Perhaps this is the beginning of an explanation for the failure of public policies to counter the pandemic of physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle? This is the whole demonstration of this study from the University of British Columbia (UBC): the human brain and particularly the cortex must work hard to avoid laziness. This is where researchers are looking for answers to what they call the “exercise paradox”. The results of their research, published in Neuropsychologia, suggest that our brains are hard-wired to prefer being on the couch.
The struggle for exercise is real and it takes place well in the brain: this phenomenon is also explained by the evolution and the economy of the energy essential to our survival. An energy dedicated primarily to the search for food and shelter, competition for reproduction and protection against predators, explains lead author Matthieu Boisgontier, researcher in brain behavior at UBC.
The study is conducted with young adults, seated facing the computer and invited to control an avatar on the screen. On the screen, then appear in the form of flashes of small images (visual below), which evoke either physical activity or physical inactivity. Participants had to move the avatar as quickly as possible towards the physical activity images and away from the physical inactivity images – and vice versa. During the test, the electrodes recorded their brain activity. The experiment shows that participants are generally quicker to move towards active images and away from lazy images, but their brains activate harder to do so.
The avoidance of physical inactivity therefore has a cost , an increased involvement of brain resources. Without this mental investment, humans would therefore have a tendency to laziness… The question is therefore whether people's brains can be reformatted to “move”? There is little hope according to the authors.
“ Any automatic process is difficult to inhibit, even with willpower. But knowing that the process exists is a first step! ".
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