From Miguel Machuca Cervantes:

Re: Dip in brainpower may follow drop in real power (May 10): This was a fascinating article, not that others aren’t, but let me explain.

I have always considered myself as a reasonably intelligent human being with a special capability for easily understanding new issues, facts, etc.

I was either unemployed or underemployed for about 15 months and, when I began working again, I felt stupid, as I was not able to understand several issues that were not that complicated. After approximately 4 months in the job, my brain started working as I was used to.

I had attributed this to a lack of “mental exercise”, but your hypothesis sounds very interesting and might be the real reason for my situation. Or is it maybe that the drop in real power causes lack of “mental exercise”?