In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, my guest is Dr. Eddie Chang, MD, a neurosurgeon and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). We discuss the neural circuits underlying speech and language, including how the brain controls the larynx, vocal folds and articulators to shape breath into words. We also explore his pioneering work on speech neural prosthetics — brain-machine interfaces that allow paralyzed patients to communicate by decoding neural activity into speech and avatar-driven facial expressions. Additionally, we examine the neurobiology of stuttering, the role of auditory feedback in fluent speech, and the broader ethical questions surrounding brain augmentation technologies.
Show notes: https://go.hubermanlab.com/b0qQsyP
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Dr. Eddie Chang
Lab: https://changlab.ucsf.edu
UCSF academic profile: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/edward.chang
UCSF clinical profile: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-edward-chang
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-chang-384746132
Timestamps
00:00:00 Speech & Language
00:00:23 Speech vs Language, Pragmatics, Semantics & Syntax
00:03:11 Larynx, Vocal Folds & Shaping the Breath
00:05:35 Crying & Laughter, Vocalizations vs Speech
00:06:37 Paralysis, Brainstem Stroke, ALS & Locked-In Syndrome
00:09:14 BRAVO Trial, Pancho & First Patient
00:11:07 Brain Surgery, Electrode Array & Decoding Speech
00:12:53 AI, 50-Word Vocabulary & Autocorrect
00:14:27 Neuralink, Brain-Machine Interfaces & Augmentation Ethics
00:19:23 Avatars, Facial Expressions & Non-Verbal Communication
00:22:50 Stuttering, Anxiety & Speech vs Language
00:26:02 Tool: Stuttering Therapy & Auditory Feedback
00:27:34 Recap & Acknowledgments
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