Georgia Tech: Daydreaming may mean you are smart, creative

If you start daydreaming while reading this story, that’s okay.

A Georgia Tech study says daydreaming even during meetings may not be bad.

In fact, it may say you are smart and creative.

A report on the new study by Jason Maderer appears on the school’s website, http://www.gatech.edu/.

“People with efficient brains may have too much brain capacity to stop their minds from wandering,” said Eric Schumacher, the Georgia Tech associate psychology professor who co-authored the study.

In Maderer’s article it is reported that Schumacher and his students and colleagues, including lead co-author Christine Godwin, measured the brain patterns of more than 100 people while they lay in an MRI machine. Participants were instructed to focus on a stationary fixation point for five minutes. The Georgia Tech team used the data to identify which parts of the brain worked in unison.

“The correlated brain regions gave us insight about which areas of the brain work together during an awake, resting state,” said Godwin, a Georgia Tech psychology Ph.D. candidate.

“Interestingly, research has suggested that these same brain patterns measured during these states are related to different cognitive abilities.”

Once they figured out how the brain works together at rest, the team compared the data with tests the participants that measured their intellectual and creative ability. Participants also filled out a questionnaire about how much their mind wandered in daily life.

Maderer’s article says those who reported more frequent daydreaming scored higher on intellectual and creative ability and had more efficient brain systems measured in the MRI machine.

“People tend to think of mind wandering as something that is bad. You try to pay attention and you can’t,” said Schumacher in the report. “Our data are consistent with the idea that this isn’t always true. Some people have more efficient brains.”

Schumacher says in the report that higher efficiency means more capacity to think, and the brain may mind wander when performing easy tasks.

How can you tell if your brain is efficient? One clue is that you can zone in and out of conversations or tasks when appropriate, the naturally tune back in without missing important points or steps.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Georgia Tech: Daydreaming may mean you are smart, creative."