Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today. Let's dive into something and I think that all of us can relate to, or at least many of us. Is that intense creating for comfort foods, a glass or two of wine or a couple of beers after a hard day's work, or following a tough mental task, or even a trying interaction with some complete mappet Well, it turns out that it's not just in your head. There's actually science behind why this happens. So we've long believed that exerting cognitive effort, essentially intense thinking, leaves us more prone to unhealthy choices, and there's a heape of research to back that up. And it was often explained as a weakening of our will pawer or our self control, and that by using cognitive effort we basically use up those self control resources. However, recent research by a researcher called Marcello Salinas and colleagues that's just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds another fascinating layer to the story. They suggest that cognitive fatigue may actually increase our perception of rewards. In simple terms, when we're mentally exhausted, those treats actually feel more tempting in our brains or even tastier than they would otherwise. Now here's where it gets really interesting. They ran studies involving both rats and humans, and the research has discovered that cognitive efforts makes these rewards, like unhealthy foods or drugs in the case of rats, seem more desirable. So let's break it down a little bit. What they did in the rat study was they had a bunch of rats who had on limited access to cocaine, and some of them were given a cognitively demanding task, and then when they completed that task, they actually self administered more cocaine than those rats who didn't have to exert themselves mentally. But when the rats did the same cognitively demanding task and then they were given a rest period of a couple of hours, they actually self administered a lot less cocaine than when they did the task and then had the opportunity to have the cocaine straight away. So it suggests that actually taking time to recover from those real strong mental efforts actually then reduced the value of the reward. In the brain, and this suggests that mental exertion can actually prime the brain to seek out more intense rewards or to chase those rewards harder. And then they did some human studies, but they didn't actually give them unlimited access to cocaine, but they faced a different type of challenge. In one experiment, the participants were asked to suppress a specific thought, so a white burr, of all things, and they were saying, don't think about a white bird. Don't think about a white burr, while they were listing other thoughts, and that's an exercise that requires substantial mental effort. And afterwards they were given access to potato chips synsteatic cocaine, and these participants not only more chips, but actually rated those chips as tastier than the control group who hadn't been through the mental ringer. So this finding really does then back up the rat study and hints that cognitive fatigue not only increases our urge to snack, but also makes those snacks feel more satisfying, and that can be expanded out to other rewards. So it's not just that we use up our self control mechanisms, but there seems to be an independent and synergistic effect in the brain of actually placing more value or what we call emotional salience, on those rewards and rating them as better. So, the researchers did think about whether this effect could be simply due to an increased tendency to make extreme judgments after tough mental tasks, and they conducted a follow up test using both easy and difficult writing tasks. Interesting the study showed that while people rated chocolate more favorably after cognitive effort, their ratings for unrelated items such as the length of the pen or the brightness of a post it actually remained unchanged, and this then helped to strengthen their idea that the mental effort was really just amplifying the value of rewards and not all judgments across the board. That this effect has been seen in both rats and humans, it seems to be that it's cross species thing, and there may be an evolutionary reason to it. So why why is that so? One intriguing theory proposed by the researchers is that this might be not just a mere byproduct of evolution, but it could This tendency to desire stronger rewards after mental fatigue could have an adaptive purpose, So think about it. After a hard day of solving problems or strategizing for survival, early humans might have benefited from a stronger urge to consume calorie dense foods for replenishing their energy reserves. And that's that driver to actually restore the energy reserves so that they are able to do stuff the next day. And this mechanism could also explain why the animals exhibit similar behaviors. So the perception of a greater reward after effort might have once provided an evolutionary advantage in pushing us to refuel effectively when resources were actually available. However, in the modern world of and you know I've written about this in Death by Comfort. In this modern world of easy access to high calorie, low nutrient intensity foods, this ancient drive appears to be backfiring, leading us to unhealthy eating patterns, drinking, and drug taking, particularly when we've been stressed or been through a hard day's work. So it explains a lot of those real, strong desires that many of us have. Now, this research not only sheds light on our behavior after a demanding day, but it also offers new potential avenues for managing addiction and unhealthy habits. Understanding that our creating for rewards intensifies with mental fatigue could help us devise better strategies to avoid these temptations, and that can be things like having healthier alternatives on hand. We know, for instance, that you're much more likely to eat the first thing you see in your larder or your fridge, So putting those healthier snacks right up front and making it hard to actually access the unhealthy stuff by not having it in a house or not keeping alcohol in the house is one way that can help us to not self sabotage. But it's also thinking about strategies to just delay stuff as well. Because remember when the rats were given a period to recover, they didn't have as much cocaine, And I remember that just sparks into my mind and me and mine. Gary Davis who said that he had this six o'clock was wine o'clock, and it was just this automatic, like Pablovian response that went in his brain. So he actually decided that six o'clock to go and do a short workout and actually then found that it had a big impact on his drinking. So just trying to break that cycle. So there's probably a combination of things that we can do in that making those rewards harder to access, particularly when we've come home from a hard day's work, or not having them around you at work, not having them on your desk, but also things like just going out for a walk at lunchtime or whenever you come home, or doing a short workout, whether it's jumping in the sauna, reading a book, phoning a friend, just anything that's going to create a bit of a time wedge between you and the access to these unhealthy behaviors might be a useful strategy. So that's it for this week, folks. Hope you find that useful. Catch you next time.