Choosing a metaphor over a simile for the title of this essay took a considerable amount of energy. The choice, however, seemed instantaneous to me. It bypassed acceleration. I found myself at highway speed as though long before I had used some onramp to merge with thoughts that, like other cars, were zooming toward random destinations. In a split second, I was at full throttle.
Sorry, enough with the metaphor except to say that the supposedly idle mind is very much like (here’s the simile) an idling car. And the reason is that the vehicle of transport is an active brain that constantly consumes glucose. The activity is itself evidenced by dreams during sleep and daydreams. The brain never seems to shut off. The engine idles, ready to kick in the turbo charger. Advice here: Keep the tank filled. You will find yourself in need of fuel as you race down thought-highways, sometimes merging not only with traffic in an orderly flow, but also playing bumper cars with similes and metaphors. “Where,” I might ask you, “do you think analogies originate? Where do you think Ah-ha! Insights come from?”
The answers to both questions lie in sideswipes and collisions in thought-mergers. And the reason they occur is that the engine of the brain is always consuming fuel. If you find yourself in a period of writer’s block or spiritual dryness, don’t blame your missing muse; get thee to the gas station to pick up some vending-machine food.
The title of research by Camila Pulido and Timothy A. Ryan says it all: “Synaptic vesicle pools are a major metabolic burden of nerve terminals.” * If you don’t have fuel, you don’t have ATP synthesis. Your brain has, in the words of the authors, “a resting metabolic rate that is much higher than other tissues.” I suppose that’s why it is so difficult for us to “hold that thought” when we are in the midst of a conversation. We can’t apply brakes to a vehicle running on a full tank at high speed. I suppose, also, that is why we can’t really pull into the parking garages along thought-highways as we race toward conclusions. As the authors also write, “Given the vast number of synapses in the human brain and the presence of hundreds of SVs [synaptic vesicle pools] at each…this hidden metabolic cost of quickly turning synapses in a ‘ready’ state comes at the cost of major ATPpresyn and fuel expenditure, likely contributing significantly to the brain’s metabolic demands and metabolic vulnerability.” Duh! This brain-car needs a fuel supply to operate proton pumps. Insights don’t accelerate. They are like photons that always seem to travel at speed. (Sorry, I just mixed metaphors, but such is the nature of thinking. Thought collisions, as I said, are inevitable. The brain is often like—here’s the return to the simile—a self-driving car without collision-avoidance and lane-detector)
In short, even when your brain is “resting,” it is still using, even by way of leaking, fuel. The engine’s on. You still consume glucose at about half the rate of full-throttle thinking. Maybe that’s the reason that in the most unexpected moments and places in our lives, we suddenly arrive at metaphors, at similes, analogies, and insights.
Note:
*Published in ScienceAdvances. 3 Dec 2021, Vol 7, Issue 49. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi9027 Online at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi9027 Accessed December 5, 2021.
Sorry, enough with the metaphor except to say that the supposedly idle mind is very much like (here’s the simile) an idling car. And the reason is that the vehicle of transport is an active brain that constantly consumes glucose. The activity is itself evidenced by dreams during sleep and daydreams. The brain never seems to shut off. The engine idles, ready to kick in the turbo charger. Advice here: Keep the tank filled. You will find yourself in need of fuel as you race down thought-highways, sometimes merging not only with traffic in an orderly flow, but also playing bumper cars with similes and metaphors. “Where,” I might ask you, “do you think analogies originate? Where do you think Ah-ha! Insights come from?”
The answers to both questions lie in sideswipes and collisions in thought-mergers. And the reason they occur is that the engine of the brain is always consuming fuel. If you find yourself in a period of writer’s block or spiritual dryness, don’t blame your missing muse; get thee to the gas station to pick up some vending-machine food.
The title of research by Camila Pulido and Timothy A. Ryan says it all: “Synaptic vesicle pools are a major metabolic burden of nerve terminals.” * If you don’t have fuel, you don’t have ATP synthesis. Your brain has, in the words of the authors, “a resting metabolic rate that is much higher than other tissues.” I suppose that’s why it is so difficult for us to “hold that thought” when we are in the midst of a conversation. We can’t apply brakes to a vehicle running on a full tank at high speed. I suppose, also, that is why we can’t really pull into the parking garages along thought-highways as we race toward conclusions. As the authors also write, “Given the vast number of synapses in the human brain and the presence of hundreds of SVs [synaptic vesicle pools] at each…this hidden metabolic cost of quickly turning synapses in a ‘ready’ state comes at the cost of major ATPpresyn and fuel expenditure, likely contributing significantly to the brain’s metabolic demands and metabolic vulnerability.” Duh! This brain-car needs a fuel supply to operate proton pumps. Insights don’t accelerate. They are like photons that always seem to travel at speed. (Sorry, I just mixed metaphors, but such is the nature of thinking. Thought collisions, as I said, are inevitable. The brain is often like—here’s the return to the simile—a self-driving car without collision-avoidance and lane-detector)
In short, even when your brain is “resting,” it is still using, even by way of leaking, fuel. The engine’s on. You still consume glucose at about half the rate of full-throttle thinking. Maybe that’s the reason that in the most unexpected moments and places in our lives, we suddenly arrive at metaphors, at similes, analogies, and insights.
Note:
*Published in ScienceAdvances. 3 Dec 2021, Vol 7, Issue 49. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi9027 Online at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi9027 Accessed December 5, 2021.
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