Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Wood

**Tommy Wood** (0:00)
There's a much more recent study that took again older adults and randomized them across three different groups. One was like a low-intensity group. Another group basically did kind of zone two type work on a treadmill three times a week. And the third group did a high-intensity interval training intervention, which was the Norwegian four-by-four protocol. So four minutes, 85 to 95% of maximum heart rate. They had a three-minute rest in their protocol. They did that four times over.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:25)
That's three times a week.

**Tommy Wood** (0:26)
Three times a week for six months.
That's pretty intense. But what they showed was that that high-intensity interval training group, they improved their fitness just as well as the zone two group, interestingly. But they had much better improvements in hippocampal function and maintenance of hippocampal structure on an MRI scan. And they maintained that benefit for five years after the six-month intervention. So they worked really hard for six months, but that benefit was maintained for a really long period of time.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:56)
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. Tommy Wood. Dr. Tommy Wood is a medical doctor and neuroscience researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also the chief science officer of Better Brain, a company that provides free brain health coaching. Tommy is an expert in neuroplasticity and human performance and how science-based protocols can be used to improve your focus, ability to learn and skill expression.
His work applies to everyone, from the novice to the elite expert, and for all kinds of skills, cognitive, language skills, athletic and creative endeavors.
Today, we discuss the brain states that favor learning and importantly, how to get yourself into those states.
We also discuss how to get the most from a learning session, for instance, how long that session should last, how many sessions to do per day, and perhaps most importantly, how to tune your mind and body to get better at learning. That's something we don't often hear in the context of learning and neuroplasticity, that our brain circuits for focusing and learning are also capable of plasticity, meaning you can literally get better at getting better. Today, we discuss things like flow states and something called a clutch state, which is a seldom mentioned but critical brain state to accelerate learning and performance. In fact, a clutch state is the state that you want to seek to learn and perform at your best. We also discuss how different types of physical exercise, from long slow cardio to brief high intensity cardio, and different forms of resistance training, each open the window for distinct types of neuroplasticity and learning. So this goes way beyond the general discussion about exercise improving your brain. We get really granular about exactly what types of things to do to improve your brain in specific ways. As a career neuroscientist who has worked on and taught neuroplasticity for decades now, it's rare that I encounter someone with as deep knowledge about the real science and application of learning and plasticity as Tommy has. He's also extremely unique because he has a ton of knowledge about new science based protocols for plasticity. And he's also an athlete. We discuss that a little bit at the end as well. So today you will hear a lot of information that I am confident you have not heard on this podcast or anywhere else frankly, about exercise, mental training, nutrition and supplementation and much more. And how you can leverage each alone and in combination to learn new skills with accelerated speed, precision and durability over time. I should also mention that Tommy recently released a new book that he wrote entitled The Stimulated Mind, Future Proof Your Brain from Dementia and Stay Sharp at Any Age. It's an excellent book if you're interested in following up on today's discussion and learning more about how you can make your brain better at any age. 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, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Tommy Wood. Dr. Tommy Wood, welcome.

**Tommy Wood** (4:06)
So amazing to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

**Andrew Huberman** (4:08)
This is my favorite topic in the entire world. What is more interesting than neuroplasticity, right? The brain is so interesting, but its most interesting feature, in my opinion anyway, is that it can change itself.