Our ‘Selfish Brains’ Prioritises Its Own Energy Needs When Competing With Muscle Power

From an evolutionary standpoint, our brains are ‘metabolically’ the most expensive organ in our body. They use the most amount of energy to keep its sophisticated architecture running. 

A recent study found that an immediate trade-off occurs inside us when we have to think fast and work hard at the same time i.e. our 'selfish brain' is always prioritised over the rest of our body.

According to the researchers, the findings suggest 'preferential allocation of glucose to the brain,' which they argue is likely to be an evolved trait—as prioritising quick thinking over fast-moving, for example, may have helped our species survive and thrive.

The researchers revealed the results of their new study add evidence to the 'selfish brain' hypothesis: that the brain has evolved to prioritize its own energy needs over those of peripheral organs, such as skeletal muscle.

Lead author,  from the  team said, "A well-fuelled brain may have offered us better survival odds than well-fuelled muscles when facing an environmental challenge."


"The development of an enlarged and elaborated brain is considered a defining characteristic of human evolution, but one that has come as a result of trade-offs," author continued. "At the evolutionary level, our brains have arguably cost us decreased investment in muscle as well as a shrunken digestive system.

He also said that human babies also have more stored fat than other mammals, acting as an energy buffer that feeds our high cerebral requirements.

"On an acute level, we have now demonstrated that when humans simultaneously experience extremes of physical and mental exertion, our internal trade-off preserves cognitive function as the body's priority," said Dr Longman.

The research group conducted a test on 62 male students drawn from the university's elite rowing crews, with an average age of 21.

The rowers were made to perform two different tasks—one memory, a three-minute word recall test, and one physical, a three-minute power test on a rowing machine.

They then performed both tasks at once, with individual scores compared to those from previous tests. As expected, the challenge of rowing and remembering at the same time reduced both physical and mental performance.

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