Transcript
[0:00] Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials,
[0:02] [music] where we revisit past episodes
[0:04] for the most potent and actionable
[0:06] science-based tools for mental health,
[0:09] physical health, and performance.
[0:12] I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor
[0:13] of neurobiology and opthalmology at
[0:16] Stanford School of Medicine. Today we
[0:18] are discussing focus and concentration
[0:20] and tools for improving your focus and
[0:22] concentration. And those tools will
[0:24] allow you to tap into the neurochemistry
[0:27] and the neural circuits within your
[0:28] brain and body that peer-reviewed
[0:30] science has reliably shown can
[0:32] significantly improve your focus and
[0:34] concentration abilities. Just to give
[0:36] you a little teaser of the kinds of
[0:37] tools that I'm going to provide you on
[0:39] today's episode, a previous guest on the
[0:40] Hubberman Lab podcast was Dr. Wendy
[0:42] Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki is a professor of
[0:45] psychology and neuroscience at New York
[0:47] University or NYU as it's commonly
[0:49] referred to. her laboratory made a very
[0:51] important discovery which was that a
[0:53] very brief just 12 actually 13 if you
[0:56] really count the the intro but 13 minute
[0:58] daily meditation performed for a period
[1:00] of about 8 weeks significantly increased
[1:04] people's focus and concentration
[1:05] abilities and the great news is you
[1:07] didn't need all eight weeks it was just
[1:08] that's how long that you ran the study
[1:10] so during today's episode I will
[1:12] describe that protocol in detail I'll
[1:14] also provide you an even briefer
[1:15] alternative to that protocol that you
[1:17] can use if for instance you find
[1:19] yourself with only 3 minutes or 4
[1:21] minutes or 5 minutes a day to meditate
[1:23] because today's episode is mainly
[1:25] focused on tools and not so much the
[1:27] underlying mechanisms. I'm mainly going
[1:29] to focus on what to do and when and how
[1:30] to do it. But I just want to take about
[1:33] 3 minutes and briefly describe a model
[1:35] that is a visual image that you can put
[1:37] in your mind that will help you
[1:40] incorporate the tools that I'll provide
[1:41] and that generally will help you
[1:43] understand at a mechanistic level how
[1:45] focus and concentration work. What I
[1:47] want you to imagine is an arrow. And an
[1:50] arrow of course has an arrow head and it
[1:52] has the shaft of that arrow. The
[1:54] neurochemical system that really
[1:57] represents the shaft of that arrow,
[1:58] right? The straight line is epinephrine,
[2:01] also called adrenaline. Turns out that
[2:04] epinephrine/adrenaline
[2:05] are released within your brain from a
[2:08] little location, a little cluster of
[2:09] neurons called locus ceruius, but you do
[2:11] not need to remember that name. and from
[2:13] your body from the adrenal glands. And
[2:16] the release of epinephrine from those
[2:19] two locations overall increases energy.
[2:22] It increases alertness. It does not
[2:24] alone increase focus. Okay? So things
[2:28] whether or not they're behavioral or
[2:30] psychological or supplements or drugs
[2:33] that increase epinephrine allow focus to
[2:36] occur. They are necessary for focus but
[2:39] they are not sufficient for focus. that
[2:41] is they are required but they are not
[2:43] enough to create focus. So we're going
[2:45] to need epinephrine in the equation. Now
[2:47] the arrow head on this metaphorical
[2:51] arrow head that represents focus and
[2:52] concentration is going to be represented
[2:55] or related to the mechanisms of
[2:57] acetylcholine. And the best way to think
[2:59] about it is it's like a spotlight. It
[3:02] highlights specific neurons nerve cells
[3:04] that should be active or more active I
[3:06] should say than the other neurons in the
[3:08] environment. If you have an arrow with a
[3:10] very big arrow head that's really broad,
[3:13] really blunt. Imagine a mile wide arrow
[3:15] head that's not very focused on any one
[3:17] location. It's not really pointing to
[3:18] any one location, is it? But with a
[3:21] narrow, really tightly focused arrow
[3:23] head, well, that's focused on one
[3:25] location. So, we have alertness,
[3:27] epinephrine, and then we have the actual
[3:31] direction in which our concentration and
[3:33] focus is placed. And that's in at least
[3:36] in this mental model I'm creating
[3:37] acetylcholine. And then in order to have
[3:40] ongoing focus, we need another
[3:43] neurochemical. And it turns out that
[3:45] that third neurochemical is dopamine. A
[3:47] molecule often associated with pleasure
[3:50] and reward. But it's really the molecule
[3:52] of motivation. These three
[3:54] neurochemicals together, acetyloline,
[3:56] epinephrine, and dopamine, really allow
[3:58] you to get focused, to focus very
[4:02] precisely, and in fact increasingly
[4:05] precisely over time, to really narrow
[4:07] and narrow and narrow your focus
[4:08] progressively within a single bout of
[4:10] focus, and to continue to do that and to
[4:12] be able to do that repeatedly whenever
[4:14] you want. Let's jump into the tools for
[4:16] concentration and focus. One of the most
[4:19] important things to build and maintain
[4:21] your focus and concentration is to
[4:24] optimize your sleeping behavior. That is
[4:27] to get enough quality sleep I would say
[4:30] 80% of the nights of your life. Not
[4:32] everyone can get optimal sleep 100% of
[4:34] the nights of their life. Nobody truly
[4:36] nobody achieves that. However, sleep has
[4:39] been shown to relate to cognitive
[4:42] performance, physical performance,
[4:43] hormone output and so many other things.
