We usually associate brain activity with tasks that require mental effort, but have you ever wondered if your brain is active even when you’re not doing anything? It turns out the answer is yes.
Research has shown that our brains are constantly active even during periods of rest or ‘zoning out’ on the couch, and this activity is thought to be important for several functions, including memory consolidation and problem solving.
The researchers found that activity in certain areas of the brain increased during the tasks, while activity in other areas decreased at the same time, Quanta Magazine reported.
This led them to be intrigued by the consistent activity of the same brain regions across different tasks, as if they were active when the person was doing nothing and turned off when focused on external stimuli.
They called these areas “negative tasks,” which prompted research into the role of brain networks in controlling our internal experience, rather than just brain regions.
Marcus Raichle, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, discovered that the mental inner, task-negative regions in the resting mind consume more energy than the rest of the brain.
Also read: X faces temporary disruption in Pakistan as users cannot access website, app
In 2001, a study called this activity the “default mode of brain function.” Two years later, a team at Stanford University discovered that this task-negative activity forms a coherent network of interacting brain regions that they called the “default mode network.”
The default mode, one of the first brain networks, consists of several brain regions such as the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex and others scattered throughout the brain.
These areas are associated with memory, replay of experience, prediction, action consideration, reward/punishment, and information integration.
Since its discovery, neuroscientists have identified several distinct networks that synchronously activate seemingly disparate areas of the brain and synchronize with each other.
Research suggests that the default mode network, which includes mind wandering, recalling past experiences, thinking about the mental states of others, imagining the future, and processing language, can help create an internal story.
According to Vinod Menon, director of the Stanford Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, this network helps individuals think about their identity in relation to others, recall past experiences, and create a coherent self-narrative.
The default mode is obviously doing something tricky; it is involved in many different processes that cannot be neatly described.
