The brain is a surprisingly hungry consumer of energy. During childhood, it can make up 60% or more of the body's energy usage. Adult brains generally use around 20-25%.
I have a friend who has ADD that I'll play Super Smash Bros. with. If I'm playing well, his competitive instinct kicks in and he'll start sweating heavily and has to turn on a fan. I keep telling him he needs to study the fundamentals of the game so he doesn't have to use so much energy processing our interactions. But he just doesn't get it, so the cognitive load of playing the game takes a lot out of him, while I can sit and play for hours and hours.
Whereas I'll break out into cold sweats trying to process social interactions.
Everybody optimizes their brains to store and process different kinds of information. When we run into situations that we haven't learned how to efficiently process, we use more energy. The body pumps blood into the brain, heating up the body, causing us to sweat.
A chess grandmaster pushes this system close to the limit.
I have a friend who has ADD that I'll play Super Smash Bros. with. If I'm playing well, his competitive instinct kicks in and he'll start sweating heavily and has to turn on a fan. I keep telling him he needs to study the fundamentals of the game so he doesn't have to use so much energy processing our interactions. But he just doesn't get it, so the cognitive load of playing the game takes a lot out of him, while I can sit and play for hours and hours.
Whereas I'll break out into cold sweats trying to process social interactions.
Everybody optimizes their brains to store and process different kinds of information. When we run into situations that we haven't learned how to efficiently process, we use more energy. The body pumps blood into the brain, heating up the body, causing us to sweat.
A chess grandmaster pushes this system close to the limit.
https://www.livescience.com/burn-calories-brain.html