The Wild Thing That Might Actually Be Happening When Your Mind Goes Blank, According To Research
PeopleImages | ShutterstockWe all have moments when our brains just go blank, and there's nothing really floating around up there. No daydreams, intrusive thoughts, or even just your mind mindlessly wandering to a random topic. Scientists have a name for it: "mind blanking."
Apparently, these moments aren't just about extreme daydreaming but actually pauses in our consciousness. Researchers at Sorbonne University in Paris conducted a study in which they monitored the brain activity of 62 adults during a simple task to determine exactly what happens when a person's brain is devoid of thoughts.
Researchers found that when your mind goes blank while you're awake, it's actually a pause in consciousness.
Participants in the study were reporting what was happening in their minds at random points (about every 40-70 seconds). They were expected to explain what was happening before the probe, including if they were focused on the task, mind wandering, mind blanking, or if they just couldn't remember at all.
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The results, which were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that mind blanking happened quite often (about 16% of the time, compared to 35% for mind wandering). During mind blanking, people seemingly slowed down and even missed more responses, as if they were mentally checked out.
The brain shows patterns during mental absences.
The research team at Sorbonne was able to measure multiple aspects of brain function, from the complexity of neural signals to how different brain regions communicate. During mind blanking, they found that the front of the brain showed increased fast activity while the back, especially areas processing visual information, showed the opposite pattern.
When researchers also analyzed how the brain responded to the visual stimuli participants were monitoring, they found something interesting. During focused attention and mind wandering, visual information traveled through the brain normally, triggering responses around 200 milliseconds after each image appeared and continuing through later processing stages.
The findings from the study concluded that mind blanking may represent genuine gaps in the stream of conscious experience, brief moments when the brain fails to generate or access conscious content. This conclusion fits with some theories suggesting consciousness isn’t continuous but occurs in discrete moments separated by contentless periods.
Researchers have long encouraged that people need to be bored.
"Start getting better at periods that are 15 minutes and longer of boredom, and watch your life change. Number one, you’ll be less bored with ordinary things in your life. If you get better at the skill of boredom, you’ll be less bored with your job," explained Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks. "You’ll be less bored with your relationships. You’ll be less bored with the things that are going on around you."
Science has shown that the default state of the brain after completing a task is known as a resting state. This is supposed to be an important stage for the brain as it's usually consolidating memories and reflecting on lessons learned. The brain is usually playing through scenarios and applying what was learned for future endeavors.
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"Boredom can be a stimulus for change, leading you to better ideas, higher ambitions, and greater opportunities. Most of our achievements, of man’s achievements, are born out of the dread of boredom," encouraged psychiatrist Neel Burton.
So, when your mind goes blank at some points, it's not necessarily a bad thing at all. In fact, we should all probably be sitting in this state more often, as it can lead to improvements in so many areas of life, and even help us reach the success that we're striving for.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
