Less may be more when it comes to brain use

<body> <b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="4">Less may be more when it comes to brain use</font></p> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="1">June 17, 2004<br> World Science Staff</font></p> <b> <p><font face="Arial" size="2">When it comes to using your brain, less may be more, a study has found. After bright people learn a reasoning task, their brains use less energy as they perform it, compared to dimmer peers in the same situation, say the researchers. </font></p> <p><font face="Arial" size="2">Previous studies have reached similar findings, but the new study's authors say they may have better pinpointed how the effect works. Unlike what earlier studies suggested, brighter people don't use less brain energy when confronting a task for the first time; rather, they learn to pare down the neural circuitry they use through training and practice, better than their slower peers do. This leads to better and faster performance. </font></p> <p><font face="Arial" size="2">The study, from the Institute of Psychology in Graz, Austria, Yale University and other institutions, involved electroencephalograms (brain wave readings) from 28 male test subjects and was published in the May issue of Acta Psychologica.</font><o:p>   </p> <p><font face="Arial" size="2">Plavcan says it's unclear whether his analysis applies to humans as well. Humans are generally classified as monogamous. However, among humans, the male-female size variance is small for primates -- as it is among the species with more promiscuous females. And "If you go around to hospitals, depending on the economic status [of a couple], between 10 and 15 percent of offspring are not that of the stated father," Plavcan adds. </font></p> </body>