[4:46] What we can reliably say is that sleep
[4:49] modulates just about every process in
[4:52] your brain and body. So assuming that
[4:54] you are sleeping well 80% of the nights
[4:56] of your life or at least working on the
[4:59] various protocols and tools to sleep
[5:01] well and sufficiently long 80% of the
[5:04] nights of your life and you are
[5:06] interested in additional tools that are
[5:09] soundbased in order to improve your
[5:11] ability to concentrate and focus. There
[5:13] are quality peer-reviewed studies
[5:16] supporting the idea that white noise or
[5:18] pink noise have been shown to not
[5:20] improve concentration per se, but to
[5:23] improve people's ability to transition
[5:25] into concentrated states. There is
[5:28] indeed some data to support the fact
[5:30] that white noise and to some extent pink
[5:32] noise and brown noise can amplify the
[5:35] activity of neurons in the so-called
[5:36] prefrontal cortex. this front area, sort
[5:39] of the bumper behind your forehead, uh
[5:41] that is directly related to your ability
[5:44] to direct your own focus and remain
[5:46] focused on certain things. These are
[5:48] tools that really have been shown over
[5:50] and over in humans to decrease the
[5:53] transition time into focus. This is a
[5:55] really key point. A lot of people are
[5:57] challenged with getting into a mode of
[5:59] focus. None of us, however, should be
[6:02] expected to just sit down and drop
[6:04] directly into a state of focus. I think
[6:06] that's completely an unfair request of
[6:08] ourselves. I mean, for instance, you
[6:10] wouldn't expect yourself to go out on
[6:11] the track or go out for a run and not
[6:13] warm up. You might jog for a few minutes
[6:15] or even walk before you would jog and
[6:16] then jog before you would run, right? I
[6:18] would hope you would do that. And if
[6:20] you're doing resistance training, I
[6:21] doubt that you go over and load up the
[6:23] bar or the machine with the maximum
[6:24] amount of weight that you can move and
[6:25] then just drop right into that. You
[6:26] always do a warm-up. And I think it's
[6:27] very important to understand mental
[6:29] work, focus, and concentration as
[6:30] requiring that warm-up. There's a
[6:33] gradual dropping into any state whether
[6:35] or not that state is sleep, right? You
[6:36] go from shallow sleep to deep sleep and
[6:37] then out eventually. Focus two, you go
[6:41] from shallow focus to increasingly deep
[6:44] focus. That is in our metaphor of the
[6:48] arrow, it's very broad. It's pointed at
[6:50] a lot of things and over time as we drop
[6:52] into focus that arrow is narrowing and
[6:53] narrowing and narrowing. It is not what
[6:55] we call a step function. It's not like
[6:57] you go from unfocused to focus and then
[6:58] you drop into your maximum focus. By
[7:01] understanding that it's dynamic, by
[7:03] understanding that you are going to be
[7:04] continually going in and out of
[7:07] progressively but varying levels of
[7:09] focus, you will greatly release the
[7:12] pressure on yourself to feel focused all
[7:15] the time when you want to be. So be
[7:17] patient with yourself and also
[7:19] understand that focus is an ability that
[7:21] you can improve your ability to focus by
[7:24] engaging the neural circuits responsible
[7:25] for focus repeatedly over time through
[7:28] so-called neuroplasticity. the ability
[7:30] of your nervous system to change in
[7:31] response to experience. And that has a
[7:33] couple of different components. But put
[7:35] very simply, what we repeat gets etched
[7:37] into our nervous system and becomes
[7:39] easier over time. A question I often get
[7:41] is, "How long should I try to focus?"
[7:43] Well, the research literature point to
[7:45] the key importance of so-called
[7:46] altradian cycles. You've all probably
[7:48] heard of circadian cycles or circadian
[7:50] biology. Circa the day, circadian is
[7:54] about 24-hour cycle. Well, our brain and
[7:57] body operate within that day or within
[7:59] each and every day I should say with
[8:01] 90inute altradian cycles. So my
[8:04] suggestion would be anytime you're going
[8:05] to sit down and try and focus, you're
[8:07] going to try and do a focused bout of
[8:08] physical exercise or skill learning or
[8:10] musical learning or maybe you're even
[8:12] just having a conversation, maybe you're
[8:13] a therapist or you're attending therapy
[8:15] or a class. How long should it be? And
[8:17] the ideal duration is about 90 minutes.
[8:20] Everything from our sleep states or the
[8:22] different stages of sleep and our waking
[8:24] states is divided into these 90minute
[8:26] cycles or so-called ultradian cycles. I
[8:28] acknowledge and accept the fact that the
[8:31] first 5 to 10 minutes of that 90 minutes
[8:33] are a transition time. It's like the
[8:34] warm-up for focus, but I do include it
[8:36] in that 90 minutes. I'm often asked how
[8:39] many altradian cycles one can perform
[8:41] throughout the day. That depends on how
[8:43] well you slept, how well you are
[8:44] nourished, which we'll talk about in a
[8:46] moment, and how well trained up your
[8:48] focus capacity is. Again, this is not to
[8:50] say that you should go to your teacher
[8:52] or your um PhD adviser or your parent or
[8:55] your friends and say, "Listen, I I can't
[8:56] really concentrate or think about
[8:58] anything for more than 90 minutes per
[8:59] day." That's not what I'm saying. These
[9:01] are deep focus bouts. These are bouts of
[9:02] mental work or physical work where
[9:04] you're really forcing yourself to focus
[9:06] and refocus to sharpen the head of that
[9:08] arrowhead to redirect it to what you're
[9:09] trying to concentrate on. And it is
[9:11] indeed hard work. I would even think
[9:12] about it more or less like a workout of
[9:15] any [snorts] kind. Your ability to focus
[9:17] and in fact your ability of neurons to
[9:19] encode specific information in your
[9:21] environment that is to represent what's
[9:23] out there in the world is actually
[9:25] related to your blood glucose level.
