Brain Teasers, Puzzles, Riddles, Trivia and Games. Intuition. Ways to Improve Human Intelligence. Psychology. Lucid Dreaming. Can't relax? It's all in your mind: Research shows stopping a thought puts more strain on the brain. (PhysOrg.com) -- Turns out, relaxing is exhausting—which could by why so many people struggle to unplug from work during vacation. According to mathematicians at Case Western Reserve University, stopping a thought burns more energy than thinking-like stopping a truck on a downhill slope. "Maybe this explains why it is so tiring to relax and think about nothing," says Daniela Calvetti, professor of mathematics and one of the authors of a new brain study published in an advanced online publication of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism. Since opening up the brain for detailed monitoring isn't exactly practical, Calvetti teamed up with fellow mathematics professor Erkki Somersalo and Rossana Occhipinti, a postdoctoral researcher in physiology and biophysics, to create a computer model of brain metabolism.
Calvetti and Somersalo created a software package specifically designed to study the complex metabolic systems.