Neurologist Discovers Internal Mental and Negative Task Areas in Resting Mind Use More Energy Than Rest of Brain
We normally 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 “distraction” 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 increases during the tasks, while activity in other areas decreases simultaneously. Quanta Magazine reported.
This led them to be intrigued by the constant activity of the same brain areas during various tasks, as if they were active when the person was doing nothing and turned off when concentrating on external stimuli.
They called these areas “task negative,” which prompted research into the role of brain networks in managing our internal experience, rather than just brain regions.
Marcus Raichle, a neurologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, found that the internal mental and negative task areas in the resting mind use more energy than the rest of the brain.
In 2001, a study called this activity “a default mode of brain function.” Two years later, a team at Stanford University found that this task-negative activity forms a coherent network of interacting brain regions, which they called the “default mode network.”
Default mode, one of the first brain networks, consists of a few brain regions, such as the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortices, and others scattered throughout the brain.
These regions are associated with memory, repetition of experiences, prediction, consideration of actions, reward/punishment, and information integration.
Since its discovery, neuroscientists have identified several distinct networks that activate seemingly disparate areas of the brain in synchrony, harmonizing in synchrony with each other.
Research suggests that the default network mode, which includes wandering, remembering past experiences, thinking about the mental states of others, visualizing the future, and processing language, can help build an internal narrative.
According to Vinod Menon, director of the Stanford Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, this network helps people think about their identity to others, remember past experiences, and create a coherent personal narrative.
The default mode is clearly up to something complicated; It is involved in many different processes that cannot be clearly described.
