“It’s too hot to think today!” Who among us has not said or heard it at least once during the last scorching days?, writes salute eu.

It may seem like a common summer expression, but science is accumulating more and more evidence that when the thermometer exceeds certain temperatures, the brain enters a kind of “energy-saving mode” and works more slowly.

According to a recent study, published in the scientific journal PLOS Climate, heat waves damage attention, memory and the ability to make decisions, confirming that climate change is a problem not only for the heart, but also for our brain.

According to the researchers, during extreme heat, attention, memory, the ability to concentrate and the speed of decision-making decrease.

“When the organism is engaged in cooling down, part of the physiological resources are redirected towards the regulation of body temperature”, explains Kimberly Meidenbauer, neuroscientist. cognitive and environmental studies at Washington State University, which has been studying the effects of high temperatures on the brain and behavior for years.

The mechanism is similar to that of computers: when the temperature rises too much, the processor automatically reduces performance to avoid overheating.

Even the brain, under similar conditions, has less energy available for more complex cognitive processes.

“In recent years – Meidenbauer adds – some analyzes have shown that extreme heat damages cognitive functions even in young and healthy people.”

Among the most popular studies is an experiment conducted in 2018 by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who followed a group of undergraduate students during a heat wave in Boston.

Students who slept in buildings without air conditioning needed more time to solve cognitive tests and made more errors compared to those who rested in air-conditioned rooms.

“It only took a few days of intense heat to see a measurable decline in cognitive performance,” he points out. Meidenbauer.

The reason is, first of all, physiological.

Although the brain makes up only about 2% of body weight, it consumes about 20% of the body’s available energy. When the outside temperature rises, a large part of these resources are used to keep the body at normal temperature.

As a result, sweating increases, blood flow to the skin increases and the cardiovascular system works harder to dissipate the heat.

This requires a lot of energy, leaving fewer resources for the brain, which thus has a harder time maintaining attention, memory, concentration and the ability to reason and make decisions.

Source: prizrenpost