I am a chiropractor who often must sit with patients and look them directly in the eyes contact while explaining my findings after a lengthy physical. During these times I’m often fascinated to observe who is actually listening and who has gone off to “the Bahamas,” as I often think it. Though I can see the effects of losing a person’s attention, I can never quite pinpoint when that shift takes place. Is there a precise “moment” when our minds shift from attention to wandering into the realms of possibility and potential? A new study on “mind-wandering” indicates that there is.
The study was recently published in PNAS by a group of scientists, led by Kalina Christoff of UBC and Jonathan Schooler of UCSB. They used fMRI to capture the moment of daydreaming. The subjects were given an extremely tedious task and, when their mind started to wander, the changes in their brain activity were recorded in the scanner.
The results suggest that mind-wandering may evoke a unique mental state that may allow otherwise opposing networks in the brain to work in cooperation. In recent years scientists have demonstrated that daydreaming is such a fundamental feature of the human mind that it’s frequently referred to as the “default” mode of thought. Daydreaming, scientists argue, is a crucial tool for creativity. Instead of focusing on immediate surroundings, the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings. (Not good news when a patient needs to hear a diagnosis, a child needs to pay attention in class, or someone driving a car needs to be fully focused.) And, as a result, we’re able to imagine things that don’t actually exist.
“If your mind didn’t wander, then you’d be largely shackled to whatever you are doing right now,” says Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “But instead you can engage in mental time travel and other kinds of simulation. During a daydream, your thoughts are really unbounded.”
I’m all for “unbounded” thought, but unfortunately the mind of many of us appears to “free” itself, unexpectedly, and when it needs the boundaries of focus. Not all daydreaming is productive or creative, but it may be necessary. Maybe we all need “daydreaming breaks” throughout the day to allow our mind the freedom (and safety) to roam.
For more on this study, go to scienceblogs.com and read more. Jonah Lehrer is an excellent writer