Daydreaming can be good for you and actually boost the brain, researchers have found.
According to the new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a wandering mind can impart a distinct cognitive advantage.
Scientists at Bar-Ilan University were able to show an external stimulus of low-level electricity can literally change the way we think, producing a measurable up-tick in the rate at which daydreams – or spontaneous, self-directed thoughts and associations – occur.
'Over the last 15 or 20 years, scientists have shown that – unlike the localized neural activity associated with specific tasks – mind wandering involves the activation of a gigantic default network involving many parts of the brain,' Prof. Moshe Bar, part of the University's Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center said.
'This cross-brain involvement may be involved in behavioral outcomes such as creativity and mood, and may also contribute to the ability to stay successfully on-task while the mind goes off on its merry mental way.'
Bar believes that this surprising result might stem from the convergence, within a single brain region, of both the 'thought controlling' mechanisms of executive function and the 'thought freeing' activity of spontaneous, self-directed daydreams.
While it is commonly assumed that people have a finite cognitive capacity for paying attention, Bar said that the present study suggests that the truth may be more complicated.
'Interestingly, while our study's external stimulation increased the incidence of mind wandering, rather than reducing the subjects' ability to complete the task, it caused task performance to become slightly improved.
'The external stimulation actually enhanced the subjects' cognitive capacity.'
Participants were treated with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive and painless procedure that uses low-level electricity to stimulate specific brain regions.
No comments:
Post a Comment