Daydreaming Is Really Complex Problem-Solving

beefsprocket writes "ScienceDaily reports that '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 (abstract), 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."'"

Comments

Re:I'll be sure to let my boss know...

[LaskoVortex]

'Distal goals', eh?

It's called "ideas". You might have heard of them during your job as a postal worker. Here are some of these "ideas", as we call them, that arose during daydreaming sessions: PCR, calculus, assembly lines, printing press. See, these *must* be "ideas", as we call them, because similar technology must exist. Here is the oft-quoted story of PCR ripped from wikipedia:

That spring, according to Mullis, he was driving his vehicle late one night with his girlfriend, who was also a chemist at Cetus, when he had the idea to use a pair of primers to bracket the desired DNA sequence and to copy it using DNA polymerase, a technique which would allow a small strand of DNA to be copied almost an infinite number of times.

For PCR, Mullis got the Nobel prize. This is in sharp contrast to your lack of a Nobel prize.

So yes. Distal goals.