14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists at an American university believe they may have found the reason why some people tend to find it so difficult to get stuff off their minds when they want to relax.
The team that conducted the research believes that the human brain may need too much energy to do so, the equivalent to catching a truck rolling downhill on a steep slope a few times per minute.
As such, whenever people are on their vacations, some may find it incredibly difficult to disconnect and feel good. Their thoughts will rush over them at all times, and this cannot be prevented.
Scientists that were involved with the investigation say that the new conclusions may also account for why some people become obsessed with certain songs, and then can't get them out of their heads.
The study was conducted by a team of mathematicians at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). “Maybe this explains why it is so tiring to relax and think about nothing,” explains Daniela Calvetti.
She is a CWRU mathematics professor, and also one of the authors of a new paper detailing the findings. The work appears in the latest advanced online issue of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism.
Given the complexity of bran studies, the CWRU team decided to investigate what goes on in the brain through the use of statistics, equations and computer models.
The researchers developed a new way of understanding brain metabolism, which showed them the patterns in which the human brain consumes energy.
Surprisingly, the team learned that inhibiting the passing of information, what is commonly known as a though, between two neurons is done using the neurotransmitter gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA).
The chemical is produced by inhibitory neurons, whose role is to temper excitatory nerve cells. GABA is capable of inhibiting the action of glutamate, another neurotransmitter, that is produced by excitatory neurons,.
“The astrocytes, which are the Cinderellas of the brain, consume large amounts of oxygen mopping up and recycling the GABA and the glutamate, which is a neurotoxin,” says CWRU professor of mathematics Erkki Somersalo, who was also a part of the work.
The new finding is very interesting, because it may suggest new avenues of development for the drug industry. A number of conditions could be addressed using this finding, experts believe.
Neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's may become a prime target for any potential new drugs, the team behind the new work concludes.