Imagine That
People may think daydreaming is bad: If students don't pay attention in class, they may have trouble doing homework. If workers spend meetings thinking about a football match, they may have difficulties finishing the job. However, scientists who study the brain (大脑) have learned many interesting things. In fact, far from being a waste of time, some scientists believe that daydreaming is a healthy and useful activity for all of our brains.
In order to study the brain, scientists use special machines to check which parts of the brain are active at certain times. When a person is daydreaming, the machine will show the activity in the brain called the default mode (默认模式) of thinking. In the default mode, the top or outside part of the brain is very active. Actually, several parts of the brain are working together in this mode. Some scientists say in this mode the brain pays attention to itself but not the environment around the person. Usually, this happens when a person is doing easy work or boring jobs that don't need much attention, like walking to school or cooking simple foods. People are more likely to daydream during such activities.
The importance of daydreaming lies in developing both creative and social skills. When the mind is not working on one's immediate situation or problem, then it is free to wander. A time of wandering allows the mind to create things. The ideas of new inventions or possible solutions (解决办法) to a problem may come to mind. For example, one may think of solutions to problems in relationships (关系) with other people. In fact, most daydreams have something to do with situations with others. Perhaps these are daydreams of memories of the past, or daydreams of what might be in the future. In both situations daydreams help us develop the skills we can use to communicate with others.
As Marcus Raichle, a doctor who studies the brain from Washington University, explains: "When you don't use a muscle (肌肉), that muscle really isn't doing much. But when your brain is doing nothing and daydreaming, it's really doing a lot." During the so-called "resting state" the brain isn't resting at all!
