Can't Relax? It's All in Your Mind Research shows stopping a
thought puts more strain on the brain. Turns out, relaxing is
exhausting—which could by why so many people struggle to unplug
from work during vacation. According to mathematicians at Case
Western Reserve University, stopping a thought burns more energy
than thinking-like stopping a truck on a downhill slope. "Maybe
this explains why it is so tiring to relax and think about
nothing," says Daniela Calvetti, professor of mathematics and
one of the authors of a new brain study published in an advanced
online publication of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow &
Metabolism. Since opening up the brain for detailed monitoring
isn't exactly practical, Calvetti teamed up with fellow
mathematics professor Erkki Somersalo and Rossana Occhipinti, a
postdoctoral researcher in physiology and biophysics, to create
a computer model of brain metabolism. Calvetti and Somersalo
created a software package specifically designed to study the
complex metabolic systems. The