Is there real evidence "fat people" use less energy per gram of active
metabolic tissue? That is, does one gram of brain tissue of a heavy
person differ in metabolism from one gram of a light person? What
about one gram of liver, or muscle, or whatever?
"Gildo" <gildo at floorplay.com> wrote in message
news:399EBD30.14458D0A at floorplay.com...
> One thing is certain. Fat people use less energy to do the same amount
> of work.
>> Alexandre Blais wrote:
> >
> > Dear neuroscientists,
> >
> > I am new to this newgroup. I am a molecular biologist and I am not
> > familiar with neurosciences.
> >
> > I was wondering if it is possible to measure the amount of energy
> > expense (in joules) of the human brain when it is "at work" (during the
> > process of solving a hard problem, for example) compared to its energy
> > expense when it is "at intelectual rest" (while watching Wheel Of
> > Fortune TV show, for example :-).
> >
> > I have done some Pubmed searches, and I found that
> > -the main fuel of the brain is glucose, and
> > -the energy delivered to brain cells is derived from oxidative
> > metabolism of glucose, glycogen breakdown, and from the tricarboxylate
> > pathway
> > -the main method of evaluating the metabolic activity of the brain is
> > via MRI and PET using analogs of glucose
> > -it is possible to evaluate the contribution of different celle types in
> > the brain, and to analyze the metabolic activity of different parts of
> > the brain
> > -researchers notice an increase in metabolic activity following
> > "stimulation" of different parts of the brain
> >
> > However, I found no papers describing and measuring the total energy
> > expense of the brain during "intellectual work" per unit time. May be my
> > question is naive and this type of experiment can not be attempted ?
> > Just let me know .
> >
> > If someone can enlighten me on that topic, or can direct me to some
> > useful resources, I would be very greateful,
> >
> > Alexandre Blais
> > Centre de Recherche du CHUL
> > Québec, Canada
