Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your Brain

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Play is regulated like hunger

  Jaak Panksepp, known as the 'rat tickler', found that rats, puppies, kittens and other animals laugh at ultrasonic frequencies when tickled. He also showed that animals and children deprived of play play more once allowed, just as a hungry animal eats more. To Huberman, this places play deep in ancient brain circuitry rather than treating it as a recent, optional higher function.

• 02

  Play runs on brainstem opioids that make the prefrontal cortex more flexible

  The periaqueductal gray (PAG) releases small amounts of the body's own opioids, such as enkephalins, during play. Far from dulling the prefrontal cortex, Huberman says, this state lets it take on different roles and test more 'if I do this, then that happens' contingencies. These internally made opioids are distinct from the drugs behind the opioid crisis.

• 03

  The key chemistry is high opioids plus low adrenaline, which requires low stakes

  Play opens neuroplasticity only when the stakes are low enough that epinephrine stays down. Once you care too much about the outcome, stress chemistry takes over and the exploratory mode closes. Huberman calls play 'the portal to plasticity' at every age.

• 04

  Our first rule is that relief comes from outside us

  A baby in discomfort cries and someone outside resolves it with milk, water or being let out of the stroller. Huberman notes many adults never outgrow looking outside themselves to manage stress, sometimes reaching for alcohol. Through childhood play, we gradually test other contingencies and learn to regulate our own states.

• 05

  Playful animals signal with 'partial postures'

  Animals heading into rough-and-tumble play approach slowly with their fur down rather than raised. People about to play-fight similarly make themselves smaller, unless the context is truly competitive, like boxing or football. These signals tell the other side it's play, not a threat.

• 06

  Role play trains prediction

  Games that assign leader and follower, dominant and submissive, or solo and group roles force the prefrontal cortex to run more prediction algorithms from new standpoints. Huberman cites his sister's doll-house games and imaginary friend as ordinary examples.

• 07

  Development is largely pruning, and play guides it

  Roughly 40% of the connections present early in life are removed by age 25. Glial cells physically separate and even eat unused synapses (work from Beth Stevens' lab at Harvard). Play strengthens some connections and prunes others. Huberman notes 'fire together, wire together' is often credited to Donald Hebb but was coined by Carla Shatz.

• 08

  Trauma suppresses play circuits, and play can help reopen them

  Chronic stress means chronic epinephrine, which shuts down play circuitry. Huberman says this is why children with heavy trauma show limited plasticity later. Some prominent treatments for severe, long-lasting trauma now use dance and unfamiliar body movement, and he doubts any pill will simply erase trauma.

• 09

  Novelty matters more than mastery

  An expert chess player gains less play-related plasticity from chess than from something new, such as soccer. Getting better at what you already know improves only that skill. Novel activities expand how adaptable you are in relationships, finances and life generally.