Dr. Andrew Huberman

What it knows is the release of certain neuromodulators

namely adrenaline and norepinephrine and a few others as well.

that are associated with the underlying agitation of like, oh, I'm failing at this.

I'm not able to remember that Spanish class because I didn't attend in high school.

And this is really difficult.

And that agitation, the frustration is the stimulus.

But when we say frustration, it's the neurochemicals that when they bathe the surrounding neurons, those neurons go, oh, something needs to change for next time.

And lo and behold, the stimulus for neuroplasticity has occurred.

But the actual rewiring of the neurons, either the

improvement or the reduction in the strength of synapses, of connections between neurons.

And in rare instances, the addition of new neurons for neuroplasticity occurs, yes, when we sleep in states of deep rest or non-sleep deep rest, although there's less data to support that.

But the actual rewiring occurs away from the stimulus.

So there's really two important principles here.

One is that agitation and stress and the neurochemicals that underlie agitation and stress

That is the stimulus for learning.

And goodness, do I wish they had taught me that in school.

I mean, they taught me all sorts of things in school, but they didn't teach me that.

They didn't teach me the physiological side.

Lord knows I would have done better in life if I had a couple of those tools.

Instead, they told me, look, you know, if you drive drunk, you could die.