New evidence has been revealed that explains why intensive thought leads people to feel mentally weary rather than sleepy.
Their findings, published in Current Biology, reveal that when hard cognitive labour is performed for several hours, potentially hazardous wastes accumulate in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. As cognitive weariness sets in, this modifies your influence over decisions, causing you to gravitate toward low-cost activities that require little effort or waiting, according to the study.
According to Mathias Pessiglione of Pitie-Salpetriere University in Paris, France, “influential ideas indicated that exhaustion is a type of illusion built up by the brain to make us quit whatever we are doing and switch to a more rewarding pastime.” “However, our findings reveal that cognitive work causes a genuine functional alteration—the buildup of noxious substances—so weariness would be a signal that causes us to cease working, but for a different reason: to protect the integrity of brain functioning.”
Pessiglione and colleagues, including the study’s lead author, Antonius Wiehler, sought to learn more about mental tiredness. Machines can calculate indefinitely, but the brain cannot. They were curious as to why.
They assumed it was due to the requirement to recycle potentially harmful compounds produced by brain activity.
They employed magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to monitor brain chemistry over the course of a workday to seek for signs of this. They studied two groups of people: those who had to think hard and those who had relatively simple cognitive tasks.
How Thinking is linked wit Tiredness
Only in the group undertaking heavy labour did they see indicators of weariness, such as decreased pupil dilation. Those in that group also exhibited a change in their preferences toward alternatives that promised benefits in a short period of time with minimal effort. They also had larger quantities of glutamate in prefrontal cortex synapses, which was critical.
Together with previous research, the authors claim that glutamate buildup makes future activation of the prefrontal cortex more expensive, making cognitive control more difficult after a cognitively demanding workday.
Is there a way to overcome our brain’s limited ability to think critically?
“I’m afraid not,” Pessiglione said. “I’d stick to tried-and-true methods like rest and sleep! There is substantial evidence that glutamate is excreted from synapses during sleep.”
Other practical implications may exist. Monitoring prefrontal metabolites, for example, might aid in the detection of severe mental exhaustion, according to the researchers. Such a skill may aid in adjusting work schedules to minimise burnout. He also suggests that individuals avoid making major judgments while they are weary.
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They intend to understand more about why the prefrontal brain appears to be more vulnerable to glutamate buildup and tiredness in future investigations. They’re also keen to see if the same tiredness signals in the brain might predict recovery from illnesses like depression or cancer.
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