[9:27] There's a beautiful study that was
[9:28] published in neuron not long ago that
[9:30] showed that the tuning that is the
[9:31] precision with which neurons in the
[9:33] brain represent things in our
[9:35] environment is actually much greater
[9:38] when there is sufficient glucose in the
[9:40] brain. Translated into English, this
[9:42] means that when we are fasted or when
[9:44] our blood glucose is very low, we aren't
[9:46] able to perceive and think about things
[9:48] as clearly. Now, there's a twist to
[9:50] this, however. One of the things that
[9:52] you hear very often is that some people
[9:53] like being fasted because they like the
[9:56] clarity of mind that it provides. Here's
[9:58] the situation. Neurons, unless you're in
[10:00] a ketogenic diet, really thrive on
[10:02] glucose. They love glucose. So, why
[10:05] would it be that some people experience
[10:07] a heightened state of mental clarity
[10:08] when they are fasted? I've certainly
[10:10] experienced that before. Well, I should
[10:11] say that provided you're well hydrated
[10:13] enough and you have enough electrolytes
[10:15] in your system. What tends to happen is
[10:16] that when you ingest food, there's a
[10:19] shift in your nervous system towards
[10:20] so-called parasympathetic modes. You've
[10:22] probably heard it as rest and digest,
[10:23] although it does other things. A more
[10:25] relaxed mode that can indeed make us
[10:27] very sleepy. If we have too many
[10:28] carbohydrates, it actually can make us
[10:29] quite sleepy. However, if we have any
[10:32] food, if we have enough of it, that is
[10:34] if our gut is full, it diverts blood to
[10:36] our gut and we become sleepy and we
[10:38] can't focus as well. Imagine a Ushaped
[10:41] function, right? Where if you're very
[10:43] fasted, you're going to have high degree
[10:45] of focus and concentration. But then if
[10:47] you ingest some food and your belly is
[10:49] full, your focus and concentration is
[10:51] reduced. But having enough blood glucose
[10:54] and maybe even elevated blood glucose
[10:56] will increase cognitive function. So,
[10:58] you sort of have to pick your condition.
[11:00] What do you want for your bouts of focus
[11:02] and concentration? I actually do both.
[11:04] So, what I do is, as I mentioned before,
[11:05] I eat my meals sometime around 11:00
[11:07] a.m. my first meal typically, unless I'm
[11:09] very hungry when I wake up. And so, I
[11:11] will do my workout and one bout of
[11:14] focused work. I always think of this as
[11:16] my hard work early in the day. And I do
[11:18] that fasted. I'll be consuming water
[11:20] with electrolytes. That's my first focus
[11:23] bout of 90 minutes or less. And then
[11:25] I'll eat. And then I do notice after I
[11:27] eat I actually have a diminished
[11:28] capacity to focus. But then again in the
[11:30] afternoon I will do another 90-minute
[11:32] bout of focus. So to make this very
[11:34] simple or as simple as I can for you
[11:37] being fasted is great for focus and
[11:40] concentration provided you're not
[11:42] thinking about food the entire time and
[11:44] being fed is terrific for focus and
[11:46] concentration. Actually can improve
[11:47] neuronal function provided that you
[11:50] didn't eat too much food. So, one way to
[11:53] manage this is if you're going to have a
[11:54] lunch to make sure that you don't stuff
[11:56] yourself at lunch that you're not
[11:57] overeating and to not get quite so full
[12:00] that you push your nervous system into
[12:02] this parasympathetic mode and make it
[12:04] hard to focus in the afternoon. But if
[12:06] you're eating large meals, you are going
[12:08] to diminish your concentration and focus
[12:10] period. I know many people are curious
[12:12] as to whether or not caffeine can
[12:14] improve focus and concentration. And
[12:17] indeed, it can. There is a kind of
[12:19] general range in which we can talk about
[12:22] caffeine as being useful for focus and
[12:24] concentration and the range is basically
[12:26] from 100 milligrams to 400 milligrams. I
[12:29] want to caution everybody out there if
[12:31] you're somebody who suffers from anxiety
[12:33] or panic attacks and you're not used to
[12:35] ingesting caffeine and you run out and
[12:37] ingest 400 milligrams of caffeine in the
[12:39] form of espresso or yerba mate or an
[12:41] energy drink or in pill form that is
[12:43] going to be very uncomfortable for you.
[12:45] You're going to be sweating profusely.
[12:47] your heart rate is going to increase.
[12:48] You're going to be quite panicked in
[12:50] fact or at least anxious. But most
[12:52] people do quite well to ingest 100 to
[12:54] 200 milligrams of caffeine prior to
[12:56] doing some focused work. I will caution
[12:58] those of you that think that you can
[13:00] drink caffeine in the evening or
[13:01] nighttime and still fall asleep. All of
[13:03] the research points to the fact that the
[13:05] architecture of your sleep and the depth
[13:07] of your sleep is disrupted. Even if
[13:08] you're able to fall and stay asleep, the
[13:11] sleep you're getting is simply not as
[13:12] good as the sleep you would get if you
[13:14] were to shut off your caffeine intake at
[13:16] least eight hours before bedtime and
[13:18] ideally more like 10 or even 12 hours
[13:20] before bedtime. But of course, there are
[13:21] practical constraints as well. There's
[13:23] an excellent study that was carried out
[13:25] not that long ago on how stress itself
[13:28] can increase our ability to focus and
[13:30] concentrate. You know, most people think
[13:32] of stress as impairing our ability to
[13:34] focus, but that's actually not true.
