Japanese researchers have found that drinking highly carbonated water (HCW) reduces brain fatigue.

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba tested the effects of HCW on 14 men and women while they played a soccer video game for three hours. The test subjects, with an average age of 23, drank HCW every hour, and their fatigue levels, blood glucose levels, and heart rates were checked after each drink, The Japan News (TJN) reported.

The researchers then measured the same indicators on another day, with the gamers not drinking HCW, and compared the results. They found that HCW prevented participants’ feelings of fatigue from increasing and enhanced their sense of enjoyment, according to TJN.

It was also confirmed that drinking HCW helped maintain the speed and accuracy of the gamers’ decision-making.

Takashi Matsui, an associate professor of exercise biochemistry at the university and a member of the research team, explained that the fizzy sensation of HCW in the throat stimulated nerves in the brain.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old man from Hunan province, China, surnamed Li, has successfully undergone plastic surgery to remove what looked like a “brain” outside his head.

Li had been suffering from an abnormal scalp condition called cutis verticis gyrata since he was 14 years old. The condition caused his scalp to thicken, creating large, uneven folds that affected his appearance and caused him considerable stress.

Several hospitals attempted to surgically remove the thick skin on top of Li’s head, which resembled a brain, but the procedures only left him with scars and fresh wounds, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

When Li consulted Dr. Zhou Wei of the Plastic Surgery Department at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, another operation was performed on the remaining healthy scalp in July 2025.

Expanders were implanted and periodically injected with fluid to gradually stretch his healthy scalp before the abnormal tissue was removed and the wound repaired, according to SCMP.

After 11 months of treatment, Li had grown enough healthy skin tissue. A second-stage surgery was then performed, after which the appearance of his head became normal, with the restored scalp capable of growing hair.