A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains
are much more active when we daydream than previously thought.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, finds that activity in numerous brain regions
increases when our minds wander. It also finds that brain areas
associated with complex problem-solving – previously thought to
go dormant when we daydream – are in fact highly active during
these episodes. "Mind wandering is typically associated with
negative things like laziness or inattentiveness," says lead
author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "But
this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream –
much more active than when we focus on routine tasks." For the
study, subjects were placed inside an fMRI scanner, where they
performed the simple routine task of pushing a button when
numbers appear on a screen. The researchers tracked subjects'
attentiveness moment-to-moment through brain scans, subjective
reports from subjects and