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today. Let's dive into something and I think that all of us can relate to, or at least many of us. Is that intense creating for comfort foods, a glass or two of wine or a couple of beers after a hard day's work, or following a tough mental task, or even a trying interaction with some complete mappet Well, it turns out that it's not just in your head. There's actually science behind why this happens. So we've long believed that exerting cognitive effort, essentially intense thinking, leaves us more prone to unhealthy choices, and there's a heape of research to back that up. And it was often explained as a weakening of our will pawer or our self control, and that by using cognitive effort we basically use up those self control resources. However, recent research by a researcher called Marcello Salinas and colleagues that's just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds another fascinating layer to the story. They suggest that cognitive fatigue may actually increase our perception of rewards. In simple terms, when we're mentally exhausted, those treats actually feel more tempting in our brains or even tastier than they would otherwise. Now here's where it gets really interesting. They ran studies involving both rats and humans, and the research has discovered that cognitive efforts makes these rewards, like unhealthy foods or drugs in the case of rats, seem more desirable. So let's break it down a little bit. What they did in the rat study was they had a bunch of rats who had on limited access to cocaine, and some of them were given a cognitively demanding task, and then when they completed that task, they actually self administered more cocaine than those rats who didn't have to exert themselves mentally. But when the rats did the same cognitively demanding task and then they were given a rest period of a couple of hours, they actually self administered a lot less cocaine than when they did the task and then had the opportunity to have the cocaine straight away. So it suggests that actually taking time to recover from those real strong mental efforts actually then reduced the value of the reward. In the brain, and this suggests that mental exertion can actually prime the brain to seek out more intense rewards or to chase those rewards harder. And then they did some human studies, but they didn't actually give them unlimited access to cocaine, but they faced a different type of challenge. In one experiment, the participants were asked to suppress a specific thought, so a white burr, of all things, and they were saying, don't think about a white bird. Don't think about a white burr, while they were listing other thoughts, and that's an exercise that requires substantial mental effort. And afterwards they were given access to potato chips synsteatic cocaine, and these participants not only more chips, but actually rated those chips as tastier than the control group who hadn't been through the mental ringer. So this finding really does then back up the rat study and hints that cognitive fatigue not only increases our urge to snack, but also makes those snacks feel more satisfying, and that can be expanded out to other rewards. So it's not just that we use up our self control mechanisms, but there seems to be an independent and synergistic effect in the brain of actually placing more value or what we call emotional salience, on those rewards and rating them as better. So, the researchers did think about whether this effect could be simply due to an increased tendency to make extreme judgments after tough mental tasks, and they conducted a follow up test using both easy and difficult writing tasks. Interesting the study showed that while people rated chocolate more favorably after cognitive effort, their ratings for unrelated items such as the length of the pen or the brightness of a post it actually remained unchanged, and this then helped to strengthen their idea that the mental effort was really just amplifying the value of rewards and not all judgments across the board. That this effect has been seen in both rats and humans, it seems to be that it's cross species thing, and there may be an evolutionary reason to it. So why why is that so? One intriguing theory proposed by the researchers is that this might be not just a mere byproduct of evolution, but it could This tendency to desire stronger rewards after mental fatigue could have an adaptive purpose, So think about it. After a hard day of solving problems or strategizing for survival, early humans might have benefited from a stronger urge to consume calorie dense foods for replenishing their energy reserves. And that's that driver to actually restore the energy reserves so that they are able to do stuff the next day. And this mechanism could also explain why the animals exhibit similar behaviors. So the perception of a greater reward after effort might have once provided an evolutionary advantage in pushing us to refuel effectively when resources were actually available. However, in the modern world of and you know I've written about this in Death by Comfort. In this modern world of easy access to high calorie, low nutrient intensity foods, this ancient drive appears to be backfiring, leading us to unhealthy eating patterns, drinking, and drug taking, particularly when we've been stressed or been through a hard day's work. So it explains a lot of those real, strong desires that many of us have. Now, this research not only sheds light on our behavior after a demanding day, but it also offers new potential avenues for managing addiction and unhealthy habits. Understanding that our creating for rewards intensifies with mental fatigue could help us devise better strategies to avoid these temptations, and that can be things like having healthier alternatives on hand. We know, for instance, that you're much more likely to eat the first thing you see in your larder or your fridge, So putting those healthier snacks right up front and making it hard to actually access the unhealthy stuff by not having it in a house or not keeping alcohol in the house is one way that can help us to not self sabotage. But it's also thinking about strategies to just delay stuff as well. Because remember when the rats were given a period to recover, they didn't have as much cocaine, And I remember that just sparks into my mind and me and mine. Gary Davis who said that he had this six o'clock was wine o'clock, and it was just this automatic, like Pablovian response that went in his brain. So he actually decided that six o'clock to go and do a short workout and actually then found that it had a big impact on his drinking. So just trying to break that cycle. So there's probably a combination of things that we can do in that making those rewards harder to access, particularly when we've come home from a hard day's work, or not having them around you at work, not having them on your desk, but also things like just going out for a walk at lunchtime or whenever you come home, or doing a short workout, whether it's jumping in the sauna, reading a book, phoning a friend, just anything that's going to create a bit of a time wedge between you and the access to these unhealthy behaviors might be a useful strategy. So that's it for this week, folks. Hope you find that useful. Catch you next time.