ITT. Head pain after studying

It's not really the answer to your question, but in general: Studying/thinking/concentrating is fairly labour intensive and concentration/motivation is a limited resource. You also might have forgotten to drink enough water, you might just be in need of a snack.

You're not harming yourself, no.

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>>8568684

>You're not harming yourself

This is whats unclear to me. Because I am pretty sure I once read something about how (and what I will say its all fuzzy because I barely remember it) whenever one studies there's this acid and that apparently ''damages'' the neuronal connections.

Now I remember the people on said thread related this last problem with lack of exercise. But this also kept me wondering about the effects of ''using'' the brain and learning new stuff.

For some reason I am really fixated with the idea that, at some degree, such effort or product doesn't come without exchanging anything, hence the brain would have to give something in order to achieve it. Thats why I asked if we ''died'' a little whenever we studied.

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PLS

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RESPOND

>>8568808
>>>/g/

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>>8568811

But anon! I need answers!

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PLEASE RESPOND

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>>8568699
>acid

I'm not sure what the fuck you're on about. Fundamentally, in order for your brain to function you need nutrients to convert to energy so you can make neurotransmitters and receptor proteins and shit so you can make more synaptic connections and strengthen them, so you can learn. What do you imagine studying to be like?

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>>8568699
So basically you exchange learning stuff for a percentage of lifetime? It diesn't work that way, I guess. The human body is a thermal machine, it exchanges chemical energy extracted from food and stored in the form of adenosine triphosphate in order to release action potentials in the neurons. Once you perform neural activity, you spend an amount of energy. Energy stored = neural activity + lost energy in form of heat. That's the equation, it's the second law of thermodynamics.

>>8570200

>acid

It was something related to the effects studying / submitting the brain to long periods of studying and also not doing any exercise at all and how said effects were actually harmful in some way to the neuronal connections.

Wish I had the exact article from which I read it from.

>>8570294

I see, well it makes sense. Reading more into it I would say my doubts are cleared.

Thanks

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>>8568674
In general the brain is constantly destroying unused neurons and connections but by repeatedly doing a task, this stimulates those neurons responsible for that task making them less likely to be destroyed by this process. The connection itself can then be strengthen by other surrounding neurons attaching to those neurons. The exact biochemistry behind this is a bit lengthy but not that complex really.

However, what I think you're trying to suggest is that by studying you are causing the brain to destroy more of itself which is not the case. Also in general, rigorous mental tasks will not cause enough damage to permanently disable the brain whatsoever.

Also, the pruning of neurons does not mean you are gradually becoming dumber only that you will have less brain plasticity. Intelligence itself arises from many physiological factors and while the amount of brain matter is one factor, other factors like the amount of glial cells could be even more important.

The head pain you are experiencing is likely either tension type headaches being caused by either a certain trigger you are performing while studying (gritting your teeth, tensing your head or neck, certain body positions) or the mental strain itself is a trigger for your headaches. For this you will need to adjust those habits or seek medical help from a neurologist.

Another likely culprit is eyestrain from staring at close objects for far too long. Think of how staying in one position can make your muscles lock up and ache, the same is happening in your eye muscles. If this is the case then simply going outside and looking at far away objects for a few minutes will generally help greatly. Chances are you're not getting enough sunlight either so get some sun while you're out there and you'll feel even better.

>>8570423

Another good post. Thanks anon, very informative.