The Biology of Aggression, Mating, & Arousal | Dr. David Anderson

**Andrew D. Huberman** (0:00)
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 Anderson. Dr. Anderson is a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, often commonly referred to as Caltech University. Dr. Anderson's research focuses on emotions and states of mind and body. And indeed, he emphasizes how emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, and so on are actually subcategories of what are generally governed by states. That is things that are occurring in the nervous system in our brain and in the connections between brain and body that dictate whether or not we feel good about how we are feeling and that drive our behaviors. That is bias us to be in action or inaction and strongly influence the way we interpret our experience and our surroundings. Today, Dr. Anderson teaches us, for instance, why people become aggressive and why that aggression can sometimes take the form of rage. Also talk about sexual behavior and the boundaries and overlap between aggression and sexual behavior. And that discussion about aggression and sexual behavior also starts to focus on particular aspects of neural circuits and states of mind and body that govern things like for instance, male-male aggression versus male-female aggression versus female-female aggression. So today you will learn a lot about the biological mechanisms that govern why we feel the way we feel. Indeed, Dr. Anderson is an author of a terrific new popular book entitled The Nature of the Beast, How Emotions Guide Us. I've read this book several times now. I can tell you it contains so many gems that are firmly grounded in the scientific research. In fact, a lot of what's in the book contrasts with many of the common myths about emotions and biology. So whether or not you're a therapist or you're a biologist or you're simply just somebody interested in why we feel the way we feel and why we act the way we act, I cannot recommend the book highly enough. Again, the title is The Nature of the Beast, How Emotions Guide Us. Today's discussion also ventures into topics such as mental health and mental illness. And some of the exciting discoveries that have been made by Dr. Anderson's laboratory and other laboratories, identifying specific peptides, that is small proteins, that can govern whether or not people feel anxious or less anxious, aggressive or less aggressive. This is an important area of research that has direct implications for much of what we read about in the news, both unfortunate and fortunate events, and that will no doubt drive the future of mental health treatments. Dr. Anderson is considered one of the most pioneering and important researchers in neurobiology of our time. Indeed, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. I've mentioned the HHMI once or twice before when we've had other HHMI guests on this podcast, but for those of you that are not familiar, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute funds a small number of investigators doing particularly high-risk, high-benefit work, and it is an extremely competitive process to identify those Howard Hughes investigators. They're essentially appointed, and then every five years, they have to compete against one another and against a new incoming flock of would-be HHMI investigators to get another five years of funding. They are literally given a grade every five years as to whether or not they can continue, not continue, or whether or not they should worry about being funded for an extended period of time. Dr. Anderson has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1989 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 Element. Element is an electrolyte drink with everything you need and nothing you don't. That means plenty of salt, magnesium and potassium, the so-called electrolytes, and no sugar. Now, salt, magnesium and potassium are critical to the function of all the cells in your body, in particular to the function of your nerve cells, also called neurons. In fact, in order for your neurons to function properly, all three electrolytes need to be present in the proper ratios. And we now know that even slight reductions in electrolyte concentrations or dehydration of the body can lead to deficits in cognitive and physical performance. Element contains a science-backed electrolyte ratio of 1,000 milligrams, that's one gram of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium and 60 milligrams of magnesium. I typically drink Element first thing in the morning when I wake up in order to hydrate my body and make sure I have enough electrolytes. And while I do any kind of physical training and after physical training as well, especially if I've been sweating a lot. If you'd like to try Element, you can go to drinkelement. That's lmnt.com/huberman to claim a free Element sample pack with your purchase. Again, that's drinklmnt.com/huberman.