5 ms·
Information processing in the brain burns most of the energy we intake. Computation produces heat as a side product. Therefore you can warm yourself with your m
by hypertele-Xii 5y ago
Information processing in the brain burns most of the energy we intake. Computation produces heat as a side product. Therefore you can warm yourself with your mind, simply by thinking more.
- ajuc 5y agoIs it established that consciously thinking more uses more power? On a CPU with no frequency scaling nor power levels it doesn't matter if you do useful work or while(true) - it takes as much energy to do both.
- csee 5y agoIt is established. People tasked with doing a difficult mental task burn a lot more calories. But I don't think it's known if it's the thinking per se, or the stress associated with it.
- gambiting 5y agoWe know this affects race car drivers especially - the mental efford of driving the car at high speeds gets their heads to dangerous temperatures. But yes, you are correct - it could be "just" the stress too.
- anentropic 5y agohttps://www.science.org/content/article/scientist-busts-myths-about-how-humans-burn-calories-and-why https://www.science.org/content/article/scientist-busts-myth...
- ben_w 5y agoI remember reading (but can’t find references) that watching soap operas burns less calories than watching paint dry because your mind wanders more when you have nothing to engage it, and separately that high-end chess players burned a lot of calories despite sitting almost motionless during their games. The urban legend of “you only use 10% of your brain” isn’t true, but the thing it was based on was closer to the caveat “while relaxing”.
- neaden 5y agoThe chess thing was based on a misconception. Someone measured chess players heart rate and saw that it was increased, then compared that pulse rate to athletes training and basically said they must be burning as many calories since they had the same heart rate. This study gives a much more reasonable estimate of calorie expenditure: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23455094_The_stress_of_chess_players_as_a_model_to_study_the_effects_of_psychological_stimuli_on_physiological_responses_An_example_of_substrate_oxidation_and_heart_rate_variability_in_man https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23455094_The_stress...
- ben_w 5y agoNeat, thanks for the update :)
- can16358p 5y agoDon't know if directly related or something else but in cold I can think much more clearly, creative, and have "higher computational output". In heat my brain stops, I can't think clearly and all the ideas are "foggy". I always had this personal and funny analogy in my mind of CPU thermal throttling where brain works more slowly in heat to prevent generating more heat.
- 0_____0 5y ago20% is a baseline figure for proportion of calories that go to the brain. If only you could warm yourself by running 3DMark!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- alfiedotwtf 5y agois this actually true? i would have thought the Gluteus Maximus would burn the most by a factor compared to the brain?
- hypertele-Xii 5y agoApparently no, it's false, sorry. Looks like it's actually about 20%.
- csee 5y agoThis is speculation as to whether it explains the effects described in the article.