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    Brain fatigue
    By Robert H Olley | October 18th 2011 04:57 AM | 2 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
    About Robert H

    Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

    I would describe myself

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    Recently, I read an article in the New York Times entitled

    Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?


    which presents neurological work showing contrary effects in people trying to exercise will power:
    more activity in the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center, and a corresponding decrease in the amygdala, which ordinarily helps control impulses.
    Glucose levels in the different parts of the brain are implicated here.  This is particularly bad for dieters, because
    1. In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower.

    2. In order to have willpower, a dieter needs to eat.
    However, I’m concerned with things that wear my brain out.  Two of these are:

    (1) Trying to tidy things up;

    (2) Trying to follow mathematical logic.  Geometrical proofs where I can ‘see’ the result are much more convincing to me than straight logical ones like that usually put forward to prove the irrationality of the square root of two.

    What’s your ‘favourite’ area of brain fatigue?

    Comments

    Becky Jungbauer
    I need to have something planned out for dinner the night before. Coming home after work and staring into the fridge with no plan for dinner wears my brain out - and at that point I'd probably opt for a hot fudge brownie sundae over something healthy like vegetables.
    UvaE
    Major source of brain fatigue for me: deciding whether to (1) actually attend a staff , department ,or school board meeting or (2) use the cardboard cutout of myself and place it behind a table in the back of the room.