History Main / MySkullRunnethOver

* In ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius'', the titular character is a ChildProdigy with an ImpossiblyHighIQ of [[SuperIntelligence 350]]. As a result, his brain is constantly firing on all cylinders, leaving him physically unable to relax [[TheSleepless or even sleep]]. He predicts that he'll be driven mad by the time he turns 21 and only attends school in the hopes that regular human interaction will prevent it.
* In ''ComicBook/CaptainAtomArmageddon'', ComicBook/CaptainAtom does this to Voodoo when she tries to invade his mind. He uses his neural uplink to the Pentagon's computer net to basically KO her with the Internet.
* In ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', after Mastermind's manipulations cause Phoenix to [[FaceHeelTurn give free rein to her dark side,]] she psychically feeds him enough cosmic power and knowledge to overload his brain, and then almost immediately takes it away. The fleeting taste of cosmic awareness leaves him catatonic.
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/DylanDog'', a scientist is looking for a way to [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain unlock the full potential of the human intellect,]] but all of his test subjects die in [[YourHeadASplode predictably gruesome ways]]. It turns out that an adult's intellect is "atrophied" after a life of underuse, and only babies are flexible enough to survive the process. When the scientist, mentally unbalanced after years of frustrations, experiments on his newborn daughter, it finally works but it works ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too well]]''.
* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'': In his first appearance, the Leader is after an Ultimate Machine containing all the knowledge in the Universe. When he obtains it and downloads the information into his mind, this proves too much even for his super-brain and [[OnlyMostlyDead seemingly]] kills him.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Ruins}}'', Mystique dies due to her brain being unable to cope with [[ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis the various personalities and identities she'd accumulated]] thanks to her VoluntaryShapeshifting powers.
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', "Calliope", Dream punishes an author by giving him an overload of ideas, so much so that he starts writing them on the walls with his ''[[CouldntFindAPen bloody fingers]]''.
* In one arc of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', Norman Osborn and a few others engage in a magical ritual that will grant them each individually, amongst other boons, either madness or knowledge. When the ritual is completed, one of the participants suddenly starts babbling nonsense, leading Osborn to believe he had been struck with madness. It eventually turns out that it was Osborn that had been struck with madness, the man who started babbling was granted knowledge, all knowledge, of everything. Eventually he manages to assume normal behavior, and he can freely access this knowledge, but doing so essentially puts him through a seizure every time.

* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'': {{Downplayed|Trope}} with Cain, [[spoiler a.k.a. Naoya]]. On the up side, living forever has given him an [[MagnificentBastard uncanny exploitative insight into human nature and motivation]] so complete that he can accurately predict an entire city's future (barring a ScrewDestiny maneuver, of course). On the not-so-upside, his immortality and perfect memory have left him unable to relate to most people and give him deep frustration at seeing history's mistakes repeated constantly.

* ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'' has the additional kick that the protagonist doesn't actually have access to the downloaded knowledge that's killing him -- he's a courier hired to carry data securely in his own "wetware".

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGeniusS2E8SheensBrain Sheen's Brain]]", Sheen, who is somewhere between TheDitz and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, is hit with Jimmy's brain-gain helmet, without fixing the issue of the original brain-drain helmet, a limiter. At first, it just results in incredible intelligence and [[MyBrainIsBig a much larger head]], but after a while, Sheen develops outstanding PsychicPowers, a [[AGodAmI god complex]], and [[RefugeInAudacity a head the size of a]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity house]]'' before the ResetButton is hit. It's mentioned that if the growth isn't stopped, [[YourHeadAsplode Sheen's head will eventually explode]]. At one point, Jimmy calculates the maximum possible number Sheen's IQ could grow to. ''[[SerialEscalation It hits infinity]].''

-->'''Skull:''' ''[frantic]'' Full in the skull, full in the skull!!! ''[a few shots later, his head sparks and explodes]''

* In ''Series/TheSecondComing'', Steve discovers that he's literally the son of God. He compares the experience of accessing divine omniscience with a human brain to "downloading fifty-million megabits into a pocket calculator", and, though it doesn't seem to be actually dangerous, he admits that it hurts.

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So you're walking along, minding your own business, playing with your iPod in a neutron storm next to a nuclear plant during the equinox, and suddenly some AppliedPhlebotinum grants you a magnificent gift: an entire library's worth of information is [[NeuroVault downloaded directly into your head]], along with all the [[SuperIntelligence intellect]], [[ExpositionBeam memories]] and wisdom needed to use it. You become an instant genius at everything from knitting to astrophysics, and you can suddenly TechnoBabble your way out of any problem!

The thing about super-human knowledge and intellect, is that often you don't get [[RequiredSecondaryPowers a super-human brain to put it in]], and there's only so much room in there. As your brainpower goes up, [[PowerDegeneration your survival rate goes down]]. Time is running out, and you either have to figure out a way to ditch your new super-smarts or die — either by hemorrhage, [[YourHeadASplode cranial explosion]], or body strain. Maybe the knowledge contains details about [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow things man was not meant to know]], and your [[TransformationHorror body will try to adapt to it involuntarily with your new knowledge]].

Occasionally, dying isn't the problem: It might be non-fatal, but have some other significant drawback if you don't get rid of it soon, such as madness, head-splitting migraines, overwriting of memories or knowledge, or permanent brain damage. Perhaps you simply become unable to store new memories until you clear some space. This often leads to FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome when the character returns to normal, warning others about the dangers of get-smart-quick schemes. Fairly common in CosmicHorror stories when a protagonist obtains a legible TomeOfEldritchLore and doesn't stop reading it soon enough before they GoMadFromTheRevelation.

* In ''Manga/SilentMobius'', Holonic, a [[spoiler:computer virus that consumed almost all of Tokyo's data]], was going to attempt to [[spoiler:enter a visionary's brain and escape physically]], and this trope is what Lebia Maverick described as what would happen if it did.
* At the end of ''Anime/DivergenceEve'' [[spoiler: [=LeBlanc=] gets all of the information about the entire universe (and the alternative one) downloaded to his brain in a bid to learn how to become immortal. The information overload is too much for his brain to handle, and [[YourHeadASplode his head explodes]]]].
* This is how Ed describes the feeling of going past the GateOfTruth that connects humans with the ability to use alchemy in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. It doesn't stop him from wanting to repeat the experience, since he did gain an immense amount of knowledge from it.
* In ''Manga/GhostSweeperMikami'', Dr. Chaos' brain really is completely full with information (due to him living for several hundred years). So what happens when he learns something new? Rather than expand and strain itself, his brain simply overwrites the earliest thing it can. So while he is an occult genius who can readily comprehend many mystic things, he can easily forget such basic things as what 2+2 results in (hint: not 5).
* Played for laughs in ''Manga/KOn'', where {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Yui completely forgets how to play the guitar after cramming for an exam. It later becomes a recurring issue for Yui through both seasons of the anime adaptation.
-->'''Yui''': ''[after being greeted by the others the morning before a final exam]'' Don't talk to me. Everything I memorized will fall out. ''[[[OhCrap trips]]]''
* Cosmo from ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' can overload people's minds to the point they are [[DrivenToMadness unable to think of or say anything other than "Halloween" ad infinitum until they die]]. [[spoiler:"Santa Claus" is sure her HiveMind is too massive to be hurt by her, so Cosmo (AKA the Cosmos Fiend) specifies she inflicts total understanding of ''the universe'' on a person. Santa Claus' knowledge not taking up one ''page'' in Cosmo's mental GreatBigLibraryOfEverything, her mind is destroyed just like any other's.]] Appropriately, Cosmo [[RedRightHand can be identified as a Fiend]] by her brain spilling out of her head. [[spoiler:However, this seems to require some start-up time, as Makima [[OffWithHerHead decapitates and kills her]] nigh instantly with no difficulty and no chance to retaliate.]]
* The titular character of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' faces this downside to his Shadow Clone training strategy. With hundreds of clones he can experience years of training in one day, but the backlash when the clones disperse is enough to render him unconscious while his brain tries to process the information.
* In Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''Manga/{{Phoenix}}'' story "Civil War", the historical figure Taira no Kiyomori desires the blood of the titular bird so he can become immortal and continue to lead the Taira Clan, instead of letting it get run into the ground by his incompetent sons. He starts having second thoughts, however when he has a vision of himself in the 21st century, where he's become an invalid due to his brain having run out of space for new memories and has to be periodically hooked up to an "Amnesia Machine" or he'll go crazy. Other characters who do gain immortality, or at least very long lifespans don't seem to have this problem, but that might just be because they usually end up becoming hermits whose lives are largely monotonous.
* In ''Manga/OmamoriHimari'', back when Kuesu Jinguuji was a student mage, her only friend in the school got her to read a forbidden tome of knowledge. Then it turned out that the only reason that Vilma befriended Kuesu in the first place was because she thought that reading the book through a second person would allow her to acquire the tome's infinite knowledge without going mad like every other person who'd tried to read the book. Unfortunately for her, Kuesu was so suited for use as a medium that she absorbed knowledge faster than Vilma's mind could process it, resulting in her brain exploding.
* In ''Anime/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer'', this happens to any developing Innovator who tries to psychically connect with the ELS. One describes what he hears from them as "nothing but an endless cry". It later turns out that [[spoiler:the ELS didn't realize the incredible volume of information they were broadcasting was harmful to human minds, which were too small to contain it all. Once they figure that out, it's implied that they learn to communicate with Innovators without overloading them.]]
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', this happens to Light Yagami when he [[spoiler: regains memories of the Death Note]]. However, he regains his composure within a few seconds because [[AllAccordingToPlan this was part of his plan]].

