Can Your Brain Fight Fatigue?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/going-all-out/?ref=magazine

by robg • 17 years ago

30 10 17 years ago

well.blogs.nytimes.com

dryicerx• 17 years ago

So the brain is, in a way, executing before the data is available (energy in this case). Oh Brain, your level of optimization never fails to amaze me

I am curious to try this on a group of coders/students. Have 6 groups (Water, Without Sugar Coffee/Decaf) where half drink it, the other just swish) and see how they perform. Can also do this with Water and Sugar water. This can possibly check if the brain control's thinking fatigue the same way it controls muscle fatigue (as the article talks about).

Starts swishing out my coffee. Unfortunately I think the placebo/nocebo effect on my self will screw up my personal results

jrockway• 17 years ago

I think the key point here is that the cyclists have all consumed sugary sports drinks before. Their brain built up the association between taste and the future availability of energy. I know I feel the effects of morning coffee before my body has had the chance to actually be affected by the caffeine. (I haven't tried this with decaf.)

I have also noticed the effects of (mental) training mentioned in the article. Once you do something, it becomes easy.

A few weeks ago, I got a single-speed bike, and replaced my usual ride on a geared bike with that. Since there is no way to "be lazy" except to go really slow, I was pushed to work harder than I normally do. Going back to the geared bike, my average speed over my usual daily ride increased by like 2 miles an hour, and has stayed there. It's all in your head. (I don't really make an effort to train heavily, I ride my bike because it's a nice way to kill and an hour and not die at the age of 30 from a heart attack. I still seem to pass everyone else on the road, though.)

joeyo2• 17 years ago

I think that's dead on. And that effect is not be too surprising if you consider some more examples: the smell of cooking bacon can get your stomach growling and your saliva flowing. Indeed, as Pavlov famously showed, even a ringing bell can get you salivating after the association is established.

joeyo2• 17 years ago

  > Starts swishing out my coffee. Unfortunately I think the 
  > placebo/nocebo effect on my self will screw up my personal
  > results

Perhaps this effect can actually partially explain the placebo effect--the brain has learned to feel better after taking pills and so is putatively up- or down-regulating certain hormones in expectation of this.

jerf• 17 years ago

Well, before getting too excited you may want to consider that what worked in one experiment may be a bad thing in the aggregate. Even if you could repeatedly and reliably fool your brain into thinking you drank something with calories in it, the subsequent draw on your body that did not actually get the calories could actually end up being a bad thing. You could end up with the crash-to-end-all-crashes.

(Whether or not you could sustain that illusion depends on how deep in the brain it is. If it's a learned response that comes from years of exercise, you might unlearn it very quickly. If it's actually a previously-unidentified instinct, you might actually be able to do it for a long time before the hindbrain got wise. This is speculation, of course.)

ars2• 17 years ago

I noticed after fasting for a day that I got my energy back as soon as I ate something - even before there was any possible way it was digested.

At that point I decided/realized energy is all in my head, and fasts don't bother me anymore.

It's also true when doing things like moving, or fixing a car: I'm usually very out of shape, and can't even run a city block. But if I need the energy, it's there.

lneves• 17 years ago

So the brain is, in a way, executing before the data is available (energy in this case).

You can absorb drugs on your mouth: http://silversol.110mb.com/use/sublin.htm

I would think that carbs are also readily absorbed in some quantity without the need of ingesting them.

vinutheraj• 17 years ago

Glucose, galactose and fructose are absorbed in the small intestine, although a small amount of glucose is absorbed through the mouth.

http://www.nutritionnook.com/carbohydrates.php

http://www.northland.cc.mn.us/biology/bluetick/nutrition/lec...

burke• 17 years ago

Don't forget that caffeine is absorbed most efficiently sublingually :)

ars2• 17 years ago

See also this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=311815 related to how the brain senses temperature to decide when to get tired.

Can Your Brain Fight Fatigue?

Related Stories