The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.
Dr. David Anderson: The Biology of Aggression, Mating, & Arousal | Episode 89
My guest is David Anderson, PhD, a world expert in the science of sexual behavior, violent aggression, fear and other motivated states. Dr. Anderson is a Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). We discuss how states of mind (and body) arise and persist and how they probably better explain human behavior than emotions per se. We also discuss the many kinds of arousal that create varying levels of pressure for certain behaviors to emerge. We discuss different types of violent aggression and how they are impacted by biological sex, gender, context, prior experience, and hormones, and the neural interconnectedness of fear, aggression and sexual behavior. We also discuss peptides and their role in social isolation-induced anxiety and aggression. Dr. Anderson also describes novel, potentially powerful therapeutics for mental health. This episode should interest anyone wanting to learn more about mental health, human emotions, sexual and/or violent behavior.
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Dr. David Anderson
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Mouse switching from mating behavior to aggressive behaviors upon stimulation of VMH
Picture of Periaqueductal Gray (PAG)
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Dr. David Anderson, Emotions & Aggression
(00:03:33) Momentous Supplements
(00:04:27) Levels, Helix Sleep, LMNT
(00:08:10) Emotions vs. States
(00:10:36) Dimensions of States: Persistence, Intensity & Generalization
(00:14:38) Arousal & Valence
(00:18:11) Aggression, Optogenetics & Stimulating Aggression in Mice, VMH
(00:24:42) Aggression Types: Offensive, Defensive & Predatory
(00:29:20) Evolution & Development of Defensive vs. Offensive Behaviors, Fear
(00:35:38) Hydraulic Pressures for States & Homeostasis
(00:38:33) AG1 (Athletic Greens)
(00:39:46) Hydraulic Pressure & Aggression
(00:44:50) Balancing Fear & Aggression
(00:48:31) Aggression & Hormones: Estrogen, Progesterone & Testosterone
(00:52:33) Female Aggression, Motherhood
(00:59:48) Mating & Aggressive Behaviors
(01:05:10) Neurobiology of Sexual Fetishes
(01:10:06) Temperature, Mating Behavior & Aggression
(01:15:25) Mounting: Sexual Behavior or Dominance?
(01:20:59) Females & Male-Type Mounting Behavior
(01:24:40) PAG (Periaqueductal Gray) Brain Region: Pain Modulation & Fear
(01:30:38) Tachykinins & Social Isolation: Anxiety, Fear & Aggression
(01:43:49) Brain, Body & Emotions; Somatic Marker Hypothesis & Vagus Nerve
(01:52:52) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, AG1 (Athletic Greens), Instagram, Twitter, Neural Network Newsletter, Huberman Lab Clips
Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac