Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: MarianaM on 15/10/2019 10:48:03

Title: Does doing puzzles or other activities increase the energy your brain consumes?
Post by: MarianaM on 15/10/2019 10:48:03

Torgeir asks...

Our brain consumes about 15 - 20% of our caloric intake. Does this increase if you work on hard puzzles and/or read? Or is it insignificant?

What do you think?

Title: Re: Does doing puzzles or other activities increase the energy your brain consumes?
Post by: alancalverd on 15/10/2019 15:56:30

Functional MRI detects areas of brain activity by measuring blood flow in response to a stimulus. So presumably when the brain is working hard on a problem, additional fuel and oxygen is being delivered to whatever bit is doing the thinking. However the demonstrated inability of politicians to think and chew gum at the same time suggests that other bits may shut down, particularly if you close your eyes whilst thinking, so the total power consumption may decrease.

We do know that anxiety increases blood flow to the scalp, probably to improve cooling, so the answer is a probable yes.

Title: Re: Does doing puzzles or other activities increase the energy your brain consumes?
Post by: holment on 17/12/2019 10:43:44

Haha! Brilliant example