-->'''Suzu''': Misa-nee! Mira's gonna explode!

* Ryo in ''Manga/BocchiTheRock'' has a similar situation as ''K-On''[='=]s Yui--she's usually BookDumb due to being a RidiculousProcrastinator, though she is able to get great results if she puts in effort... which usually means she will forget how to do things like playing the bass.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* Several cards in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' provide extra draws (and thus, potentially knowledge of additional spells in-game) at the expense of life points, making overuse of them naturally dangerous. And not all of them can be easily "turned off" once in play...
** The other danger of excessive card drawing is that you lose the game if you have to draw from an empty deck. There are several tournament strategies that involve generating obscene amounts of mana, then dropping a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5677 Stroke of Genius]] or similar card to make an opponent draw their entire deck plus one card.
** Also, the hand size limit may be a less lethal example of the trope. A player can technically end up with any number of cards in his or her hand for a time... but at the end of his or her turn, he or she has to discard any in excess of his or her current maximum hand size (which usually starts at seven and stays there unless modified by specific effects), presumably reflecting how much arcane knowledge his notional brain can safely hold for long.
** In a more narrative use of this trope, many cards equate drawing cards to gaining knowledge, and thus equate drawing at a cost with this trope. The various Innistrad series, in particular, have several cards which involve drawing and discarding or exiling cards, with the flavor being that the user gained too much knowledge that one is not meant to know and subsequently went insane, or was forced to expunge prior knowledge.
** The card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=43729 Rush of Knowledge]] mentions this; "Limitless power is glorious until you gain limitless understanding", the picture shows a mage receiving knowledge, much to his discomfort.
[[/folder]]

* In an issue of ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', "Calliope", Dream punishes an author by giving him an overload of ideas, so much so that he starts writing them on the walls with his ''[[CouldntFindAPen bloody fingers]]''.
* This was a plot of a NightmareFuel horror comic from UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}. The man gets hit with a [[EvolutionaryLevels evolution-devolution]] ray, and as his head starts to [[HollywoodEvolution evolve and gets bigger]] (in the traditional Future Human way of comics from the time), his body "devolves" to that of a tiny lizard.
* In ''ComicBook/PS238'', a scientist managed to both figure out time travel and learn all of the world's knowledge up to the late 90s by uploading an encyclopedia into his brain. It combined with continual unshielded exposure to the 4th Dimension made him so crazy that he used his time travel abilities to be both a superhero and his own nemesis.
** Somewhat similarly, Lyle is a kid who has the ability to see patterns to the point where he can pretty much instantly know everything that has and will happened to the people and things around him. It's so overwhelming that he spends most of his time "in a white room listening to music". [[spoiler:Until he uses his power to get someone with PowerNullifier abilities a job at the school.]]

* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'': In his first appearance, The Leader was after an Ultimate Machine containing all the knowledge in the Universe. When he obtained it and downloaded the information into his mind, this proved too much even for his super brain and killed him. [[OnlyMostlyDead Seemingly.]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius'' the titular character is a ChildProdigy with an ImpossiblyHighIQ of [[SuperIntelligence 350]]. As a result his brain is constantly firing on all cylinders, leaving him physically unable to relax [[SleepDeprivationPunishment or even sleep]]. He predicts that he'll be driven mad by the time he turns 21 and only attends school in the hopes that regular human interaction will prevent it.
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/DylanDog'', a scientist is looking for a way to [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain unlock the full potential of the human intellect,]] but all of his test subjects die in [[YourHeadASplode predictably gruesome ways.]] It turns out that an adult's intellect is "atrophied" after a life of underuse, and only babies are flexible enough to survive the process. When the scientist, mentally unbalanced after years of frustrations, experiments on his newborn daughter, it finally works but it works ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too well.]]''

* In ''Comicbook/{{Ruins}}'', Comicbook/{{Mystique}} dies due to her brain being unable to cope with the various personalities and identities she'd accumulated thanks to her {{Shapeshifter}} powers.
* In a Spider-Man arc Osborn and a few others engage in a magical ritual that will grant them each individually, amongst other boons, either madness or knowledge. When the ritual is completed, one of the participants suddenly starts babbling nonsense, leading Osborn to believe he had been struck with madness. It eventually turns out that it was Osborn that had been struck with madness, the man who started babbling was granted knowledge, all knowledge, of everything. Eventually he manages to assume normal behavior, and he can freely access this knowledge, but doing so essentially puts him through a seizure everytime.

* ''Fanfic/HybridHiveEatShard'': Since Taylor's Unison Device consumed her shard connection, Taylor can still use her canonical bug control when she chooses to. However, without a corona pollentia and gemma in her brain, the multitasking systems aren't on the same level as the shard would have provided, leaving her thoroughly overwhelmed whenever she switches the ability on. She decides to bite the bullet and keep it on for several hours, in order to adapt, but after an hour the Device automatically switches it off again to avoid permanent brain damage.
--> '''Hive:''' The sheer number of inputs from the insect control systems far exceeded your brain's ability to process, even with the multitasking systems providing outside assistance. ... For your own safety the insect control system is currently locked until you have recovered from this attempt, I estimate that will take at least four days, during which I will also refrain from utilizing the multitasking systems while you’re sleeping.
* In ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', the first time Ringo uses his mindsight, his brain is overloaded with a million brilliant details all screaming for his attention. Luckily, before he can go nuts, “A reflex he didn't know he had kicked in and narrowed his vision back down before anything permanent happened.”
--> For a moment he stood, swaying. "Whoa," he mumbled. "Whatta trip."
** By ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', though, he's able to handle all that detail—indeed, is addicted to it, and when he can't use his mindsight he finds the world hopelessly drab, shallow, and slow.
* Princess Luna suffers this in ''Fanfic/ThroughTheEyesOfAnotherPony'' when she magically memorizes ''the '''entire''' Internet''. It seemed like a good idea at the time! Side effects may include increased cynicism, horrible pop-culture jokes, temporary severe speech impediments, and severe outbreaks of emo.

* In ''Fanfic/OnTheEdgeOfTheDevilsBackbone'', Ezra's empathic abilities overload at one point and he senses every living being on Lothal at once. Kanan also gets drugged with a substance that makes him see and feel everything at all points in time, and desperately tries to claw his own brain out while begging for it to stop.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}'', through a series of various events, Elspeth finds herself with the entire collected memories of nearly every vampire in the world, and the ability to blast it into others' minds. Acquiring all this information knocked her out for a good few hours, and does the same when used on vampires or [[{{Dhampyr}} half-vampires]] -- but when used on humans, it ''breaks'' them. [[spoiler:But it's possible to put some of the pieces back together, [[CloneByConversion functionally resurrecting]] one of the vampires whose memories were part of the blast. This is discovered when it accidentally resurrects one random vampire and one ''very plot-important'' one, and then used deliberately to bring back the Clearwaters.]]

