brain traffic

noun

The movement and coordination of internal signals that govern the working of the body and mind, especially neural impulses and hormones.

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Meanings

nounbrain traffic (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe movement and coordination of internal signals that govern the working of the body and mind, especially neural impulses and hormones.

    When a large amount of one amino acid is administered, the delicate balance of amino acid "brain traffic" becomes distorted.

    1996, Karl J. Abrams, Algae to the Rescue
    2 more examples

    In our healthy astronaut normal brain traffic is ordinarily so heavy that it swamps completely any weak trickle via the reducing valve. Therefore he is never normally subject to "imaginations."

    1969, A. E. Wilder-Smith, The drug users: the psychopharmacology of turning on, page 217

    Most of this brain traffic, healthy or otherwise, consists of specialized messenger cells, called neurons, which transmit electrical and chemical signals to other cells throughout the brain, muscles and other parts of the body.

    2011, John Pollack, The Pun Also Rises
  2. InternetuncountableThe discussion of ideas, especially over the Internet.

    They don't let themselves get distracted by brain traffic, emails, or interruptions.

    2013, Laura Stack, Focusing on Your Work, page 13
    3 more examples

    This smile brought another problem of how to put a new guy at the top of the mast without lowering the mast. Much brain traffic was handled. Many books and journals were consulted including our great amateur Bible, QST

    1929, QST - Volume 13, Issues 1-6, page 40

    But the system continues operating. "Brain traffic" is developing. It spreads to the widest range of specialists, from a rank-and-file engineer to a prominent scientist; from an ordinary manager of a plant to an executive of a national corporation.

    1974, The Daily Review - Volume 20

    To tie knowledge management directly to the university's nervous system, Nielsen created a Web site for its employees that acts as a brain traffic controller.

    2001, Government Executive - Volume 33, Issues 9-15, page 44
  3. figurativelyuncountableAn ability to think, with an emphasis on the limited capacity and speed a person is capable of, analogous to the limits of a road system for handling vehicular traffic.

    The Sea-Wolf bore down on me for all my brain-traffic would bear.

    1906, Carl Sandburg, Tomorrow Magazine
    1 more example

    The intensity of the radio noise, the vital nature of the decisions that have to be made — right now — the requirement for accelerated brain traffic; they were often more than a guy could effectively handle.

    1999, John Darrell Sherwood, Fast Movers: America's Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience, page 58
Cite this entry
APA

brain traffic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brain%20traffic

MLA

“brain traffic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brain%20traffic. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brain traffic,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brain%20traffic.

Source: brain traffic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.