Relax. Zoning out happens to other folks all the time as well.
Do you ever walk into a room, look around vaguely then try to remember what it is you thought you wanted to do there in the first place?
Or have you searched the house vainly for your glasses before eventually realising you are, in fact, already wearing them?
For your ageing correspondent, this is becoming a more frequent occurrence – something his parents used to refer to as “having a senior moment”.
But this phenomenon, known as “mind blanking” is not confined to folks of advancing years, and thanks to a new study by a team of neuroscientists and philosophers from Europe, and our own Monash University, we might just know a little bit more about it.
Publishing this week in the journal, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the team details findings from previous studies of mind blanking and combines that with insights gleaned from their own work observing brain activity.
While the definition of mind blanking can be varied, the research team posited that while people are awake, their thoughts transition between different contents. However, there are moments that are “seemingly devoid of reportable content”, and it this state which they refer to as mind blanking.
And while it remains an open question as to what these blanks might represent, author Dr Jennifer Windt of Monash University’s Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies, says a mind blank is more likely to occur when the brain is “in a high- or low-arousal state”.
“Even when we are trying to focus on what we are doing, our attention frequently drifts away from ongoing tasks and the here and now,” Dr Windt said in a media release.
“Moreover, when our attention lapses, we can experience a variety of mental states, such as daydreaming and freely moving thoughts, or even no thoughts at all.”
Interestingly, the research team found that even though mind-blank frequency varied greatly between different people, the phenomenon occurred on average about 5 to 20% of the time.
They also said that mind blanks tended to happen towards the end of long, sustained-attention tasks, such as exams and after sleep deprivation or intense physical exercise.
The research team added that during mind blanks after sustained-attention tasks, people’s heart rates and pupil sizes decreased and their brains showed lower signal complexity, comparable to a state often observed in unconscious people.
So, all very interesting, but do these findings offer helpful insights into the human condition?
Of course they do, our researchers say.
For starters, the study “challenges the common conception that wakefulness involves a constant stream of thought”, lead author Thomas Andrillon said.
It was also important because “mind blanking highlights the inter-individual differences in subjective experience”, he added.
Personally, your Back Page scribbler is simply comforted by the fact that not only does mind blanking happen to other people, it happens to them quite a lot as well.
That’s right … now you remember … you were going to send story tips to cate@medicalrepublic.com.au
