video series – Scientists Talk Funny

At the beginning of the year, Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, PhD, pledged to post on Instagram one-minute educational videos about neuroscience for an entire year. Since a third of his regular followers come from Spanish-speaking countries, he posts them in both English and Spanish. We spoke soon after he launched the project. And now that half the year is over, I checked in with him about his New Year’s resolution.

How is your Instagram project going?

“It’s going great. I haven’t kept up with the frequency of posts that I initially set out to do, but it’s been relatively steady. The account has grown to about 13,500 followers and there is a lot of engagement. They ask great questions and the vast majority of comments indicate to me that people understand and appreciate the content. I’m really grateful for my followers. Everyone’s time is valuable and the fact that they comment and seem to enjoy the content is gratifying.”

What have you learned?

“The feedback informed me that 60 seconds of information is a lot for some people, especially if the topic requires new terms. That was surprising. So I have opted to do shorter 45-second videos and those get double or more views and reposts. I also have started posting images and videos of brains and such with ‘voice over’ content. It’s more work to produce, but people seem to like that more than the ‘professor talking’ videos.

I still get the ‘you need to blink more!’ comments, but fortunately that has tapered off. My Spanish is also getting better but I’m still not fluent. Neural plasticity takes time but I’ll get there.”

What is your favorite video so far?

“People naturally like the videos that provide something actionable for their health and well-being. The brief series on light and circadian rhythms was especially popular, as well as the one on how looking at the blue light from your cell phone in the middle of the night can potentially alter sleep and mood. I particularly enjoyed making that post since it combined vision science and mental health, which is one of my lab’s main focuses.”

What are you planning for the rest of the year?

“I’m kicking off some longer content through the Instagram TV format, which will allow people who want more in-depth information to get that. I’m also helping The Society for Neuroscience get their message out about their annual meeting. Other than that, I’m just going to keep grinding away at delivering what I think is interesting neuroscience to people that would otherwise not hear about it.”

Is it fun or an obligation at this point?

“There are days where other things take priority of course — research, teaching and caring for my bulldog Costello — but I have to do it anyway since I promised I’d post. However, it’s always fun once I get started. If only I could get Costello to fill in for me when I get busy…”

This is a reposting of my Scope story, courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine.

Many people make New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or eat healthier. Not Stanford neurobiology professor Andrew Huberman, PhD. This year he set out to educate the public about exciting discoveries in neuroscience using Instagram.

Huberman’s sights are high: he pledged to post on Instagram one-minute educational videos about neuroscience an average of five times per week for an entire year. I recently spoke with him to see how he’s doing on his resolution.

Why did you start the Instagram video series?

“Although I’m running a lab where we’re focused on making discoveries, I’ve also been communicating science to the general public for a while. I’ve found that there’s just immense interest in the brain — about diseases, what’s going on in neuroscience now, and how these discoveries might impact the audience. The brain is just so amazing, so the interest makes sense to me.

I don’t spend much time on social media, but Instagram seemed like an interesting venue for science communication because it’s mostly visual. My lab already had an Instagram account that we successfully used to recruit human subjects for our studies. So at the end of last year, I was talking with a friend about public service. I told him I was thinking about creating short, daily educational videos about neuroscience — a free, open resource that anyone can view and learn from. He and some other friends said they’d totally watch that. So I committed to it in a video post to 5000 people, and then there was no backing down.”

What topics do you cover?

“I cover a lot of topics. But I feel there are two neuroscience topics that will potentially impact the general public in many positive ways if they can understand the underlying biology: neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to change— and stress regulation. My primary interest is in vision science, so I like to highlight how the visual system interacts with other systems.

I discuss the literature, dispel myths, touch on some of the interesting mysteries and describe some of the emerging tools and technologies. I talk a bit about my work but mostly about work from other labs. And I’m always careful not to promote any specific tools or practices.”

How popular are your videos?

“We have grown to about 8,000 followers in the last six weeks and it’s getting more viewers worldwide. According to the stats from Instagram, about a third of my regular listeners are in Spanish-speaking countries. Some of these Spanish-speaking followers started requesting that I make the videos in Spanish so they could share them. Last week I started posting the videos in both English and Spanish and there’s been a great response. My Spanish is weak but it’s getting better, so I’m also out to prove neural plasticity is possible in adulthood. By the end of the year I plan to be fluent in Spanish.

I’ve also had requests to do it in French, German, Chinese and Dutch but I’m not planning to expand to additional languages yet. I think my pronunciation of those languages would be so bad that it would be painful for everybody.

Currently, my most popular video series is about the effects of light on wakefulness and sleep — such as how exposure to blue light from looking at your phone in the middle of the night might trigger a depression-like circuit. But my most popular videos include Julian, a high school kid that I mentor. People have started commenting #teamjulianscience, which is pretty amusing.”

What have you learned?

“It’s turned out to be a lot harder to explain things in 60 seconds than I initially thought. I have to really distill down ideas to their core elements. Many professors are notorious for going on and on about what they do, saying it in language that nobody can understand. My goal is to not be THAT professor.

I’ve also learned that I don’t blink. Sixty seconds goes by fast so I just dive in and rattle it off. After a couple of weeks, people started posting “you never blink!” — so now I insert blinks to get them to stop saying that.

I’ve also found the viewer comments and questions to be really interesting. They cue to me what the general public is confused about. But I’ve also found that many people have a really nuanced and deep curiosity about brain science. It’s been a real pleasure to see that.”

This is a reposting of my Scope blog story, courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine.