosa the most deadly of all psychiatric conditions, says a large number of patients die of malnourishment and related causes, and says the issue is "not well-funded enough at the level of federal funding." He also stresses that the point of the Crum grant is to get its conclusions to the public quickly, so people can benefit from the knowledge and, in many cases, put it to use.

The last gift went to a chronobiology conference, which Huberman describes as "desperate for funds." The money paid for graduate students and postdocs from labs that could not afford to send them. He argues that attending high-quality meetings is critical for young scientists and can decide whether a new collaboration starts at all. He notes that the lab grants were much larger than the conference support. He defines chronobiology as the study of how the timing of light, temperature, exercise and eating affects health.

In 2023, the Tiny Foundation matched premium channel funds dollar for dollar. For 2024, Huberman announces that the Tiny Foundation will continue its match and that two more donors have joined, each also matching dollar for dollar. In his words, "for every dollar that the Huberman Lab premium channel has or raises in 2024, there will be $3 to match that." He says this puts Scicomm and the podcast in the range that university campuses would call major philanthropy.

by the way, this is not a fundraiser. This is us saying thank you to you.

He admits that donors often can't see where their money goes. He says the team keeps the process streamlined and cuts overhead "in every dimension," so the funds go to discovering new tools for mental health, physical health and performance.

The first question, from Caroline A, asks about studies on the anterior mid-cingulate cortex. Huberman describes it as a brain region involved in leaning into difficult challenges of all kinds. He says it grows when people take on effortful, adaptive challenges that cause some internal anxiety, and shrinks when they avoid challenging endeavors.

He insists on a narrow definition of "challenging." What he says drives growth is a task we would prefer not to do, even if we want its result: the payoff of the exercise or the learning, while the effort itself feels uncomfortable. He adds that these challenges should be uncomfortable but safe.

He cites outcomes in both directions. The region gets bigger in people who succeed at dieting or fitness, or who finish a degree or an exam. In people who fail to do the preparation those goals require, it shows some atrophy. He calls the structure "an anatomical and neural reflection of willpower and tenacity." He also says people often misread these findings. Based on neural circuit tracing, the region has many inputs and outputs, but he says it responds best to things that feel truly difficult.

His own example makes the distinction concrete. Exercise he enjoys from start to finish, which he calls "pure bliss," would not grow this region. Adding a couple of hill sprints to the end of his Sunday long run or hike, if they felt "rough," would. He says the challenge can also be physical, or come from learning a language or from a hard conversation you have been putting off. He repeats that these efforts should never damage mental or physical health.