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NancyLebovitz comments on Thermodynamics of Intelligence and Cognitive Enhancement - Less Wrong Discussion
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Brains use less energy when they're doing familiar skills than when they're learning. Perhaps there's some energy to be freed up if learning can be made more efficient.
How do you know? As far as I know the textbooks say that brain energy use is relatively constant regardles of the mental acitivity in which one engages.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130804144503.htm
I suppose that with the many scandals about scientific research, I can't say that I know it's correct, but let's just say it's both plausible and I've heard it more than once from sources which might be reliable.
The article doesn't talk about whole brain activity but about the activity of a particular part of the brain. It's not clear that the whole brain uses less energy.
Fair point. This should be checked. On the other hand, does it seem likely that if the brain uses less energy in one part because it's doing a familiar task, the rest of the brain will use more energy to compensate?
It could be simply that when the brain does a familiar task other brain regions are activated then when it's not doing a familiar task.
Given what I learned in university physiology lectures the body also regulates to try to keep the amount of energy used by the brain constant. The brain is complex.