The Biology of Social Interactions and Emotions | Dr. Kay Tye

This section of the episode develops the topic through the following source points: Andrew Huberman: 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. My guest today is Dr. Kay Tye. Dr. Kay Tye is a professor of neuroscience at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. She did her training at MIT and at Stanford, and is currently an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which is a highly curated group of individuals who are incentivized to do high-risk, high-reward work, and pioneer new areas of biological study. Throughout her career, Dr. Kay Tye has made fundamental breakthroughs into our understanding of the brain, including demonstrating that a brain area called the amygdala, which most people associate with fear and threat detection, is actually involved in reinforcement of behaviors and experiences that are positive and involve reward. Her current work focuses on various aspects of social interaction, including what happens when we feel lonely or isolated. Indeed, today, Kay Tye will tell us about her discovery of so-called loneliness neurons, neurons that give us that sense that we are not being fulfilled from our social interactions. She also describes a phenomenon she discovered called social homeostasis, which is our sense that we are experiencing enough, not enough, or just enough social interaction irrespective of whether or not we are an introvert or an extrovert. We also talk about social hierarchies and social rank, how people and animals tier out into so-called alphas and betas, subordinates and dominants, et cetera, in all sorts of social interactions. I think everyone will find that discussion especially interesting. And we talk about the role of social media and online interactions, and why despite extensive interaction with many, many individuals, those social media and online interactions can often leave us feeling deprived in specific ways. We talk about the neurochemical, the neural circuit, and some of the hormonal aspects of social interactions. It's a discussion that by the end will have you thinking far more deeply about what is a social interaction, and why certain social interactions leave us feeling so good, others feeling sort of meh, and why other social interactions or lack of social interactions can often leave us feeling quite depleted, even depressed. It's a conversation central to mental illness and the understanding of things like depression and anxiety, PTSD, and isolation, and it's a conversation central to mental health, and in order to build healthy social interactions. 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. And now for my conversation with Dr. Kay Tye. Dr. Kay Tye, welcome. Dr. Kay Tye: Andy Huberman, what a treat. Andrew Huberman: Folks are going to hear you call me Andy and wonder if my name is Andy. I always know who I'm speaking to according to whether or not they call me Andrew- Dr. Kay Tye: Oh Andrew Huberman: ... which is my family and people that I know after a certain period of my life, Drew, which are people that know me through my very brief and non-illustrious career in boxing, and Andy, which are people that met me as I was coming up through science. Let's just put it this way, there was another Andrew, we did a coin flip, and I lost. So Andy is fine. Andrew's fine, whatever makes you comfortable. What's important today is not how anyone refers to me, but rather the discussion about your work, which is spectacular. I've known you a long time, and I've been following your career, and it's just been amazing and wonderful to see the contributions you've made to science and also to the culture of science. So we're going to talk about both of those things. To kick things off, let's talk about a brain structure that most people I think have heard of, but that is badly misunderstood, and that's the amygdala. Dr. Kay Tye: Mm.