On the Brain: Does a full bladder free your mind?

CNN:

This week there’s a somewhat bizarre study about whether judgment improves after drinking copious amounts of water, as well as research in Alzheimer’s disease and early childhood mental disorders.

A little self-control
Don’t make a hard decision with an empty bladder, suggests new research from the Netherlands. In a study published in the journal Psychological Science, psychologists at the University of Twente demonstrate that bladder control is related to same part of the brain associated with feelings of desire and reward, the Telegraph reports. And people who drank five cups of water in the study made better decisions than those who took small sips. That’s perhaps because feelings of inhibition are all connected in the brain so self-control about one thing can “spill over” (haha) into something else, Discover writes. But before you change your bathroom habits, consider that this  shows only  a correlation between drinking water and good choices; we don’t know that a full bladder causes any mental advantages.

Read the whole story: CNN