--> Far away, her dungeon heart sluggishly awakened from slumber. Her awareness was limited to its immediate surroundings, as everything further than a few metres away remained hidden behind a curtain of darkness. Tile by tile, this darkness receded, as if she was rapidly claiming the territory.\\

* A temporary version occurs whenever a human with an unlocked Aura uses a TM to learn a move in ''Fanfic/{{Boldores and Boomsticks}}''. They have a seizure while the device is running, and afterwards have a migraine from the overload of information being forced into their mind at once.
* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': Paul makes the mistake of giving his ring an overly open-ended instruction to '''find the missiles''', and experiences "A brief and mindchurningly horrifying moment as the ring tries to show me every rocket based weapon in Asia."

[[folder:Films — Animated]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/Arena1989'': Coincidentally-named, the character "Skull" meets his end this way. When Steve competes in the final arena fight at the end of the film, Skull connects his brain to, and sabotages, the handicap computer controlling the skill match-up between Steve and his opponent. When Steve's co-worker, Shorty, suspects foul play, he goes to investigate. When fighting the arena manager's enforcer, Shorty gets thrown into the handicap computer, causing it to overload, and eventually, causes Skull's head to explode:
--> '''Skull:''' ''[frantic]'' Full in the skull, full in the skull!!! ''[a few shots later, his head sparks and explodes]''

* ''Charly,'' an adaptation of the classic ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'', has an intellectually handicapped man undergo a treatment that boosts his intellect up to normal and then far beyond. Unfortunately, as he discovers from checking out the test rodent Algernon, it'll cause him to burn out and wind up even stupider than before, possibly brain-dead.
* ''Film/TheComputerWoreTennisShoes'' (1995 version): It was not going to destroy him in this case, but got erased with a "magical noise virus over the phone".
* ''Film/{{Eternals}}'' Thena is going insane because she has too many memories, in part because of [[spoiler: her mindwipe after their last mission not being entirely successful]].
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', in that Zarkov's brain was to be erased and reprogrammed, but Klytus ordered it to be done "only to Level 3", as he doubted Zarkov's Earth brain could take any higher level. After he leaves his assistant orders him programmed to Level 6. Further subverted in that [[spoiler:Zarkov manages to also keep his original memory]].
* In ''Film/FlightOfTheNavigator'', an alien research computer travelling near Earth, hearing that humans "[[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain only use 10% of our brains]]," wanted to find out if it could use the other 90% to backup its data. When the abducted experimental subject asked it what happened after it filled his brain to the max, the computer replied "You leak." Fortunately, there were no dangerous side-effects.
* [[spoiler:Doctor Ostrow]] suffers this fate near the end of ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', after [[DeadlyUpgrade intentionally overusing]] a [[{{Precursors}} Krell]] [[UpgradeArtifact learning machine]] to try to figure out what's killing them.
* At the end of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', [[spoiler:Irina Spalko gets all the knowledge the aliens possess downloaded into her mind, but it's so much that her head (and then the rest of her) explodes.]]
* The film version of ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'', with the additional kick that the protagonist doesn't actually have access to the downloaded knowledge that's killing him -- he's a courier hired to carry data securely in his own "wetware".
* Downplayed in ''Film/TheManWhoKnewInfinity'', where the titular person, Srinivasa Ramanujan as portrayed by ''Creator/DevPatel'', suffers anxiety from the seemingly divinely-revealed mathematical discoveries he constantly experiences and a strong sense of urgency to have them known to the world.
* In ''Film/{{Phenomenon}}'', George Malley has a UFO encounter that gives him advanced brain processing power and telekinesis. However, [[DeadlyUpgrade it also gives him a brain tumor.]] [[spoiler:Also, there was no UFO - that was a hallucination caused by a seizure triggered by the brain tumor.]]
* In ''Film/RainMan'', Dustin Hoffman's character is an autistic ''savant'' who has superhuman memory retention and computational skills, offset by severe social disability; based on a RealLife person.
* Spock almost does this to himself when attempting a mind-meld with V'Ger in ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''. Turns out that opening your mind up to [[spoiler: a NASA probe]] that gained so much information it developed sentience is enough to cause agonizing pain and knock him out cold.

* Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex: In the first arc we are introduced to the titular Index, a member of the English Church who has become a living database for 103,000 grimoires thanks to her PhotographicMemory. Oddly enough, besides the grimoires she only has memories of the last year of her life, and believes she is being hunted by enemies of the church. It's soon revealed that these "enemies" are actually her forgotten friends and her excellent memory is more of a curse than a blessing. The human mind can only contain so many memories, the grimoires already put her near that limit, and she naturally gains more memories overtime. If left as is, she would eventually die from the strain, the best solution her friends have been able to come up with is periodically wiping her memory. [[spoiler: Ultimately subverted, the protagonist Touma figures out that this was all a ruse by the church to keep both Index and her friends under their control.]]
* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54476/dungeon-life/ Dungeon Life]]'': When Thedeim turns one of his creatures into a Voice so as to communicate with others, that connects the Voice to his own mind -- which means that if Thedeim thinks too much about his previous life, the Voice gets glimpses of all sorts of advanced concepts from geosynchronous satellites to quantum superposition, quickly resulting in a headache.
* At the end of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler: Taylor has Panacea jailbreak her power, giving her the ability to control every bug and parahuman in a 16-foot radius. Once she gets ahold of some more powerful capes, she quickly assembles a massive army to take on Scion, the world-destroying alien entity responsible for all the powers in the first place. However, with her power operating at peak capacity she begins losing her ability to speak, or understand language at all. After that, she forgets her friends' names and how to relate to anyone outside of any context besides war and conflict.]] [[spoiler: She gets better, fortunately.]]

* ''Literature/EndersShadow'' features a very, very dark version of this trope. It is revealed about halfway in that Bean, a diminutive but fiercely intelligent kid, has been [[spoiler:genetically altered at birth to have an almost infinite capacity for learning, because his brain continues to grow like an infant's. His brain will never stop growing; neither will his skull, his bones, or the rest of his body. It's only a matter of time before he becomes far, far too big to support himself and one of his organs gives out.]] This remains a major plot point over the rest of the "Shadow" novels.
** Worse, it's discovered that Bean's [[spoiler:genetically engineered traits are ''inheritable''. It's estimated that any children of Bean's have a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting the genetic traits responsible for his unceasing growth.]] Naturally, Bean and Petra go to great lengths to prevent [[spoiler:their children]] from being given [[spoiler:the same death sentence as Bean.]] Equally naturally, [[spoiler:Achilles]] deliberately screws with their preventative measures. [[spoiler:At the end, it's implied that one of Bean's kids -- one of the ones who inherited the genetic trait -- was taken off-planet by the surrogate mother, who was under the impression that she was carrying Achilles' heir. This is later confirmed, both by WordOfGod, and in the latest book.]]
* In ''A Study In Scarlet'', Literature/SherlockHolmes claims that the reason he is so ignorant of such things as astronomy is that he's trying to save brain-space for forensic knowledge.
* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series.

