Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your Brain

Summary

Play is not merely a childhood activity — it is a biologically driven, homeostatically regulated behavior that actively rewires the brain for greater creativity, flexibility, and cognitive performance. Andrew Huberman explores the neuroscience of play, explaining how specific brain chemicals released during play expand the prefrontal cortex’s capacity to generate new possibilities. These mechanisms apply across the entire lifespan, making deliberate engagement in play one of the most powerful tools for ongoing neuroplasticity.

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Key Takeaways

• Play is homeostatically regulated — like sleep and hunger, the brain actively drives the need to play; if deprived of play, animals and children will “rebound” and play more when given the chance.
• The neurochemical state of play requires high endogenous opioids and low adrenaline (epinephrine) — this combination is what opens up flexible, creative thinking in the prefrontal cortex.
• Low stakes are essential — if the outcome feels too important, adrenaline rises, the play state collapses, and the brain becomes rigid rather than exploratory.
• Play is contingency testing — it trains the brain to run multiple “if A then B” scenarios, expanding the number of behavioral and cognitive options available in real-world situations.
• Animals with the longest play periods have the most plastic brains — lifelong playfulness correlates with ongoing neuroplasticity and cognitive adaptability.
• Smartphone reading suppresses physiological sighs, reducing oxygen intake and triggering hyperactivity in the prefrontal cortex — reading on paper or larger screens is better for comprehension and learning.
• Play postures are universal and hardwired — head tilts, soft eyes, and partial body postures signal playful intent across species, including humans.
• Tinkerers outperform rigid performers over time — NASA engineers, great artists, and innovators consistently show childhood and adult histories of open-ended, exploratory play.
• Your personal play identity is plastic — the role you naturally assume during play can be deliberately expanded, improving performance in work, relationships, and learning.
• Novel environments and new social play configurations (solo → one-on-one → group) drive neuroplasticity more effectively than repetitive, familiar activities.

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Detailed Notes

What Is Play, Biologically?

• Play is not just games — it is the brain’s primary mechanism for exploring contingencies in a low-stakes environment.
• Defined by researcher Jaak Panksepp (“The Rat Tickler”), play is recognized as a deeply ancient, homeostatically regulated drive.
• Panksepp discovered that animals laugh ultrasonically when tickled and engage in mutual tickling as a form of social play — including rats, kittens, and puppies.
• Play is regulated by the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a brainstem region rich in neurons that produce endogenous opioids (e.g., enkephalins).

The Neurochemistry of Play

• During play, the PAG releases small amounts of endogenous opioids, producing a mild sense of ease and safety.
• This opioid state allows the prefrontal cortex to expand its operational range — running more behavioral algorithms, exploring more possible outcomes.
• Crucially, low epinephrine (adrenaline) must accompany this state. High adrenaline (from stress or high stakes) actively suppresses the play circuitry.
• Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and other growth factors are released during play, physically rewiring neural circuits — this is the mechanism of neuroplasticity in action.

Play Across Development

• Infants: Entirely dependent on external caregivers to resolve internal discomfort; first contingency learned is “discomfort → external resolution.”
• Toddlers (Burton White’s “Toddler’s Creed”): Everything belongs to them — a healthy but self-centered worldview that play gradually dissolves.
• Early childhood: Social play begins; children learn sharing, cooperative roles, hierarchy, and rule-following through low-stakes interaction.
• Key developmental insight: Children deprived of adequate play during critical windows are more likely to develop ADHD. Play builds the neural circuits for sustained attention.
• Role play — taking on characters, leaders, followers, imaginary friends — forces the prefrontal cortex to model the world from multiple perspectives simultaneously.

Play Postures (Universal Signals)

• Dogs/wolves: “Play bow” — lowered head, paws forward, sustained eye contact.
• Humans: Head tilt + soft (wide) eyes is the universal human play invitation signal; often accompanied by raised eyebrows and a slight smile.
• Partial postures: During rough-and-tumble play, animals approach with fur down (not piloerected), body slightly smaller — signaling “this is play fighting, not real fighting.”
• Extreme play signal in primates: Eyes wide open + tongue out — an unmistakable “I’m here to play” expression.
• High-stakes competition (e.g., Super Bowl) eliminates these signals entirely; players show narrowed eyes, rigid posture, and aggressive stances.

How to Know You’re Playing Correctly

For play to genuinely engage neuroplasticity, two conditions must be met:

1. Modest endogenous opioid release — you feel somewhat relaxed and safe.
2. Low adrenaline — you are not stressed about the outcome.

If either condition is violated (stakes too high, outcome too important), the brain exits the play state and enters a performance/survival mode — still useful, but not neuroplastic in the same way.

Play vs. Drilling vs. Performance

Mode	Adrenaline	Opioids	Outcome
True play	Low	Moderate	Expands possibilities, builds plasticity
Drilling/rote learning	Moderate	Low	Good for memorization, limited creativity
High-stakes competition	High	Low	Peak performance, rigid execution

• Tinkering — the act of exploring without attachment to a specific outcome — sits squarely in the “true play” category and is the signature behavior of highly creative and innovative people.
• Examples: Rodney Mullen (skateboarding innovation through endless free exploration), Richard Feynman (lifelong playful tinkerer who credited his playful spirit with enabling his greatest scientific discoveries).

Smartphone Reading & Physiological Sighs

• Study: “Reading on a smartphone affects sigh generation, brain activity, and comprehension” — Honma et al., Scientific Reports.
• 34 healthy subjects; smartphone reading vs. printed paper.
• Finding: Smartphone reading suppresses physiological sighs — the automatic double-inhale/long-exhale that occurs every ~5 minutes, keeping alveoli open and balancing oxygen/CO₂.
• The narrow visual aperture of a phone screen appears to inhibit the parafacial nucleus (brainstem), which generates physiological sighs.
• Consequence: Reduced oxygenation, elevated CO₂, and hyperactivation of the prefrontal cortex in a compensatory but inefficient attempt to maintain focus.
• Protocol: If reading on a smartphone, deliberately perform a physiological sigh (double inhale through the nose + long exhale) every ~5 minutes. Better: read important material on paper or larger screens.

Protocols for Expanding Play in Adult Life

1. Engage in activities where you are not the top performer — the discomfort of low proficiency in a low-stakes context is precisely what activates prefrontal plasticity.
2. Expand your social play configuration: If you play alone → try one-on-one. If one-on-one → try group play.
3. Navigate new environments — novel routes, new places, unfamiliar settings force new contingency modeling.
4. Adopt a tinkerer’s mindset in your work or sport: explore “what if” scenarios without rigidly demanding a specific outcome.
5. Follow play with deep rest — neuroplasticity is a two-step process: focused engagement (play) followed by deep sleep or NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest).
6. Recognize your personal play identity — assess the roles you naturally take in play (leader, follower