Scientists claim to have found the brain impulse, which makes us all quit in the end — in fact, they have also pinpointed the precise part of the brain, which tells you when that time has arrived.
A team at Duke University says that the impulse, which told ancient foragers to give up on one pasture and move on to more fertile hunting grounds is the same as that, which urges people to try a different Internet site if our initial choice is taking too long to appear on screen.
The scientists found that a section of the brain called dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is responsible for weighing up reward against cost in any given situation.
When a certain threshold is reached, the brain gives a signal to throw in the towel, the Daily Mail reported.
For their study, the scientists analysed rhesus macaques monkeys. They observed whether the monkeys decided to stay with a food source giving ever smaller squirts of fruit juice or move to a newer and potentially better supply.
They studied a set of neurons within the animals’ ACCs, which showed increasing activity as time passed. Once it reached a certain threshold the monkeys immediately moved on. Lead scientist Prof Michael Platt said: “It is as if there is a threshold for deciding it’s time to leave set in the brain.”
Keywords: Duke University