* In the James Allan Gardner book ''Radiant'', the "Balrog" hive-mind spore colony infecting Youn Sue's mind grant her wish to see and think as they do... by spreading her mind slowly to absorb more information while retaining the detail of her original perspective. She pleads for them to stop, but they continue until she blacks out from brain damage. The Balrog then moves in and reconstructs the damaged bits to bring her out of her coma.
* In David Brin's ''Literature/KilnPeople'', a widespread technology is the creation of "dittoes", short-lived clay-based copies of a person that share their knowledge and upload their memories into their original at the end of the day. The problem is that the human brain only has space for a few hundred years' worth of memories -- ordinarily not that big a problem, since over your lifetime you'd only add maybe a century or so of memories. One character, however, has become a "queen bee" -- she stays in one place and sends out dozens of dittoes at a time to live her life for her -- and arranges for an elaborate suicide when she realizes she's almost out of room.
* Averted by the titular immortal of ''The Vampire Tapestry'', who remains active for roughly one human lifespan at a time, then goes into hibernation for an undetermined period, always waking as an amnesiac.
* In the novella ''Starplex'', this is the cause of one species' (the Ibs) natural death--the crystals that store their memories become full, and new memories begin overwriting their autonomic functions. Other species, once they develop immortality, eventually have to start discarding portions of their memories once they reach a certain age, though it's not clear what the side effects of not doing so would be.
* Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien'': In book 2 (''My Teacher Fried My Brains''), Duncan goes from dumb bully to super-genius after using an alien machine. However, his brain soon begins to pick up information like radio and TV signals out of the air, making it impossible for Duncan to think. Justified: [[spoiler:it turns out the alien's plan was to make his brain into a communication device so she could contact her leaders in space.]]
* The Dark Templar trilogy of books from ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' has this as one of the main plot threads. Human archaeologist Jacob Ramsey gets the entire mind and consciousness of a Protoss transferred to him, except this Protoss is a [[NeuroVault Preserver]], who has the memories of the entire race. This results in Jacob having several brain tumors develop, and he must find a way to get the Protoss out of his head.
* A short story and script for several anthology series: a man invents a memory enhancement drug, but finds that the result drives the adult insane. A baby/young child takes the drug, and their developing brain adapts to the new load. As a result, the child becomes a rich genius and take control of his parents and then the world.
* ''Literature/WarWithNoName'':The translator gives enormous knowledge, and this is a danger for a first-time user.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''World Without Stars'', humanity has achieved near immortality, but because our brains weren't designed to hold centuries of memories, every hundred years or so, people have to go in and decide what memories they want to keep, and what they want to forget.
* In ''The Ellimist Chronicles'' (an ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' prequel), Toomin (The Ellimist) is captured by "Father", a giant squid-like alien who connects his tentacles into the brains of his victims, and thus, having a network of hundreds of minds, has ridiculous intelligence (and the faculties to handle it). After decades of Father using Toomin as his plaything, Toomin finds a way to defeat him by absorbing all the thousands of minds that Father uses... into his ''one'' brain. The strain of having so many minds meant for so many body types caused him to hallucinate. Rather than finding a way to return to normal, however, he spends years building a spaceship/supercomputer to plug himself into (and escape Father's planet), which makes him capable of handling his newfound superintelligence. He is still mostly Toomin, however.
* ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' series has Gilgamesh. Yes, ''the'' Gilgamesh from the earliest written story. He has many millennia of memories, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever causing him to go slightly nuts and lose track of some of them]]; he talked with one person for five minutes before remembering he wanted to kill that person.
* A ScienceFiction story released in one of Asimov's anthologies had people suddenly going catatonic because the new invention of TV stored a memory for every frame shown on-screen, causing people to run out of storage space. The President, advised of the problem, held a live teleconference to warn people of the problem and froze up while watching himself on the monitor opposite him.

* In a variant, Kate in ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeaTimeOfTheSoul'' once read that the human brain can juggle a maximum of seven trains of thought or observation at once. Sure enough, when an eighth thought occurs to her, a plot-relevant detail she'd just begun to notice pops out of her head and is forgotten.
* In ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'', part of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's Future History series:
** This is noted as an issue when a computer seeks to download its personality into a WetwareBody in order to [[BecomeARealBoy experience life as a human]]. The computer's mentor and confidant has to remind it that it won't have nearly the same processing power or capacity for information storage, and indeed once the feat is accomplished, the now-female human Minerva discusses the choices she made in terms of which memories to discard and which to keep in order to avoid this trope.
** The 2,200-year-old human Lazarus Long occasionally has problems with memory. He uses some hypnotic and mnemonic techniques to remove unneeded memories and index the important parts, but more than once he's woken up and started looking for a book he finished reading decades ago. [[spoiler: When he time travels to his childhood home he's repeatedly shocked at what he's misremembering.]]
* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Inheritance]]'', [[spoiler:Galbatorix]] is defeated this way. [[spoiler:Realizing that Galbatorix and his infinite amount of power would be unkillable with any amount of attacks thrown at him, Eragon decided to just cast a spell that would make him understand all the pain he has caused. He GoesMadFromTheRevelation. It's cooler and more epic than it sounds.]]
* The Creator/BruceSterling short story "Our Neural Chernobyl" is written as a review of a monograph studying the social and cultural effects on the world after an engineered virus is released that causes rampant dendritic growth -- essentially, making people's brains extremely plastic and adaptive so they can constantly learn and think at faster and faster rates. It also frequently causes lethal burnout, nicknamed "chernobyling" after the Chernobyl power plant disaster in the '80s. Eventually, the virus even jumps species, with some animals showing signs of increased yet distinctly inhuman intellect.
* A character in M. John Harrison's Viriconium stories can only remember the last two centuries of his life, although evidence suggests he is far, far older. He lives in a vast underground complex full of machines he doesn't remember building -- or what they do -- and entire wings he forgot existed.
* In the book ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'', the titular mouse and the intellectually disabled protagonist Charlie Gordon both are given extreme intelligence from an operation. However, [[spoiler:as time goes on both Algernon and Charlie Gordon start to degrade in intelligence before finally dying, with any way to stop this from occurring lost when Charlie started losing his intelligence]].
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Barrayaran Imperial spymaster Simon Illyan was one of a host of low-ranking officers who'd had an eidetic memory chip implanted by order of the previous Emperor. Illyan was the only one not to suffer schizophrenia ''or worse'' as a result of the chip, largely by maintaining as small and pointless a personal life or personal opinions as possible. In the novel ''Memory'', however, the chip malfunctions and makes Illyan a massive security risk as he begins spouting countless secrets whenever he's not sedated, and it is slowly killing him. After the chip is removed, his memory is now much worse than a normal person's due to having leaned on the chip's capabilities for so long.

* In ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'', Tom mentions a boy who had an incredible memory, seeming to know every verse in the Bible. Until one day the mental strain of it broke his mind.
* There's a short story entitled "The Last Master of Limericks" that invokes this trope. The eponymous Last Master is, basically, a brain in a jar operating the defenses of the Solar System. It's kept "asleep" when not actually needed because of the trope. It muses at one point during the story that it long ago reached maximum capacity and now must continuously grow in order to have space to store new memories ... fortunately (or maybe not; it's got one of ''those'' endings), it's a ''large'' jar.

* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'':
** When listening to the ghost of a crusader sing on Mars, our 14th century poet is so overwhelmed by the divine truths the ghost sings of that his intelligence can't contain them. Thankfully, the soldier-spirit simplifies his speech so the poet's mind doesn't crack like a twig.
** Even with Heaven's light and the Virgin Mary's intercession empowering him, Dante can't keep even a flawed memory of what God is like in his head, losing more memory of that event than memory had been lost of events from two thousand years before.
* In ''[[Literature/Touch2017 Touch]],'' Caspar's [[TheEmpath empathy]] gets overwhelming when he's around large groups, particularly at school; he usually arrives early so that he can slowly acclimate to the growing number of people arriving. Focusing on one particular person can drown out the others, though, so he has a list of pleasant minds that he likes to rotate between.
* ''Literature/TheDarkProfitSaga'': A recurring problem for TheAgeless elves, they're constantly forgetting things in order to make room for new memories, gradually becoming what is essentially a completely different elf. Kaitha claims that she's not the legendary Jade Wind who saved Gorm's grandfather, she's someone trying to be that person in between [[TheAlcoholic bottles]].
* ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' has the Oculus, an artifact that grants sight to every location simultaneously. Kendra's only able to handle it until she starts trying to see outside the house, at which point her vision expands infinitely until she sees everything and loses all perception of herself. While the bad guys do eventually learn how to use it and there's no magic that can block it, the sheer volume of input means they can only focus on one area at a time, letting characters sense that they're being spied on and occasionally [[PokeInTheThirdEye encourage them to look elsewhere]] during important meetings.
* ''Literature/MistbornSecretHistory'': When [[spoiler:Kelsier]] temporarily holds the power of a [[PiecesOfGod Piece of God]], he gains its ability to see into the future through the Spiritual Realm. However, the future is made up of infinitely branching possibilities and relationships, which he can't make any sense of without the god's SuperIntelligence.
* ''Literature/InCryptid'': In ''Imaginary Numbers'', Sarah suffers this when she undergoes a mental metamorphosis and starts doing [[FormulaicMagic cosmic equations]] to [[spoiler:rip a hole in reality]]. At the climax, [[spoiler:she mitigates the overload and avoids melting her own brain by mentally linking to her friends and family, and then all the other Johrlac, to offload some of the equation into their minds. Most of the Johrlac don't have enough room for the information and it destroys their sense of self to make room for itself]].
* In ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'', bratty young Katarina bumped into the prince, fell over, and hit her head on a rock, which cut open her forehead. The injury wasn't all that serious, as Katarina herself says, but it ''caused'' something important. Namely, it caused Katarina to awake to her PastLifeMemories, which caused her brain to completely overflow and then shut down for five entire days while she remained in a coma with a high fever. When she woke up, her personality became totally different, and she realized that the world she was living in was all part of a visual novel she had played in her past life...
* This is pretty much the plot of the first arc of ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex''. The titular character, [[MeaningfulName Index Librorum Prohibitorum]], is being used by the church as a library of every magic tome in the world, using her [[PhotographicMemory eidetic memory]]. However, because it uses up most of her brain, they periodically wipe her other memories (ie: her memories of her own life). [[spoiler:Later subverted when it turns out that this was all just an excuse to wipe her memories for the purpose of preventing her from developing too much independence and possibly becoming a threat.]]
* In ''Literature/RebuildWorld'', the Old World internet still exists, and those who aren't careful while exploring ruins might have huge chunks of it directly downloaded into their heads, causing their brains to shut down from sheer SensoryOverload. Alpha protects Akira from this by acting as a filter for it go through, preventing him from suffering its effects while also hoarding the information to herself to reveal to Akira at her discretion. [[spoiler:In her OriginsEpisode, Carol discovered she was an old world connector in the Mihazono ruins when being overwhelmed like this, but some ghostly presence she encountered stopped the damage just in time.]]
* In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'', use of powerful observation skills such as Appraisal and Detection bombards the brain with more information than it can process. Appraisal causes fierce migraines so most people rely on tools to use the skill instead, while a split second of Detection actually damages Kumoko's soul. The only way to avoid this is by [[RequiredSecondaryPowers acquiring skills to supplement the brain's processing ability and Heresy resistance to protect the soul]].

* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'': In "Daddy's Little Girl", Michael Ancelet developed total recall after taking promicin. He is able to remember every detail of his life in perfect accuracy. However, the memories build up to such an extent that he feels as if his head will explode if he doesn't write them down. Michael's autobiography is already hundreds of page long and he has only gotten to the fourth grade.
* An episode of ''Series/AmazingStories'', "One for the Books" (based on a story by Creator/RichardMatheson), had a man involuntarily soaking up all the knowledge contained in the library in which he worked, which quickly drove him towards madness. In the end [[spoiler: it's learned that it was done by aliens, as a way to gather all that info; they "squeezed" it out of him and went on their way]].
* In ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', Harper has a database downloaded into his brain (he has a computer port on his neck), and it plays out similar to ''SG-1'', only instead of being directed to a single goal like O'Neill, Harper begins and abandons dozens of projects.

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E18Earshot Earshot]]", where Buffy accidentally gets telepathy, she starts hearing everyone's thoughts all the time. This not only overwhelms her, but it will inevitably cause her to go crazy unless the telepathy is removed. There was one other person to have gotten this, and he ended up in complete isolation, away from any other people.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' entirely averts this [[spoiler:until it's revealed that the reason Chuck was sent the Intersect was because he was one of the few people who wasn't immediately killed by this. After a few years, it seems to finally be hurting him]]. Then there's the instances where characters aside from Chuck gain the Intersect. [[spoiler:When Morgan has it, his memories are being fried and his normal personality is being "corrupted" by it. Moreover, in the series' final StoryArc, Sarah has to upload the Intersect in order to rescue Chuck from the BigBad, who has kidnapped him. However, much like Morgan, her memories take a hit, and she ends up losing all that she remembers of the past five years. This gives the villain a chance to use the amnesiac Sarah as a weapon of sorts against Chuck]]. Keep in mind that these instances involve variations of the Intersect that are tampered with via "trojan horses".
* This ''almost'' happened to Max in an episode of ''Series/DarkAngel'' which involved her taking a rival series clone's neural implant and installing it into her own brain. The strain nearly burnt out her nervous system.
* And even moreso of ''Series/DeadAt21'', in which the hero has one year to keep the intellect-enhancing chip in his brain from frying it.

* In ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' Kelly Bundy goes on a tv trivia game show on the subject of sports. Her father Al and brother Bud teach her quite a lot of trivia, but they're careful because they know that if her brain gets full then something she already knows will fall out. Unfortunately, when she appears on the show she "learns" something new and sure enough, the audience hears a "ping" as an old piece of knowledge falls out of her brain. Come the $1,000,000 question and Kelly doesn't know the answer. The question: [[spoiler:Who once scored four touchdowns in a single game for Polk High School in Chicago]]? The answer: [[spoiler:Al Bundy]].

* In ''Series/TheSecondComing'', Steve discovers that he's literally the son of God. He compares the experience of accessing divine omniscience with a human brain to "downloading fifty-million megabits into a pocket calculator," and, though it doesn't seem to be actually dangerous, he admits that it hurts.

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* In Season 5 of ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'', [[spoiler: the Archivist gains the ability to do this, forcing avatars of the Powers to know and understand all of the pain and horror they had inflicted on their victims, destroying them.]]
--> ''"Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched thing."''
[[/folder]]

* In ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'', the reaction of gaining two sets of memories from the Alternate Timeline and the original is a temporary brain overload.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}''' sees the Warforged regularly have old memories deleted in order to avoid this problem. However, the deletion process isn't perfect; as such, Warforged can always make Knowledge checks even if they don't have the requisite skill (something normally not allowed by the rules), representing them touching on a half-erased memory of the subject.

