How Fasting Affects the Brain? At WaterFastingNews, we help people who love fasting by collating information and news about not eating and pattern eating. Fasting is something that many people do for a number of reasons. Some do it to lose weight, while others fast for religious holidays. Regardless of the reason, Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging and professor at Johns Hopkins University, has discovered that fasting has many surprising benefits for the brain.