2023-11-26 19:00:00
For a long time people and professionals have wondered if it is possible “think of nothing” or stay with the “blank mind“and if this can have some kind of use. In this regard, it has been shown that brain activity never stops and thoughts may “quiet,” but not stop completely.
In this sense, according to the agency THATexperts from the University of California published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a study on a common pattern that occurs in the human brain while people encounter the “blank mind”known as Default Mode Network (DMN) or default neural network.
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It is a neural network that comes into operation when people are not focused on any particular task. According to the study, it is linked to cognitive processes as the introspectionthe imaginationthe memory and the consolidation of new memories.
Among the most significant findings made by the experts, it is highlighted that the pattern of brain activity at rest might predict mental performance in the future, since the mental states in this process are relevant indicators regarding the Cognitive ability.
In other words, mental activity at rest can lay the foundation for future-focused brain activity, as the brain would use downtime to prepare and plan actions regarding future events. future tasks and decisions.
How the study was carried out to analyze the “blank mind”
The published study was carried out by a team of nine experts under the leadership of Dr. Mladen Sormaz, professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of York. It was carried out on the basis of 200 cases And through of experiments.
In the first experiment, we asked 145 participants to perform a 12-minute task which required intense mental effort. Then, these were separated into three groups, one of them continued to demand his brain, another who began to perform a relaxation and meditation task and the third who had to sit in a room in silence, with nothing to do.
During the second experiment, 50 new participants They were given a task that involved processing complex visual information. They were then divided into two groups: one continued with the same task, while the other sat in a silent room without any type of activity for 15 minutes.
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While both tests were being carried out, the experts measured the brain activity of the participants both before and following the different tasks, through a brain imaging technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
After carrying out the relevant experiments, studies and analysis, the professionals involved concluded that there is a pattern of common brain activity (DMN) that arises when people, apparently, are not thinking regarding anything in particular.
In turn, they determined that having a “blank mind” does not necessarily imply being unproductive, given that in said state, certain brain regions continue to process sensory informationso that the brain analyzes the environment and processes information continuously.
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