M. T. GAILLIOT
for learning might at times be diverted from other processes and
viceversa. Immune functioning and reproduction are metaboli-
cally expensive, and so learning might exhibit metabolic trade-
offs with health and reproductive capacity, for instance.
Demands to learning self-control could be related to metabo-
lism in ways aside from causing decreases in glucose. For ex-
ample, increased demands to learn self-control might lead to
increased metabolic energy intake, such as gaining weight in
novel environments.
Future work could focus on why learning self-control might
be a metabolically costly part of self-control. Learning might
entail greater changes in neuronal firing and connections, thus
requiring more energy than more simple neuronal activity.
Change requires growth and the additional metabolites to sup-
port that growth, which is above the typical rate of glucose use
during that same amount of time.
Failures in self-control might stem from failures in learning
how to exert self-control as much as they stem from failures in
exerting self-control. People might lack the glucose needed to
effectively learn superior self-control strategies, for instance,
such as a dieter failing to learn how to walk away from the
kitchen and engage in an activity other than eating. The indi-
vidual might experience thoughts helpful toward successful
self-control, but without sufficient glucose, fail to learn from
them.
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