[13:36] When we are stressed, it involves the
[13:38] deployment, the release of adrenaline,
[13:40] epinephrine. And that adrenaline both
[13:43] changes our visual field. In other
[13:45] words, it narrows our vision to a more
[13:47] tunnel-like
[13:48] focus. That is, it makes the arrow in
[13:51] our metaphor of the arrow more sharp and
[13:55] it improves our concentration. So the
[13:57] study that really shows quite
[13:59] definitively that acute stress meaning
[14:01] stress that comes on fairly suddenly
[14:03] improves concentration performance it's
[14:06] a paper published in the journal
[14:07] experimental psychology in 2020. The
[14:10] title of the paper is not surprisingly
[14:12] acute stress improves concentration
[14:14] performance. First author Degrroot d o
[14:18] t. And this study involved taking a
[14:21] number of subjects and stressing them
[14:23] out or not prior to a cognitive or
[14:26] concentration task. And there are a lot
[14:29] of data in this paper, but I'm just
[14:30] going to home in on one specific set of
[14:32] data. And I should mention as I go there
[14:34] that they measured things like cortisol,
[14:36] a stress hormone. They measured anxiety.
[14:38] It was a quite thorough study. And what
[14:40] they found was that concentration
[14:42] performance improved manyfold I should
[14:45] say from there was a greater than
[14:47] doubling of concentration and
[14:49] performance in the stress group and
[14:52] stress in this context was provided
[14:53] using a standard way of inducing stress.
[14:56] What they basically do is they bring
[14:57] subjects into the laboratory and they
[14:59] have to do a simulated job interview and
[15:02] arithmetic task and they're being
[15:03] evaluated as they're doing this. So this
[15:05] isn't you know intense psychosocial
[15:07] stress. you know, they're not watching
[15:08] anything disturbing. They're not being
[15:10] traumatized in any kind of way. This is
[15:12] fairly low levels of stress that raise
[15:14] their levels of epinephrine, and we know
[15:16] this uh from this study, and their
[15:18] levels of cortisol, another stress
[15:20] hormone, modestly within their brain and
[15:23] blood, but that even modest increase in
[15:26] these stress hormones and their reported
[15:29] psychological levels of stress really
[15:30] enhance their focus and concentration.
[15:32] Now, of course, there are other ways to
[15:34] increase stress levels and to do that in
[15:36] healthy ways to improve concentration
[15:38] and performance. And one of the best
[15:39] ways to do that because it's so sure
[15:42] fire and it's generally safe, provided
[15:44] you do it safely, is deliberate cold
[15:47] exposure. This is something I've talked
[15:48] about on the podcast before, but
[15:50] deliberate cold exposure can be achieved
[15:52] by getting into a cold shower for one to
[15:54] five minutes. We know that getting into
[15:57] cold water or under cold water greatly
[16:00] increases epinephrine levels and
[16:02] dopamine levels. There's a beautiful
[16:04] study that was published in the European
[16:05] Journal of Physiology that showed that
[16:07] the increases in dopamine are massive.
[16:10] you know, a near doubling or more of
[16:12] dopamine levels that are very long
[16:13] lasting for hours and epinephrine and in
[16:17] ways that support not just immune system
[16:21] function because they do that and mood
[16:23] because it does that, but that can
[16:24] really improve concentration and focus.
[16:26] This is not a biohack. Uh I don't like
[16:29] the word hack. I know it's commonly
[16:31] used, but a hack is something where
[16:32] you're using one thing for a different
[16:34] purpose than it was originally intended
[16:35] for. And here I'm not referring to the
[16:37] shower or the cold bath. I'm referring
[16:38] to epinephrine. Epinephrine is a
[16:40] neurochemical that will place your
[16:42] vision into more of a tunnel mode, which
[16:44] will allow you to focus on cognitive
[16:46] work or physical work in a more specific
[16:48] way. You're not going to be as
[16:49] distractable. And it's very easy to
[16:51] achieve by getting into a cold shower or
[16:53] a cold body of water for a brief period
[16:56] of time. People always ask how long to
[16:59] get under or into cold water and how
[17:02] cold to make it. Here's the thing. It
[17:03] should be uncomfortably cold but safe to
[17:05] stay in for 1 to 5 minutes. Cold water
[17:08] exposure, I should say deliberate cold
[17:10] water or non-eliberate cold water
[17:11] exposure reliably increases epinephrine
[17:15] levels. It is incredibly useful as a
[17:18] tool for this. Some of you might think
[17:20] this is a little bit silly as a tool for
[17:21] focus and concentration, but if you look
[17:23] at the data on epinephrine and how
[17:26] powerfully it can increase focus, I
[17:28] think you'd be very impressed. I mean it
[17:31] certainly can increase one's ability to
[17:33] attend to specific visual stimula. So
[17:35] for reading or math work etc. It's going
[17:37] to be very useful. The point here is
[17:39] that a lot of people would love to and I
[17:41] think ought to leverage the
[17:43] healthpromoting and powerful effects of
[17:46] increasing epinephrine on focus and
[17:47] concentration. And running out and
[17:50] getting stressed by a life event or
[17:51] getting into an argument or something
[17:53] like that simply as a way to increase
[17:54] focus and concentration doesn't seem
[17:56] that adaptive to me. So deliberate cold
[17:58] exposure is a straightforward way to do
[18:00] that. It doesn't involve anyone else. I
[18:01] suppose you could do it with somebody
[18:02] else, but it doesn't require anyone
[18:04] else. And again, there are zero, low,
[18:07] and even negative cost ways to approach
[18:09] that. Now, I'd like to discuss some of
[18:10] the purely behavioral tools that quality
[18:13] peer-reviewed science say can improve
[18:15] focus and concentration significantly.