* Oracles with the Lore Mystery oracles are saddled with the Curse of Torrential Knowledge which is flavored as being this: you are connected to a divine font of information, such as the Akashic Record or a god of knowledge, that mortal minds cannot fully contain. Mechanically, it gives you penalties to initiative, the flat-footed condition, and losing the ability to communicate at all, depending on how far your curse progresses.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}: Bane of the Cosmic Forge'', one NPC is a moderately evil wizard who wished on the Cosmic Forge that "I shall know everything." The artifact's solution to the trope was to split him into two consciousnesses and divide the knowledge between them. However, as it chose to concentrate data in the one that got the body, he went insane anyway. The one who got the understanding (the "hows" and "whys") relates the story to your party.
* In the sequel, ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} 8'', this can happen to ''your own party''. One of [[MacGuffin Mac Guffins]] necessary to complete the game is Destinae Dominus, the key to knowledge. If it is held by member not wearing Helm Of Serenity, everyone in the party will become insane.
* It has become an open secret that that Arakune of ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' WasOnceAMan, but a good portion of his dementia comes from a [[BuffySpeak Runneth Overing Skull]]. [[spoiler: He acquired so much knowledge that his mind began dumping random parts of his psyche, and the process is ongoing. Of course, that means the knowledge he possesses about everything--including himself--is essentially random at all times.]] This makes all the attempts to save him with ThePowerOfLove more tragic.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'', the bounty hunter Kanden was given extensive combat encoding, but the information was more than he could handle and the process drove him insane.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'': [[spoiler:Serah]] and [[spoiler:Yeul]] will experience a vision of the future every time [[spoiler:the timeline is changed by resolving or causing paradoxes]]. While that may sound alright, [[PowerDegeneration each vision affects them worse and worse]] (it begins as a small migraine, and eventually causes them to faint each time) until they [[spoiler:eventually [[DownerEnding keel over and die]].]]
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the Prothean Beacons were designed to easily transfer information across their Empire. However, because no other race possesses the Protheans' natural empathic abilities, viewing them can potentially run the risk of destroying a weak-willed individual's mind entirely.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': Consular companion Felix Iresso and another soldier were captured by Imperials and had Sith holocrons forcibly downloaded into their heads. Sith holocrons are bad enough news, as they corrupt Force Sensitives, but Felix and his pal weren't. They can't willingly access the information, and Felix's buddy went insane after the information surfaced. Unfortunately for Felix, there doesn't seem to be a cure, so he's left with a ticking time bomb in his head.
* ''[[VideoGame/DevilSurvivor Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor]]'': {{Downplayed}} with Cain, [[spoiler: a.k.a. Naoya]]. On the up-side, living forever has given him an [[MagnificentBastard uncanny exploitative insight into human nature and motivation]] so complete that he can accurately predict an entire city's future (barring a ScrewDestiny manuver, of course). On the not-so-upside, his immortality and perfect memory have left him unable to relate to most people and give him deep frustration at seeing history's mistakes repeated constantly.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Ayleids ("Wild Elves")]] were AbusivePrecursors who [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil enslaved]] Cyrodiil's native Nedic people, ancestors of most of the modern races of Men in Tamriel. Like their Welkynd and Varla stones, the Ayleids possessed crystals which could [[GhostMemory release memories directly to the user]]. Overuse of these crystals was said to cause a "problem of capacity" for mortal minds.
* In ''VideoGame/PlagueInc'' the Simian Flu has a group of symptoms that at first glance seem counterproductive: Neuro-Enchacement, which causes the intelligence of humans to increase, making them faster at developing a cure for your disease... at least, the first 3 tiers of the symptom do. The fourth tier ensures that the neuronal growth (and, more importantly, the DNA alterations that cause it) triggers a massive autoimmune response that ends up being utterly lethal to the host, making it the deadliest symptom in the Simian Flu.
* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' the player has the option to invest skill points in the Encyclopedia skill, which will allow the PlayerCharacter to remember trivia and facts about the somewhat strange UrbanFantasy world he inhabits and bring them up in conversations. There is a downside, however, to investing too many points in this skill, namely that the voice the skill manifests as in the Player Character's head will keep interrupting his trains of thought by talking about trivia and titbits ''constantly'', which may be distracting or even disorienting.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' Has Big Bad [[spoiler: Lilith]], act this way. In simple terms, she used to be a human, but apprenticed under a Arc-Angel, who shared his knowledge with her; And had to then modify her genetic code so her brain could handle all man-kind was not meant to know. Even with her restructured brain/genetic-code, the woman became a MoodSwinger, just internalizing all she is now. She can comprehend the secrets of the cosmos, but frequently forgets who she is, at any exact moment.

* ''Webcomic/{{Mindmistress}}'' gets her super-intelligence from a [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]] pulse that kills the target in two weeks unless reversed (the brain grows so much that it is analogous to brain cancer). Her non-super self is mentally challenged.
** Also used in a different way in a later story, where the villains of the week attempts to steal her knowledge. They all go insane -- the human mind cannot handle that much knowledge.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' a race of {{immortal|ity}} aliens are found on a backworld planet. The collapse of the civilization nearly a million years ago was due to their experiments with immortality, leading to this trope as many of them went insane due to too many days going by too similar for the mind to sort out. Amongst the many measures they tried, only one worked -- upgrade their brains to make them controllably forget or ignore vast swathes of their memories.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', extended psychic conversations with the "whale" is implied to result in this given one that lasts less than 1 second results in a nasty headache.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Website/SCPFoundation:
** Apparently, this is what happen to humans coming in contact with the mysterious being [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-606 SCP-606]], resulting in coma and death from overload of information. The entity doesn't seem to do it out of malice, instead calling it "enlightening" its victims.
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-028 SCP-028]] can also overwhelm an unprepared person.
** Class W mnestics are drugs which provide resistance to many forms of LaserGuidedAmnesia and {{Perception Filter}}s. Class Z mnestics permanently destroy the brain's ability to forget anything or filter out any perception, providing complete immunity to all forms of LaserGuidedAmnesia and {{Perception Filter}}s. Unfortunately, the human brain ''normally'' filters out the vast majority of what sensory neurons perceive and normally forgets most things. Anyone who takes a class Z will recall, with perfect clarity, every instant of every single sensory neuron pumping information into their brain, leading to death by seizure in an hour or two.

* ''Literature/CaptainsLog'' has a group of aliens with nanomachines that make them immortal and heal them from all injury. The problem is that, during the 300-year journey to Earth, their brains proceed to run out of room, inflicting all of them with anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories). [[spoiler:This is why AliensAbductCattle - from their perspective, they're ''always'' collecting their "first" sample.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' example: Jérémie once tried to use the same quantum memory technology that powered the Supercomputer to enhance his own brainpower. Of course, it backfired due to both the immense physical strain and the fact that XANA introduced the possibility of that maneuver as a RedHerring.
* In an episode of the ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' animated series, [[ETGaveUsWiFi aliens bring to Earth a "Cerebral Accelerator" that boosts human intelligence]]. Agent J tries it on before [=MiB=] has a chance to safety-test it for side-effects and learns the device gives him RippleEffectProofMemory (which proves very convenient, since it happens at the same time that someone tries to pull a RetGone on the entire [=MiB=] organization) but will eventually make [[YourHeadASplode his head a splode]]. [[spoiler:After foiling the plot, and just before he burns out, he uses the time-travel tech to tell his startled past self, "Don't touch that!"]]
* The episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' where Sheen, who is somewhere between TheDitz and a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, is hit with Jimmy's brain-gain helmet, without fixing the issue of the original brain-drain helmet, a limiter. At first, it just results in incredible intelligence and [[MyBrainIsBig a much larger head]], but after a while, Sheen develops outstanding PsychicPowers, a [[AGodAmI god complex]], and [[RefugeInAudacity a head the size of a]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity house]]'' before the ResetButton is hit. It's mentioned that if the growth isn't stopped, [[YourHeadAsplode Sheen's head will eventually explode]].
** At one point, Jimmy calculates the maximum possible number Sheen's IQ could grow to. ''[[SerialEscalation It hits infinity.]]''
* This is the entire reason why WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}} is so damn zany: the accident that empowered Dexter also uploaded ''all'' information from the Internet into his brain. Maybe that wasn't that big of a deal back then, considering the volume of info had yet to reach the terabytes (perhaps even gigabytes), but even at that time, that was still a lot for a single brain to handle.
** Though it could also have to do with what ''all the information from the Internet'' encompasses...
* This is used against a villain in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck''. In the final showdown, DW and Launchpad get their hands on the [[ShoutOut Norma Ray]], a device that increases your IQ and gives you psychic powers as long as you clear your mind of all thought (or else you get a [[MyBrainIsBig literal]] and [[InsufferableGenius figurative]] "swelled head"). They bombard the villain with rays while asking him a bunch of tough questions at once, causing him to lose his concentration and [[YourHeadASplode make his head so big that it blows up]].
* Happens to ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' of all people, in the episode "Squilliam Returns". Squidward turns the Krusty Krab into a fine dining establishment to impress Squilliam, and Spongebob is to wait tables. After learning everything associated with fine dining, his skull runneth over '''hard''', to the point where he cannot even remember his own name any more! The only thing he can remember, except for fine dining, is breathing.

** Dr. Hugo Strange gets all the knowledge in the universe in return for helping [[spoiler:the Joining]]. When he receives it, he ends up comatose (though the ComicBook/MartianManhunter can still read his mind to get the information they need to defeat [[spoiler:the Joining]]).

