Looks like we have it backwards again.
We think our natural state of being is calm and calm. Then, the “noise” of life intrudes to spoil things. People, family demands, work pressure, bad news and the general chaos of modern living can spoil all the fun, right?
Wrong.
Marcus Raichle, MD, a neurologist and teacher of radiology, neurology, neurobiology and biomed engineering at Washington University in St Louis, has changed the model forever. He is the medical researcher who first discovered the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN).
A default is the setting that comes loaded in PC software and electronics. It's the font the word processing software uses unless you change it or the date and time that appear blinking on your digital clock after the electricity goes out. The default mode is the one which comes standard and ready-loaded.
Dr. Raichle’s research proves beyond any doubt that the brain’s default mode is anything but quiet and tranquil. It's an ocean boiling over with noise and activity. When you're not consciously engaged “when your grey matter is at “rest” “this is the cue for the DMN to turn on! All this activity that occurs in the DMN while the mind isn't consciously engaged in an external task is not completely understood, but proved to exist thru fMRI scans.
The DMN is your brain’s autopilot that keeps your intelligence occupied with a stream of thoughts, even when you do not need them. An overactive DMN leads to the following scenarios:
You lie up at night with spinning thoughts, unable to turn your attention off and sleep.
You're in a pleasant, warm shower that should be relaxing, but your consciousness is speeding miles in front of you, worried about the day ahead.
You want to read focus on a delightful book, but can’t focus.
You are driving in traffic with a stream of boiling thoughts and feelings that bother you.
You take a walk in the park but do not enjoy the views due to your cluttered mind
You attempt to meditate, butforget it!
You wish to hear your youngster or a friend, but, rather than truly listen, you focus more on the rambling inside head.
You do not consciously try to think distracting, worrying, upsetting or enraging thoughts. Your cerebral cortex doesn't need your assistance to form them. This is what your brain does in default mode!
Effective stress relief happens automatically when you learn to deactivate your DMN. Yes, the network answerable for the constant stream of thoughts and bodily tension that keeps us all rapt and stressed out, can be deactivated. Dr. Raichle’s team discovered this by accident.
In the March 2010 copy of Scientific American, Dr. Raichle says the following:
In 1998 we actually had a paper turned down because one referee suggested the reported decline in activity was a gaffe in our info. The circuits, the reviewer pronounced, were really being switched on at rest and switched off during the [cognitive] task. Other analysts , however , repeated our results for the medial parietal cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex. Both areas are now considered major hubs of the DMN.
There you have it, health articles reference a major brain network being switched off and on when needed by participation in specially designed cognitive tasks. Further research, both scientific and casual, has demonstrated that turning off the DMN leads to increased pleasure, inner calm, emotional well-being, improved , decreased hysteria and a stress-free way of being.
Mark Bondu is connected with Newspaper San Diego and Newspaper Temecula.