[18:18] At the beginning of today's episode, I
[18:20] talked about the study from Dr. for
[18:21] Wendy Suzuki's lab where they explored a
[18:24] 13-minute meditation done every day for
[18:26] a period of 8 weeks. That meditation led
[18:29] to significant improvements in focus and
[18:31] concentration ability as well as other
[18:33] aspects of cognitive performance. It
[18:35] also improved mood and reduced stress.
[18:38] So, you might be wondering what exactly
[18:40] is this meditation? The meditation is
[18:42] very simple and it's one that anyone can
[18:44] perform. What you would want to do is
[18:46] set a timer for about 13 minutes. I
[18:49] don't think it has to be exactly 13
[18:50] minutes, but since that's what they
[18:52] included in the study, you would set a
[18:54] timer for 13 minutes, you would sit or
[18:56] lie down, close your eyes, and you would
[19:00] simply focus on your breathing. Ideally,
[19:02] you would do just nasal breathing for a
[19:04] period of 13 minutes, concentrating on
[19:06] that breathing. And concentrating,
[19:08] meaning bringing your awareness to a
[19:11] point just about an inch inside of your
[19:13] forehead while also concentrating on
[19:15] your breathing. Now, here's the thing
[19:17] about meditation that all studies of
[19:20] meditation show, which is that unless
[19:23] you are a very experienced meditator,
[19:26] your concentration, your focus will
[19:28] drift away from your breathing and away
[19:31] from that location about an inch inside
[19:34] your head, inside your brain. That will
[19:36] happen maybe every 10 seconds, every 20
[19:39] seconds, maybe even every 5 seconds. But
[19:41] an important part of such a meditation
[19:43] practice to improve concentration and
[19:45] focus is that you are continually
[19:47] refocusing
[19:49] back to that specific location and
[19:51] refocusing back on your breath. This is
[19:54] something that again is not often
[19:56] discussed. People think that if you do a
[19:57] meditation and you're supposed to
[19:58] concentrate on your breath that if your
[20:00] mind drifts that somehow you failed in
[20:02] that meditation. But actually that's not
[20:03] the case. A huge component of improving
[20:07] your ability to focus and concentrate by
[20:09] way of neuroplasticity, rewiring of the
[20:11] circuits for focus and concentration is
[20:14] the repeated return to a state of focus
[20:17] from a state of nonfocus or diminished
[20:20] focus. Okay? So, think about it like
[20:22] trying to drive down the freeway and
[20:24] staying between the lane lines, excuse
[20:27] me. And every once in a while, because
[20:28] there's a bit of drift on the vehicle,
[20:31] maybe the wheels aren't aligned
[20:32] correctly or there's something else
[20:33] wrong with the chassis or the steering
[20:34] device, it starts to drift right a
[20:36] little bit, then you hit the rumble
[20:37] strip to go and then you pull back to
[20:39] the center. That's really what a focused
[20:42] meditation practice is about, as opposed
[20:44] to expecting yourself to stay between
[20:47] the mental lane lines, so to speak. By
[20:49] doing that repeatedly over and over,
[20:51] what you're really training up is the
[20:54] network within your brain that indeed
[20:56] includes that prefrontal cortex that
[20:58] you're focusing on as well as some other
[20:59] structures, the infratemporal cortex,
[21:01] indeed the hippocampus, a structure
[21:03] associated with memory and other
[21:04] components of the neural circuit that
[21:06] are involved in directing our mental
[21:08] focus and concentration. The point here
[21:11] isn't how long you focus or somehow
[21:14] trying to achieve total focus for the
[21:16] entire 13 minute or 17 minute or
[21:19] 60-minute bout of meditation. While that
[21:22] would be wonderful and I think many
[21:23] people aspire to do that, that's a lot
[21:25] of hard mental work. I think for most
[21:27] people out there, including myself, a
[21:29] relatively short meditation practice of
[21:31] about 13 minutes in which you fully
[21:35] expect your focus and concentration to
[21:37] drift, but that you are continually
[21:39] refocusing is going to be the most
[21:41] effective, yes indeed, the most
[21:43] effective at teaching yourself to focus
[21:46] and stay concentrated. In fact, I invite
[21:48] you to interpret every time that you
[21:50] focus off that location about one inch
[21:53] behind your forehead as an opportunity
[21:54] to refocus and think about the
[21:56] refocusing as the trigger for teaching
[21:59] your neural circuits how to focus for
[22:01] extended periods of time. And as a bonus
[22:03] to that sort of meditation practice, the
[22:05] study from Wendy Suzuki's lab also
[22:07] showed that people experienced
[22:08] improvements in sleep and improvements
[22:10] in memory. So, not just improvements in
[22:12] mood and reduction in stress and
[22:14] improvements in focus and concentration,
[22:16] but all these other positive benefits
[22:18] from just doing that 13 minute a day
[22:20] meditation practice. It's one that I've
[22:22] started to adopt and have felt
[22:23] tremendous benefit from and that I
[22:25] encourage many of you to try as well.
[22:27] Now, there's another set of behavioral
[22:28] tools that can really help enhance one's
[22:30] ability to focus and those are
[22:32] visualbased tools. In fact, the tools
[22:35] I'm about to describe are actually being
[22:37] employed in a number of schools in China
[22:40] and elsewhere in order to teach children
[22:42] to focus better and for longer periods
[22:44] of time. The key principle here is that
[22:49] much of our cognitive focus, our ability
[22:51] to think about something in a very
[22:53] specific way and stay focused on it to
[22:55] read or to follow a line of conversation
[22:58] or math or music etc. is going to be
[23:02] directed by our visual system. That's
[23:04] also why they put blinders on horses.