* In ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', using the Shen Gong Wu named Fountain of Hui grants the user insight to anything and everything. However, without its sister-Wu the Eagle Scope, which is mostly an uber-telescope, the Fountain of Hui will only grant the user a humongous head and random facts, such as the length of the world's largest toenail, which they will babble incessantly for about a week.
** It also seems to imply that using the Fountain of Hui without the Eagle Scope results in pain as well as the huge head and random fact-spouting, given that Omi's immediate action after saying the length of the world's largest toenail is to grip his head and complain "Ow..."
* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', Comicbook/{{Rogue}}'s power absorption eventually left her with fragments of all the people she absorbed, such that she couldn't help randomly using their powers occasionally. Then she went and bumped into Mystique, providing a handy outlet for those fragments in the form of shapeshifting. A rampage ensued. Xavier had to telepathically purge her of all the accumulated personalities to get her back under control.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Homer believes that mundane learning has this effect on him, citing as an example a time when he took a home wine-making course and forgot how to drive. Marge points out the more obvious cause of this loss of ability.
-->'''Marge''': That's because you were ''drunk!''\\
'''Homer:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint And how!]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', Felix Faust makes a bargain with Hades for ultimate knowledge; when Hades gives it to him, Faust cries in pain and begins to shrivel and wither, making it seem like this trope is in effect. {{Subverted}}; Hades then tells him that "Ultimately, pain and suffering are all mankind will ever know," making it seem more like a cruelly poetic version of RewardedAsATraitorDeserves than this trope.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'': In "New Gods on the Block!", the kids try out to be Zeus's replacement in the Greek pantheon. Huey's audition as the God of Intuition backfires when his ability to see people's futures leads to him upsetting people by blurting out their worst possible futures, not to mention making [[MyBrainIsBig his head swell to grotesque proportions]].
-->'''Huey:''' I can never know that much ''again''!

* ''Film/{{Arena}}'': Coincidentally-named, the character "Skull" meets his end this way. When Steve competes in the final arena fight at the end of the film, Skull connects his brain to, and sabotages, the handicap computer controlling the skill match-up between Steve and his opponent. When Steve's co-worker, Shorty, suspects foul play, he goes to investigate. When fighting the arena manager's enforcer, Shorty gets thrown into the handicap computer, causing it to overload, and eventually, causes Skull's head to explode:

* In Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/MyTeacherFriedMyBrains'', Duncan goes from dumb bully to super-genius after using an alien machine. However, his brain soon begins to pick up information like radio and TV signals out of the air, making it impossible for Duncan to think. Justified: [[spoiler:it turns out the alien's plan was to make his brain into a communication device so she could contact her leaders in space.]]

* ''[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/hybrid-hive-eat-shard-worm-mgln-complete.55056/ Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard]]'': Since Taylor's Unison Device consumed her shard connection, Taylor can still use her canonical bug control when she chooses to. However, without a corona pollentia and gemma in her brain, the multitasking systems aren't on the same level as the shard would have provided, leaving her thoroughly overwhelmed whenever she switches the ability on. She decides to bite the bullet and keep it on for several hours, in order to adapt, but after an hour the Device automatically switches it off again to avoid permanent brain damage.
--> '''Hive:''' The sheer number of inputs from the insect control systems far exceeded your brain's ability to process, even with the multitasking systems providing outside assistance. In the hour between shutdown and your awakening I detected accelerated healing and adjustment of your brain, I suspect in part fueled by your mana stores helping along your desire to accomplish this task resulting in an adaptation to assist you with the rush of information. I have recorded the mana linkage patterns for later review, but have not had time to decipher them. For your own safety the insect control system is currently locked until you have recovered from this attempt, I estimate that will take at least four days, during which I will also refrain from utilizing the multitasking systems while you’re sleeping.

* ''[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/hybrid-hive-eat-shard-worm-mgln-complete.55056/ Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard]]'': Since Taylor's Unison Device consumed her shard connection, Taylor can still use her canonical bug control when she chooses to. However, the multitasking systems aren't on the same level as the shard would have provided, leaving her thoroughly overwhelmed whenever she switches the ability on. She decides to bite the bullet and keep it on for several hours, in order to adapt, but after an hour the Device automatically switches it off again to avoid permanent brain damage.

* In ''Manga/HoshiKuzuTelepath'', when [[TheDitz Yuu]] finds herself dumbfounded by [[GadgeteerGenius Raimon]]'s explanation about how model rockets work, she tries to take a shortcut and use forehead telepathy to download the knowledge directly. However, it immediately backfires when the dense technical knowledge blows her off her feet.
* Ryō in ''Manga/BocchiTheRock'' has a similar situation as ''K-On''[='=]s Yui--she's usually BookDumb due to being a RidiculousProcrastinator, though she is able to get great results if she puts in effort... which usually means she will forget how to do things like playing the bass.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', this happens to Yagami Light when he [[spoiler: regains memories of the Death Note]]. However, he regains his composure within a few seconds because [[AllAccordingToPlan this was part of his plan]].

* ''WebOriginal/CaptainsLog'' has a group of aliens with nanomachines that make them immortal and heal them from all injury. The problem is that, during the 300-year journey to Earth, their brains proceed to run out of room, inflicting all of them with anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories). [[spoiler:This is why AliensAbductCattle - from their perspective, they're ''always'' collecting their "first" sample.]]

** [[spoiler:[[PredecessorVillain Provost Willem]] of Byrgenwerth tried to "line his brain with eyes" using a piece of Great One umbilical cord, but the ritual seems to have functionally had the opposite effect: by the events of the game he's a drooling vegetable, unable to rise from his rocking chair as he blankly gazes out upon Moonside Lake, where Rom resides.]]
** [[spoiler:The School of Mensis made contact with Mergo in an attempt to bargain with the stillborn godling for eldritch knowledge, but all they got out of it was "the stillbirth of their brains". The entire lot of them are ''long'' dead by the time you enter their ritual chamber in Yahar'gul, nothing remaining but skeletons. They seem to still be alive in the DreamLand, though with the exception of their leader Micolash all of them seem to have degenerated into various monsters.]]

** [[spoiler:Rom ''was'' able to successfully become a Kin of the Great Ones through contact with [[NotQuiteDead Kos]], but the process burned out her mind and reduced her to the level of [[AlmightyIdiot a giant bug with cosmic power]].

** [[spoiler:The School of Mensis made contact with Mergo in an attempt to bargain with the stillborn godling for eldritch knowledge, but all they got out of it was "the stillbirth of their brains". The entire lot of them are ''long'' dead by the time you enter their lair in Yahar'gul, nothing remaining but skeletons. They seem to still be alive in the DreamLand, though with the exception of their leader Micolash all of them seem to have degenerated into various monsters.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', the School of Mensis [[spoiler: made contact with the Great One Mergo, but either the eldritch knowledge they gained or merely the contact with an EldritchAbomination caused 'the stillbirth of their brains', as the entire group of people in the room where you enter Mergo's Loft have been reduced to skeletons. A similar thing seems to have happened to Master Willem, judging by his vegetative state by the time you encounter him.]]
** The item called Madman's Knowledge is an almost literal representation of this trope, being a madman's skull broken open by something eldritch. The player can use it to gain Insight.
--> ''Making contact with eldritch wisdom is a blessing, for even if it drives one mad, it allows one to serve a grander purpose, for posterity.''

* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Inheritance]]'', [[spoiler:Galbatorix]] is defeated this way. [[spoiler:Realizing that Galbatorix and his infinite amount of power would be unable to kill with any amount of attacks thrown at him, Eragon decided to just cast a spell that would make him understand all the pain he has caused. He GoesMadFromTheRevelation. It's cooler and more epic than it sounds.]]

* At the end of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', [[spoiler:Irina Spalko gets all the knowledge the aliens possess ([[MemeticMutation it was their treasure]]) downloaded into her mind, but it's so much that her head (and then the rest of her) explodes.]]

->''The wizard who reads a thousand books is powerful. The wizard who memorizes a thousand books is insane.''

* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'', the {{God Emp|eror}}ress Jadis forced herself to witness the True Shape of the Universe, a feat that once caused a goddess' eyes to boil in their sockets. This made her TheOmniscient but scoured her body and mind, leaving her a DarkLordOnLifeSupport who can do nothing but whisper infallible prophecies from the block of glass in which she's entombed. [[spoiler:As it turns out, she's still perfectly lucid in there (at least, capable of pantomiming perfect lucidity), simply utterly crushed by the knowledge that [[PrescienceIsUnpredictable the future is deterministic and unchangeable.]]

* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'', the {{God Emp|eror}}ress Jadis forced herself to witness the True Shape of the Universe, a feat that once caused a goddess' eyes to boil in their sockets. This made her TheOmniscient but scoured her body and mind, leaving her a DarkLordOnLifeSupport who can do nothing but whisper infallible prophecies from the block of glass in which she's entombed.

* People with bipolar disorder often go through a period of high creativity, fast and often quite clever thinking before the sleep-deprivation psychosis kicks in. The feeling of being on such a high can often be like one's skull literally overflowing with energy; and sleep deprivation doesn't need to happen. The insomnia can be controlled with medication, for a start.

** On the negative side, this trope can cause meltdowns for autistic people and those with sensory processing disorders. So you can sense/hear/feel, etc. more than others? Sounds cool, until your brain can't cope with an overwhelming amount/intensity of information - loud music, bright lights, intense smells, etc. This can cause distress, interfere with brain functions, ranging from discomfort, emotional shutdowns, and a need to get away from the stressor, to a full-blown crying/screaming meltdown (that are distinct from tantrums, because the person can't immediately stop the meltdown, and aren't doing it to get what they want). Furthermore, this stress can force the autistic person to stim [[note]]short for "self-stimulating behavior", basically anything that helps people calm and ground themselves: clicking a pen, fiddling with a cube, chewing on things, etc.[[/note]]. Those with stims considered "unacceptable" in public, or stims that cause harm to themselves and/or others, might get in trouble.
* Solomon Shereshevskii, a Russian mnemotist (who did not, in fact, have an EideticMemory) had the ability to remember things so well that he became dislocated in time; he eventually became unable to tell whether the thing you just told him happened 5 minutes or 5 years ago. He had to literally learn to mentally remove facts from his memory (in other words, deliberately forget). It didn't help that he had fivefold synaesthesia, an extremely strong form of synaesthesia in which stimulating one sense meant a reaction from them ''all''. Website/ThatOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Shereshevskii has an article on him.]]

* On ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', Harper had a database downloaded into his brain (he has a computer port on his neck), and it played out similar to ''SG-1'', only instead of being directed to a single goal like O'Neill, Harper began and abandoned dozens of projects.

* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' entirely averts this [[spoiler:until it's revealed that the reason Chuck was sent the Intersect was because he was one of the few people who wasn't immediately killed by this. After a few years it seems to finally be hurting him.]]
** And then, there's the instances where characters aside from Chuck gain the Intersect. [[spoiler: When Morgan had it, his memories were being fried and his normal personality was being "corrupted" by it. Moreover, in the series' final StoryArc, Sarah had to upload the Intersect in order to rescue Chuck from the BigBad, who had kidnapped him. However, much like Morgan, her memories took a hit and she ended up losing all that she remembered of the past five years. This gave the villain a chance to use the amnesiac Sarah as a weapon of sorts against Chuck.]] Keep in mind, that these instances involved variations of the Intersect that were tampered with "trojan horses".

*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]]: Rose absorbs the Time Vortex, making her effectively a goddess, but is in danger of being "burned up" by the power and whispers, "I can see everything. The sun and the moon, the day and the night — but why do they hurt? My head... is killing me."
*** As revealed in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums "The Sound of Drums"]], becoming a Time Lord runs the risk of this. The initiates are taken to the Untempered Schism, a hole in space-time, and forced to look inside at the whole of time and space. Those who aren't inspired or run away tend to go completely flipping bonkers. The Doctor suspects the Master is a result of this.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]: [[spoiler:In a fatal example, River Song uses her own brain as a data buffer to download the Library survivors out of the core, killing her in the process.]]
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]: [[spoiler:Donna Noble]] has all of the Doctor's mind copied into her head; combined with human ingenuity, this makes her even cleverer than the Doctor. But her mind cannot take it, and the only way to save her [[spoiler:is to [[VictoryGuidedAmnesia remove all memories she has of the Doctor and their adventures]].]]
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E8TheHauntingOfVillaDiodati "The Haunting of Villa Diodati"]]: [[spoiler:Percy Shelley]] nearly dies after accidentally absorbing [[spoiler:the Cyberium, a powerful Cyber-AI containing data on the entire history of the Cybermen]], because it's too much for his brain. By contrast, the Doctor's Time Lord mind can handle it just fine.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': River Tam got along pretty well being incredibly intelligent with a bit of psychic ability. Then [[TheEmpire the government]] [[PlayingWithSyringes gets a hold of her]]. They make her undeniably kickass, but one consequence is that now her greatly increased psychic abilities make her insane, unable to filter out what she hears.
-->''"Make them stop! They're everywhere. Every city, every house, every room; they're all inside me! I can hear them all and they're saying... NOTHING! GET UP! Please, get up!... Please God, make me a stone."''
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Matt Parkman has this problem when he gets his telepathy, but after a while he learns to control it better and the problems stop.
** Until Ando super-charges Matt's power, causing a temporary but disabling case of this trope.
* On one episode of Scifi's ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'', Hobbes was accidentally stabbed with a serum that would cause his intelligence to rapidly increase. However, he'd go through several stages, gradually becoming an InsufferableGenius, then a [[TheyCalledMeMad crazy genius]], then, with this trope, his brain would become so advanced he would retreat into his own mental world of absolute knowledge, and stop using or caring about his body at all. Fortunately, it was stopped and reversed at the InsufferableGenius stage.
** One of the college students who was injected committed suicide and took the creator of the serum with her. The other three ended up catatonic. According to the Keeper, "they found them [[their minds]] and it was more than they could handle."
* ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' had an episode where a child Joan had babysat earlier in the season died. In the middle of a RageAgainstTheHeavens rant at God, God offers to show her what he sees and hears every day. Fifteen seconds later, she's on the floor, unable to deal with the downsides of omniscience.
* On ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' Kelly Bundy goes on a tv trivia game show on the subject of sports. Her father Al & brother Bud teach her quite a lot of trivia, but they're careful because they know that if her brain gets full then something she already knows will fall out. Unfortunately, when she appears on the show she "learns" something new and sure enough, the audience hears a "ping" as an old piece of knowledge falls out of her brain. Come the $1,000,000 question and Kelly doesn't know the answer. The question: [[spoiler:Who once scored four touchdowns in a single game for Polk High School in Chicago]]? The answer: [[spoiler:Al Bundy]].
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Stream of Consciousness", the Stream forces people to collate all information in the world to the point that their brains cannot process it and they die.

* In ''Series/TheSecondComing'', Steve (played by Creator/ChristopherEccleston, who would later play the [[Series/DoctorWho Ninth Doctor]]) discovers that he's literally the son of God. He compares the experience of accessing divine omniscience with a human brain to "downloading fifty-million megabits into a pocket calculator," and, though it doesn't seem to be actually dangerous, he admits that it hurts.
* ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'' used this a few times:

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Seven of Nine downloads huge amounts of data straight into her head, but can't handle it, and starts creating wild conspiracy theories.
** The scary thing is how much sense most of them make, given the evidence she provides.
*** Until she starts using the exact same evidence to create [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome different, contradictory theories]].
** The Doctor tries it by uploading the knowledge of many geniuses, but he also ends up getting their dark sides too. He gains an EvilGenius SplitPersonality.

* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', Barrayaran Imperial spymaster Simon Illyan was one of a host of low-ranking officers who'd had an eidetic memory chip implanted by order of the previous Emperor. Illyan was the only one not to suffer schizophrenia ''or worse'' as a result of the chip, largely by maintaining as small and pointless a personal life or personal opinions as possible. In the novel ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', however, the chip malfunctions and makes Illyan a massive security risk as he begins spouting countless secrets whenever he's not sedated, and it is slowly killing him. After the chip is removed, his memory is now much worse than a normal person's due to having leaned on the chip's capabilities for so long.