It has long been thought that the brain is put to its least activity when we are alone and without any stimuli. But new findings show that our brain’s best energy-saving mode is together with others. The baseline is social, not individual, claims psychology professor James Coan at University of Virginia. ”And when you’re with your closest ones around, the brain is working even less.”

Right now, you can watch a computer-animated film with five basic emotions starred in the 11-year-old Riley’s head. “Inside Out” is trying to portray how feelings arise and what role their signals play in our actions.

Perhaps a similar movie should be produced, but with the brain’s Minister of Energy in the lead part. Because, according to new hypotheses, the brain, in all situations, makes a kind of fuel calculation – access, consumption, conserving – and ensures that we consume as little energy as possible.

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