[23:06] That's also why sometimes wearing a
[23:08] hoodie or a hat or limiting your visual
[23:11] field in some way can help you enhance
[23:14] your cognitive focus. It can help limit
[23:16] distraction. You're just not seeing as
[23:18] much. So what is a practice that has
[23:21] been studied in various laboratories and
[23:23] that's being employed in various schools
[23:25] is to have children or adults visually
[23:28] focus on one location for a given period
[23:31] of time. How long? Anywhere from 30
[23:34] seconds to 3 minutes. And believe it or
[23:36] not, 3 minutes is a long time to
[23:38] maintain visual focus at one location.
[23:40] You if you were to try that right now,
[23:42] you'd probably find it to be a bit of a
[23:43] strain. But if you want to try it, you
[23:45] can. Also keep in mind that the
[23:47] refocusing is the key component of
[23:50] teaching yourself or your brain how to
[23:52] focus better. So if you're going to
[23:55] incorporate this practice, what you
[23:57] would want to do is pick a location. It
[23:59] could be on a wall, could be on your
[24:00] computer in front of you, although I
[24:02] would encourage it to not be the
[24:03] contents of your computer screen. You
[24:04] might just want to blank your screen.
[24:06] You might want to put a piece of paper
[24:07] with a crosshatch there. Any sort of
[24:09] visual target or you can imagine a
[24:11] visual target. and then focus your
[24:12] visual attention on that target and try
[24:14] to breathe normally. Try and stay
[24:16] relaxed and certainly allow yourself to
[24:17] blink so your eyes don't dry out. By
[24:19] focusing on that particular location and
[24:22] by forcing yourself to refocus on that
[24:23] location anytime your gaze, your vision
[24:27] drifts from that location, you are
[24:29] encouraging the circuits for focus to
[24:32] get better at focusing for longer and
[24:34] longer and at refocusing when your focus
[24:36] drifts off of that location. This
[24:38] practice is recruiting certain elements
[24:41] of your so-called prefrontal cortex.
[24:42] Also, the frontal eye fields, which are
[24:45] locations not far from the prefrontal
[24:46] cortex that are involved in deliberately
[24:48] directing your gaze to particular
[24:50] locations in space. Here's what I
[24:52] recommend. Set yourself a low bar at
[24:55] first and set a timer and try to focus
[24:59] on one location for 30 seconds and
[25:02] that's it for that day. The next day you
[25:04] might add 5 seconds and then the next
[25:06] day 5 seconds after that. If you miss a
[25:08] day, no big deal. Simply do the practice
[25:11] for the same amount of time that you did
[25:13] the last time that you did the practice
[25:15] and then gradually try and increase the
[25:17] amount of time that you can focus on one
[25:19] visual location overtly by looking
[25:22] directly at that location. So, what I
[25:24] recommend is having a 30-se secondond to
[25:27] 3 minute period at the beginning of a
[25:31] bout of focus where you're going to do
[25:32] work or physical work and anchoring your
[25:36] vision to one location somewhere in the
[25:38] room or if you want to do it covertly,
[25:40] you can do that. Setting a timer and
[25:42] trying to do that for anywhere from 30
[25:44] seconds to 3 minutes. What you're doing
[25:46] when you exercise that practice is you
[25:50] are ramping up neural activity within
[25:53] the neural circuits that create focus
[25:55] and concentration. And then I would move
[25:57] to the work that you're trying to do
[25:58] either mental work or physical work. And
[26:01] if about halfway through your 90-minute
[26:02] bout or at some point in your 90-minute
[26:04] bout of work or exercise, you feel that
[26:06] your concentration is drifting, rather
[26:08] than look at your phone and scroll
[26:09] through the thousands of contexts that
[26:12] exists within social media or your
[26:13] phone, try just picking a location again
[26:15] on the wall, focusing back on that
[26:17] location, using that as a ramp up to
[26:20] then direct your focus back towards if
[26:22] you're weight training sets and reps
[26:24] that you might be performing. If you're
[26:25] running, you might do this or cycling,
[26:27] you might do this by focusing on a
[26:29] particular location and really homing in
[26:31] on that location physically. And this is
[26:34] a practice that a lot of athletes use,
[26:35] in fact. And if you're say doing musical
[26:38] practice or math, well, then you'd want
[26:40] to focus on something other than the
[26:41] task that you're trying to perform. But
[26:43] again, using visual focus as a way to
[26:46] ramp up and increase your overall
[26:48] ability to focus and concentrate and
[26:50] then applying that to whatever it is
[26:52] that you're trying to learn or perform.
[26:54] Next, I'd like to talk about compounds
[26:55] that can improve concentration and
[26:57] focus. And these are most often consumed
[27:00] as supplements, although some of them, I
[27:02] should mention, can also be derived from
[27:03] food. One of the key compounds that
[27:06] supports concentration and focus because
[27:08] it generally supports mood concentration
[27:10] and focus and brain function in general
[27:13] are the omega-3 essential fatty acids.
[27:16] And it's really clear that getting
[27:18] somewhere between one and three grams of
[27:20] EPA essential fatty acid per day can
[27:24] improve outcomes. That is can improve
[27:26] mood and can improve cognitive function.
