Essentials: The Science of Learning & Speaking Languages | Dr. Eddie Chang

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 30.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman 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) Sponsor: Function (00:08:52) Paralysis, Brainstem Stroke, ALS & Locked-In Syndrome (00:10:52) BRAVO Trial, Pancho & First Patient (00:12:31) Brain Surgery, Electrode Array & Decoding Speech (00:14:34) AI, 50-Word Vocabulary & Autocorrect (00:16:06) Sponsor: BetterHelp (00:17:30) Neuralink, Brain-Machine Interfaces & Augmentation Ethics (00:22:21) Avatars, Facial Expressions & Non-Verbal Communication (00:25:48) Sponsor: AG1 (00:27:12) Stuttering, Anxiety & Speech vs Language (00:30:18) Tool: Stuttering Therapy & Auditory Feedback (00:31:50) Recap & Acknowledgments Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable
0:05.8	science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman,
0:12.7	and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. And now for my
0:18.6	discussion with Dr. Eddie Chang. Eddie, welcome. Hi, hi, Andrew.
0:22.9	Great to be here with you. Your main focus these days is the neurobiology of speech and language.
0:29.7	So for those that aren't familiar, could you please distinguish for us speech versus language
0:34.5	in terms of whether or not different brain areas control them.
0:37.8	When I think about language, I think about words and just talking.
0:40.8	If I sit down to do a long podcast or I think about asking you a question,
0:43.7	I don't even think about the words I want to say very much.
0:47.2	I mean, I have to think about them a little bit, one would hope.
0:49.6	But I don't think about individual syllables unless I'm trying to, you know,
0:53.8	accent something
0:55.5	or it's a word that I have a particular difficulty saying
0:59.6	where I wanna change the cadence, et cetera.
1:01.8	So what in the world is contained in these brain areas?
1:04.8	What is represented to me is perhaps one of the most interesting questions
1:10.0	and I know this lands square in your wheelhouse.
1:12.4	Sure.
1:13.2	Let's get into this, Andrew, because this is one of the most exciting stuff that's happening right now is understanding how the brain processes these exact questions.
1:23.4	And speech corresponds to the communication signal.
1:32.3	It corresponds to me moving my mouth and my vocal track to generate words. And you're hearing these as an auditory signal.
	...

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