If you’ve ever had your mind blank out while in the middle of something, you’re far from alone. In research published this week, scientists are making the case that mind blanking is a genuine brain phenomenon.
Researchers from Belgium, France, and Australia conducted the study, a review of the existing data on mind blanking. They argue that blanking out should be seen and studied as its own state of consciousness, similar to but separate from things like having your mind wander.
The authors are all experts in consciousness research, and they were inspired to collaborate following a related annual conference about three years ago. According to Athena Demertzi, director of the Physiology of Cognition lab at the University of Liège, the topic of mind-blanking isn’t exactly new to some scientists, particularly those studying meditation. But interest in it has also been steadily gathering steam among researchers studying cognition and sleep in recent years.
“Cognitive scientists have begun to recognize that individuals may also experience moments of blankness during wakefulness in their everyday life,” she told Gizmodo in an email. “Meanwhile, in the field of sleep and dreaming research, special categories of dreams, such as so-called ‘white dreams,’ where individuals recall having dreamt but cannot retrieve any content, have drawn increasing attention.”
Demertzi and her colleagues reviewed data from around 80 research papers relevant to mind blanking, which included studies of theirs where they measured people’s brain activity during reported moments of the volunteers having nothing on their mind. And they came to a simple conclusion.
“Mind blanking is real, it’s not just a matter of forgetting or a failure to report. At times during the day, our stream of thoughts can simply stop, leaving us with the experience of thinking about nothing,” she said. “In our review, we show that mind blanking is not merely a subjective impression or an illusion. It corresponds to a distinct brain state, one that differs from those associated with the experience of specific mental content.”
According to the researchers, mind blanking is linked to its own unique patterns of brain activity. In studies where people were asked to explicitly clear their mind of any thoughts, for instance, brain scans revealed reduced activity in certain regions like the supplementary motor cortex and hippocampus. Data from electroencephalograms (EEG) also indicate that parts of the brain might enter a sleep-like state when we blank out.
The team’s findings, published Thursday in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, also suggest that people experience mind blanking between 5% and 20% of the time on average. And certain people seem more prone to blanking out than others, such as those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). That said, more research is needed to confirm these findings and to help answer plenty more open questions about the nature of mind blanking.
“For instance, we don’t yet know how long mind blanking episodes typically last, or whether there are different types. Could some instances be voluntary? Might mind blanking occur during high-performance states, such as flow?” Demertzi noted. “A deeper understanding of its neural mechanisms is also needed. Is mind blanking the result of a failure to generate mental content, or is it a failure of access (where content exists but doesn’t reach conscious awareness)?”
The authors ultimately hope their work can inspire others in the field to start paying more attention to blanking out. Meanwhile, I just want scientists to one day unravel where exactly in the brain all my intrusive thoughts about my cat come from.
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