[27:28] Again, in the context of focus and
[27:30] concentration, it's in modulating the
[27:33] neural circuits and brain function that
[27:35] are going to support focus and
[27:36] concentration. And it's not as if taking
[27:38] 1 to three grams of EPA essential fatty
[27:41] acids per day is going to tap directly
[27:44] into only the circuits for focus and
[27:46] concentration. The other thing that can
[27:48] positively modulate brain function and
[27:50] that actually works as a fuel for
[27:53] neurons to function and can improve
[27:55] cognitive performance in particular
[27:57] within the brain circuits such as the
[27:58] prefrontal cortex that are involved in
[28:00] concentration and focus is creatine. I
[28:02] know many people are familiar with
[28:04] creatine monohydrate for its effects on
[28:07] muscle growth and strength and
[28:08] performance. But it's quite clear that
[28:10] the bulk of scientific studies have
[28:12] examined the role of creatine in the
[28:14] clinical context and as its role in
[28:16] improving cognitive performance. So my
[28:18] read of the literature has led to a
[28:19] practice in which I ingest five grams
[28:21] per day of creatine monohydrate. The
[28:24] sort of standard form that's available
[28:26] really isn't geared towards muscle
[28:27] growth or strength or performance as
[28:29] much as geared toward tapping into the
[28:31] creatine phosphate system within the
[28:34] brain and specifically the benefits of
[28:37] creatine for prefrontal cortical
[28:38] networks. Again, modulating, not
[28:40] directly mediating, but modulating and
[28:42] generally supporting the brain networks
[28:45] that are going to allow me to generate
[28:47] focus and concentration. Now, in terms
[28:49] of compounds that more specifically
[28:52] mediate concentration and focus, we have
[28:54] to go back to that arrow metaphor model
[28:56] that we talked about at the beginning of
[28:57] the episode that included epinephrine,
[28:59] adrenaline, acetylcholine, which acts as
[29:03] this attentional spotlight. In fact,
[29:04] acetylcholine and elevated levels of
[29:06] acetylcholine have been shown over and
[29:09] over again to improve or even directly
[29:12] gate neuroplasticity by increasing focus
[29:15] directly. As I mentioned earlier, there
[29:17] are a number of different foods which
[29:18] contain choline. You can look those up
[29:20] online. Choline acting as an amino acid
[29:22] precursor to acetylcholine. But of
[29:24] course, there are compounds, there are
[29:25] supplements that can further and more
[29:27] acutely increase acetyloline. And
[29:29] indeed, I use these myself. The most
[29:31] effective one I've found is alphagpc.
[29:34] Alpha GPC consumed at dosages of 300
[29:37] milligrams to 600 milligrams prior to a
[29:40] workout or prior to a workout greatly
[29:43] increase one's ability to focus and
[29:45] concentrate. At least that's been my
[29:47] experience. And there are some good data
[29:48] in humans. Now, a number of people have
[29:50] contacted me about a recent study
[29:53] suggesting that alpha GPC when taken
[29:56] chronically over many years could
[29:58] increase one's vulnerability to stroke.
[30:00] I've looked at those data and my read of
[30:03] the data is that they're not very
[30:05] conclusive. Although anytime you see
[30:08] something like that, you obviously want
[30:10] to be concerned. And it seems to be
[30:11] related to increases in TMAO, which is a
[30:14] marker related to the cardiovascular
[30:16] system. And one known way to offset
[30:20] increases in TMAO that are associated
[30:23] either with alpha GPC or increases due
[30:26] to other things. So ingestion of
[30:28] particular food compounds actually can
[30:30] increase TMAO is to offset that by
[30:33] taking 600 milligrams of garlic. Now
[30:36] I've been taking alpha GPC pretty
[30:38] consistently for a number of years. I do
[30:40] not take it every day. I would say I
[30:41] take it about four days per week again
[30:43] prior to workouts or bouts of cognitive
[30:45] work. I have not seen my TMAO spike and
[30:49] I've evaluated that by way of blood
[30:51] tests. But based on this recent study
[30:54] and the concerns about TMAO, I make it a
[30:57] point to always ingest a 600 mgram
[30:59] capsule of garlic anytime I take alpha
[31:03] GPC, which again for me is about 4 days
[31:05] per week. So if one wants to increase
[31:07] the amount of dopamine transmission in
[31:09] the brain and body for sake of
[31:11] increasing concentration and focus, one
[31:14] of the most efficient ways to do that is
[31:15] by ingestion of the amino acid elyroine.
[31:18] I use el tyroine in capsule form. I will
[31:21] take 500 milligrams of elyroine, 300
[31:24] milligrams of alpha GPZ, and a cup of
[31:26] coffee. Do this early in the day before
[31:28] a workout or before a bout of
[31:30] concentrated mental work. I don't want
[31:32] to give the impression that I combine
[31:35] every tool that I've talked about today
[31:37] for a given work bout. That to me seems
[31:39] like a very inefficient way to go about
[31:41] life. In fact, I make it a point to try
[31:44] and use tools to increase my ability to
[31:47] concentrate and focus, but not to
[31:50] combine more than two or three of them
[31:51] at any one time. Other days, I confess,
[31:54] I've slept very well, or my enthusiasm
[31:56] about what I'm about to work on is such
[31:59] that I don't require any of these tools.
