A new study has shown how prolonged intense thinking can cause mental exhaustion.
While the effects of physical labour on one’s body are well known, scientists are still deciphering the toll mental labour has on us. A newPublished in the journal Current Biology on Thursday, new research by the France-based Pitié-Salpêtrière University has found that “intense cognitive work” over several hours can lead to “potentially toxic byproducts” to develop in the brain’s prefrontal cortex .
“Influential theories suggested that fatigue is a sort of illusion cooked up by the brain to make us stop whatever we are doing and turn to a more gratifying activity,” said Mathias Pessiglione, one of the study’s co-authors, in a release. The researchers tracked the chemistry of the brain over the course of a workday using magnetic resonance spectroscopy . They studied two groups of people: those who had challenging cognitive tasks to complete and those who had relatively simple cognitive tasks.
Additionally, those in that group showed a change in their preferences toward alternatives that promised benefits with minimal work and a short wait time.
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