In science, pressure is defined as the continuous physical force exerted on the per-unit area of a surface. There is an official formula, in case you were wondering: Pressure equals force divided by area. We interact with pressure from the moment we stretch in the morning to the moment we set our heads down at night. It ranges from the mundane and routine, like poking at our smartphones or scratching an itch, to the irritable, such as trying to undo a nettlesome jar of peanut butter or wearily finish a workout. In most cases, we apply pressure to something, complete the task and move on. Nearly all of the time, we don’t consciously register we are even doing it. But pressure is not as forgettable when it is the cerebral kind.