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The brain is more important than the muscles

29.10.2017

The lion's share of the energy that animals get from food is taken by the brain - in most vertebrates, it takes from 2% to 8% of the total energy produced in metabolism, and this is a lot. In primates, on the other hand, there is even more of a piece of the energy pie intended for the brain: for example, in humans, metabolic costs for the brain are 20-25%.

And not only does the brain eat up a lot of energy, it also has the exclusive right to access energy resources, speaking in administrative language. This means that in a difficult situation, when you need to think quickly and do something at the same time, the energy flow will first of all go to the brain, and only then to the muscles. Researchers from the University of Cambridge set up an experiment with rowing students: they had to perform a memory exercise in which they had to remember as many as possible of the 75 words that they were given to read before that in three minutes, and a three-minute strength exercise on a special simulator. First, both exercises were performed separately, then both at once.

As expected, when a person simultaneously worked out on the simulator and tried to strain the mind, he did both worse than when he did both separately. However, if the results on the cognitive task were worse by 9,7%, then the results of strength exercises were worse by 12,6%. In other words, with a simultaneous load on the brain and muscles, the brain worked better than the muscles. From this, the authors of the work conclude that even in such difficult situations, when a person needs to literally strain his most diverse abilities, the brain receives more energy.

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