Brain Optimization & More, Tim Ferriss hosts Dr. Adam Gazzaley
tim ferriss adam gazzaley brain optimization
The Tim Ferris Show episode #507: Dr. Adam Gazzaley, UCSF — Brain Optimization and the Future of Psychedelic Medicine.
Adam Gazzaley is a neuroscientist, neurologist, inventor, author, photographer, entrepreneur and investor.
He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape, and the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Adam is co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, JAZZ Venture Partners, and Sensync. He is a member of the Board of Trustees and Science Council of the California Academy of Sciences. Adam has authored over 150 scientific articles and delivered over 700 talks.
What to Wait for?
On this podcast, Tim and Dr. Adam Gazzaley discuss new tools and research that could lead to brain optimization. Moreover, they are caught with psychedelic medicine and its future.
"I realized that these (psychedelics) were experiential treatments and experiential medicines in much a similar way to what I was doing with video games, that it is the molecule that initiates a series of events in your brain that leads to an experience. And that experience leads to an outcome. And that outcome could be good, or it could be bad, but it doesn’t just depend on the drug. It depends on the intersection of that and you, and the context around you, and the experience itself. That was an epiphany for me." -Dr. Adam Gazzaley on The Tim Ferriss Show.
Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Overcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The Tim Ferriss Show is the one podcast you need to be inspired and learn about anything. It is one of the most successful podcasts in the world and my favourite.
Timothy Ferriss is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. You most probably recognize him through the well-known self-help book 4-Hour Work Week which put him in our lives. He didn’t stop there though, he wrote another four books, he hosted tv shows, he was one of the early investors of Facebook, and, of course, he hosts one of the most downloaded podcasts.
On the Tim Ferriss Show, you will find a very broad spectrum of topics. Self-help, neuroscience, trauma healing, crypto, AI, psychedelics research, business development, and the list goes on and on. And the line-up? You can’t imagine, Mark Zuckerberg, Hugh Jackman, Debbie Millman, Chris Bosh, Aisha Tyler Terry Crews, Neuk Gaiman, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Maria Popova, and Tony Robbins just to name a few.
What I love about this podcast, apart from the deep of knowledge it provides, is the way Tim’s interviewing. He always asks those questions that will make you say “WOW! What a great question”.
So, what are you waiting for? Just dive into this great audio library and pick up a topic you like, or a guest you would like to learn more about.
Need more podcast recommendations? Here.
Straight from The Tim Ferris Show’s post
Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD (@adamgazz), is the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and the founder and executive director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center engaged in technology development and scientific research of novel brain assessments and optimization tools. Adam is co-founder and chief science advisor of Akili Interactive, Sensync, and JAZZ Venture Partners. He has been a scientific adviser for more than a dozen technology companies, including Apple, GE, Nielsen, and Deloitte. Adam has filed multiple patents—notably his invention of the first video game cleared by the FDA—authored more than 150 scientific articles, and delivered over 675 invited presentations around the world. He wrote and hosted the nationally televised PBS special The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley and co-authored The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World, winner of the 2017 PROSE Award. Adam has received many awards and honors, including the 2015 Society for Neuroscience Science Educator Award and the 2020 Global Gaming Citizen honor.
tim ferriss adam gazzaley brain optimization
Show Notes [time point on podcast]
- How NeuroRacer, the game Adam helped develop, helps older adults regain the cognitive function they had in their 20s, and why its featured spot as the cover story of Nature made Adam feel like he’d won a Grammy. [06:46]
- What has motivated Adam to pursue groundbreaking scientific discoveries and developments? [14:50]
- Improving upon the work that went into NeuroRacer and building the first video game therapeutic to be approved by the FDA: EndeavorRX. [18:13]
- Why does the mechanism behind this game prove effective in improving attention abilities in children with a wide variety of conditions including autism, depression, ADHD, and multiple sclerosis? [25:38]
- How does UCSF compare to its peers in the ecosystem of research within the United States? What is its focus? [29:22]
- Is risk-taking a critical ingredient for the enthusiasm required for scientific breakthroughs? How has Adam’s work evolved through these breakthroughs over the past decade we’ve known each other? [32:41]
- An important announcement about Neuroscape’s brand new division and its incoming, world-class director, and how and why it all came about so quickly — especially during a year of global pandemic. [39:08]
- How will Adam and Robin’s work fill in a gap that’s been thus far lacking in this type of research, and what is Adam most looking forward to exploring in this field with Neuroscape’s sophisticated resources of experience and technology at their disposal? How will their approach differ from methods that have been used in this area since the ’60s? [50:58]
- Just as the EndeavorRx game adapts to specific users for effectively treating a variety of conditions, does Adam foresee a way for psychedelic therapies to be customized for their patients to address seemingly disparate conditions? [1:07:02]
- How do we reduce the chances of a patient who is undergoing psychedelic therapy enduring a destabilizing amount of stress that causes more harm than it cures? Here’s where shamans and Adam’s closed-loop systems might mutually benefit from a knowledge exchange. [1:17:54]
- There’s not really one psychedelic community, but a number of tribal factions at odds with one another along the spectrum between science and superstition. In such a friction-heavy environment, why does Adam think his work has been viewed in such a positive light? [1:22:34]
- A request for the audience from Adam, information about how interested listeners might get involved with or support his research, and parting thoughts. [1:27:30]
*From The Tim Ferriss Show’s website – Take me there!
