Worried about the habit of daydreaming or a wandering mind during meetings in office or at home? Take heart, it may not be as bad as you think, but a sign that you are really smart and creative, researchers say.
The findings showed people with efficient brains may have too much brain capacity to stop their minds from wandering when performing easy tasks.
“People tend to think of mind wandering as something that is bad. You try to pay attention and you can’t. Our data are consistent with the idea that this isn’t always true. Some people have more efficient brains,” said Eric Schumacher, Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US.
Higher efficiency means more capacity to think, and the brain may mind wander when performing easy tasks, he said.
For the study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, the team measured the brain patterns of people while they lay in an MRI machine.
The researchers then used the data to identify which areas of the brain work together during an awake, resting state.
“The correlated brain regions gave us insight about which areas of the brain work together during an awake, resting state,” said Christine Godwin, doctoral student at the varsity.
“Interestingly, research has suggested that these same brain patterns measured during these states are related to different cognitive abilities,” Godwin added.
Individuals who reported more frequent daydreaming scored higher on intellectual and creative ability and had more efficient brain systems measured in the MRI machine, the researchers said.