[32:01] Again, there's no requirement. There's
[32:03] no pressure to use any of these tools,
[32:05] behavioral, supplement based, or
[32:07] otherwise. It's simply a matter of using
[32:10] the tools that are going to allow you to
[32:12] achieve the states you want to achieve
[32:14] and to improve your ability to go into
[32:16] those states without any help at all. I
[32:19] prefer to look at supplements of the
[32:21] sort that I just described as a route
[32:23] into a deeper trench of focus and
[32:25] concentration that I use as a tool to
[32:28] teach myself to focus and concentrate
[32:30] more deeply such that I don't need those
[32:32] tools every single time I try and focus
[32:34] and concentrate. I think this is an
[32:36] important point because I think that
[32:38] many people think of supplements as a
[32:40] crutch or a way of simply getting into a
[32:44] state for which no other tool will
[32:47] suffice or replace. But in that context
[32:50] I want to remind you of the larger
[32:51] context of pharmarmacology which is the
[32:53] vast landscape of prescription
[32:55] pharmarmacology for ADHD for attention
[32:57] deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now I
[33:00] covered that landscape in intense detail
[33:02] on the episode on ADHD and focus. And
[33:06] just to summarize, there is of course
[33:09] aderall, rolin, vivance, modafanyl, arm
[33:13] modafanyl, a number of different
[33:14] compounds, all of which generally
[33:17] increase dopamine transmission in the
[33:19] brain. So increasing dopamine and all of
[33:21] which generally increase epinephrine,
[33:23] adrenaline transmission in the brain and
[33:24] body. And many of those compounds have
[33:28] been of tremendous benefit to children
[33:30] and even some adults who suffer from
[33:32] ADHD. So properly prescribed at the
[33:35] appropriate dosage, those compounds can
[33:38] really help people with clinically
[33:40] diagnosed ADHD.
[33:42] The way they help those people is a bit
[33:45] surprising. However, you might think,
[33:46] well, they turn on the brain chemicals
[33:48] that allow those people to concentrate
[33:50] and focus. That's true. But they also
[33:53] have the benefit of teaching those brain
[33:56] circuits how to engage. And that's one
[33:59] of the reasons why somewhat
[34:01] paradoxically giving a stimulant like
[34:03] rolin or aderall to a kid that
[34:06] legitimately needs it. Obviously, you
[34:08] don't want to do this without the
[34:09] oversight and careful evaluation of a
[34:12] psychiatrist, but giving that to a kid
[34:15] who has severe ADHD, you would think
[34:18] would make them rem more rambunctious,
[34:20] less able to focus, and more
[34:21] distractable overall. After all, rolin,
[34:24] modafanyl, arm modafanyl, all these
[34:26] things are stimulants. So you take a kid
[34:28] who has attention deficit hyperactivity
[34:30] disorder and give them these drugs that
[34:33] increase transmission of dopamine and
[34:34] epinephrine. You'd think, "Wow, it's
[34:36] going to make them even more
[34:36] distractable and hyperactive." And
[34:38] indeed, it has the opposite effect. It
[34:40] doesn't necessarily make them feel calm,
[34:42] but it makes them feel that they can
[34:44] focus. They really can anchor their
[34:46] attention. And the idea is that it's
[34:48] teaching those neural circuits or those
[34:50] neural circuits rather are teaching
[34:51] themselves to engage and to focus and
[34:54] concentrate. And the ideal situation is
[34:56] one in which the total dosage of those
[34:58] compounds, those drugs can be reduced
[35:00] over time as those circuits learn to
[35:02] come online through purely behavioral
[35:04] tools. But I strongly discourage the use
[35:07] of powerful prescription drugs that have
[35:10] not been prescribed you. First of all,
[35:11] it's illegal. Second of all, it's quite
[35:13] dangerous to hit the accelerator of
[35:15] those neural circuits with such vigor
[35:18] because it can increase dependency and
[35:20] they can have a number of other side
[35:21] effects outside the context of
[35:22] clinically diagnosed and prescribed ADHD
[35:26] medication. I always believe that
[35:28] behavioral tools should come first, then
[35:30] focus on nutrition. In fact, I would say
[35:32] behavioral and nutrition tools and of
[35:34] course get excellent sleep. then focus
[35:38] on supplementation and then and only if
[35:42] those are failing to bring your brain
[35:44] and body to the state you need to be in
[35:46] to perform well in school and work in
[35:48] life etc do I recommend that people lean
[35:51] on prescription drugs so today we've
[35:54] talked about a number of different tools
[35:56] and to some extent some mechanisms
[35:57] involved in concentration and focus and
[36:00] really the goal has been to provide you
[36:02] an understanding of the neurochemical
[36:03] systems and a little bit about the
[36:05] neural circuits that can allow you to
[36:07] achieve states of attention and focus.
[36:10] My hope in giving you all this
[36:11] information in one single location is
[36:13] that you will be able to pick and choose
[36:16] which of these protocols you would like
[36:17] to incorporate into your attempts to
[36:20] improve your focus and concentration.
[36:21] Once again, the goal is to teach your
[36:24] brain that is to increase
[36:26] neuroplasticity in the neural circuits
[36:29] that allow you not just to focus but to
[36:31] refocus your attention. And I'd be
[36:33] remiss if I didn't mention that it's
[36:36] also critical to be able to defocus. I
[36:38] highly encourage people to take a period
[36:40] of time each day to daydream, to walk
[36:43] down the hall without looking at your
[36:45] phone, to not have to incorporate more
[36:47] sensory information, to not place
[36:50] increasing demands on yourself to focus
[36:51] and see and realize how having a period
[36:54] of deliberate decompression and
[36:56] defocusing can allow your brain to focus
[36:59] so much better. when you do decide to
[37:01] return to a bout of focus, concentrated
[37:04] work or physical work. So, thank you
[37:06] once again for joining me for today's
[37:08] discussion all about the mechanisms and
[37:10] especially the tools for enhancing
[37:12] concentration and focus. And last but
[37:14] certainly not least, thank you for your
[37:16] interest in science.
