Essentials: Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your Brain

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health and performance.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are going to talk about the biology, psychology and utility of play. Much of our childhood development centers around play, whether or not it's organized play or spontaneous play. But as adults, we also need to play. And today I'm going to talk about what I like to refer to as the power of play. Let's talk about play. What is the utility of play? Why do we play when we're younger? Why do we tend to play less as we get older? And what in the world is play for? As we're going to learn later in the podcast, play is generated through the connectivity of many brain areas, but one of the key brain areas is an area called PAG, periaqueductal gray. The periaqueductal gray is a brainstem area, so it's pretty far back as the brain kind of transitions into the spinal cord, and it's rich with neurons that make endogenous opioids. So these are not the kinds of opioids that are causing the opioid crisis. These are neurons that you and I all have that release endogenous, meaning self-made or biologically made opioids. They go by names like enkephalin and things of that sort. Play evokes small amounts of opioid release into the system. And that turns out to be a very important chemical state because there's something about having an abundance of these endogenous opioids released into the brain that allows other areas of the brain, like the prefrontal cortex, the area of the front that's responsible for what we call executive function. Executive function is the ability to make predictions, to assess contingencies. Like, if I do this, then that happens. If I do that, then that happens. Well, prefrontal cortex is often seen as a kind of rigid executive of the whole brain. That's one way to view it. But probably a better way to view it is that the prefrontal cortex works in concert with these other more primitive circuitries. And when the periaqueductal gray releases these endogenous opioids during play, the prefrontal cortex doesn't get stupid. It actually gets smarter. It develops the ability to take on different roles and explore different contingencies. And we're going to talk about role play later in different contexts. And what we will find is that so much of play is really about exploring things in a way that feels safe enough to explore. As we move forward in the discussion, what I'd love for everyone to do is to stop thinking about play as just a child activity, not just a sport related activity, but really as an exploration in contingencies. Again, it's an exploration of if I do A, what happens? If I do B, what happens? If someone else takes on behavior or attitude C, what am I going to do? And play is really where we can expand our catalog of potential outcomes. And it can be enormously enriching. And indeed, as we'll talk about the tinkerers of the world, the true creatives, the people that build incredible technologies and art, and also they just have incredibly rich emotional and intellectual and social lives, all have a strong element of play. Many of us, including myself, probably haven't played that much as adults. But as children, most all of us engage in a lot of play. And in looking at the way that very young children, and especially toddlers play, we can learn a lot because it reveals the fundamental rules by which the toddler brain interacts with the world. Now there are hundreds of different types of play and hundreds of different types of contingency testing. But the key theme here is that play allows children and adults for that matter to explore different outcomes in a kind of low stakes environment. So the key theme here is that play is contingency testing under conditions where the stakes are sufficiently low that individuals should feel comfortable assuming different roles, even roles that they're not entirely comfortable with in their outside life. And that all relates again to the release of these endogenous opioids in this brain center periaqueductal gray and the way that it allows the prefrontal cortex in a very direct way. I mean, truly it allows it in a biological way to expand the number of operations that it can run and start thinking about, oh, well, okay, normally I'm kind of a loner and I like to read and work and hang out alone, maybe even play alone, but okay, I'll play a board game or a game of tennis where I have a partner and we're going to play as partners against two other people. Okay, that's a little uncomfortable, but I'll do it. And in doing that, you discover certain ways in which you are proficient and certain ways in which you are less proficient. You discover that the other person actually tends to cheat a little bit or the other person is extremely rigid about the rules or maybe it was extremely rigid about the way they organize their pieces on the board or are crossing the line into your side of the tennis court. There are all sorts of things that we learn in these rather low stakes scenarios. That's the key theme here. I'm excited to share with you that Mateina, the yerba mate drink that I helped create is now available at Sprouts Market nationwide. Longtime listeners of the Huberman Lab podcast know that yerba mate is my preferred caffeine source. It provides a smooth energy lift without giving you the jitters. And it has many other benefits, such as helping regulate blood sugar, improving digestion, mild appetite suppression, and more. Mateina is my absolute favorite of all the yerba mate brands out there. And believe me, I've tried them all. The flavors are fantastic. I drink at least three cans of Mateina every single day. You'll often see them on the table during our podcast recordings. I absolutely love the product. And I'm proud to now have it sold at Sprouts Market. Also, there's a great new offer. They are giving away a free can of Mateina to anyone who buys it at Sprouts and sends in a photo of their receipt. To learn more about how you can get a free can of Mateina, go to www.drinkmateina.com/offer.