your brain runs a 5k every day
let me explain:
On a walk a few days ago I found myself thinking about the power people need to live. A ballpark figure is about one hundred watts of power or, over the course of a day, 2.4 kilowatt-hrs of energy. A remarkable feature of people is that our brain requires a good deal of this - something like fifteen to twenty percent.
Thinking about at the energy requirements for a few physical activities it struck me that the amount of energy your brain uses in a day is roughly the same as an average person running a 5k.
I mentioned this to Charlie who asked the right question. What is the difference between concentrated and unconcentrated thought? Some time ago I came across some work that suggested there's little to no difference - at least within the accuracy of measurement. I checked with a neurology researcher who was aware of more current work. Serious amateur chess players playing against a computer program where the program was set to play a bit beyond their level represented hard thought. The same people not focusing was the baseline. There was a small difference - hard thinking would require a couple of regular (not peanut) M&Ms over an eight hour period. Mediation appears to be the same as normal thinking.
(Note: energy is power times time. Power is the rate of energy use.)
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