Emerging Roles of the Brain’s Default Network

Have your doctor correlate this to your fatigue.  Be careful of that spontaneous cognition.
http://nro.sagepub.com/content/19/1/76.abstract

Abstract

During periods of inactivity, global metabolism does not decrease in the brain, and small but consistent increases in activity occur in a specific set of regions called the “default network”. Although much is known about the topological and connectional properties of the default network, its functions remain a matter of debate. Functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies have suggested two apparently contrasting functions for this network: spontaneous cognition and monitoring the environment. Spontaneous cognition, however, is by default situated in a given external context, an external milieu to which we align ourselves and which must be monitored. This review integrates recent literature suggesting that the two proposed functions of the default network functions need not to be mutually exclusive, and that spontaneous cognition and monitoring of the environment represent complementary instances of conscious experiences occurring during idle moments of daily life.

Is Spreading Depolarization Characterized by an Abrupt, Massive Release of Gibbs Free Energy from the Human Brain Cortex?

So ask your doctor if spreading depolarization or Gibbs free energy is more important to your recovery. Ask for specifics. 

Is Spreading Depolarization Characterized by an Abrupt, Massive Release of Gibbs Free Energy from the Human Brain Cortex?

Abstract

In the evolution of the cerebral cortex, the sophisticated organization in a steady state far away from thermodynamic equilibrium has produced the side effect of two fundamental pathological network events: ictal epileptic activity and spreading depolarization. Ictal epileptic activity describes the partial disruption, and spreading depolarization describes the near-complete disruption of the physiological double Gibbs–Donnan steady state. The occurrence of ictal epileptic activity in patients has been known for decades. Recently, unequivocal electrophysiological evidence has been found in patients that spreading depolarizations occur abundantly in stroke and brain trauma. The authors propose that the ion changes can be taken to estimate relative changes in Gibbs free energy from state to state. The calculations suggest that in transitions from the physiological state to ictal epileptic activity to spreading depolarization to death, the cortex releases Gibbs free energy in a stepwise fashion. Spreading depolarization thus appears as a twilight state close to death. Consistently, electrocorticographic recordings in the core of focal ischemia or after cardiac arrest display a smooth transition from the initial spreading depolarization component to the later ultraslow negative potential, which is assumed to reflect processes in cellular death.

The Brain As A Network

This blogger does a good job describing how complicated our brains are and has a nice picture. The networks I used at work are nothing compared to the brain and I have to figure this all out myself with no directions or mentor.
http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/the-artful-brain/the_brain_part_1?WT.mc_id=GPL_NatureBlogs