Although this may surprise you, the brain has a consciousness-independent “privacy. “Proof of this is the standard neural network, an area of the brain that acts as an autopilot every time you walk mentally or disconnect from your environment to enter a relaxing state of self-absorption.
For many years, researchers have thought that the brain shows its full potential every time we perform a task, especially a cognitive one: reason, memorize and infer. Today, experts have discovered something as impressive as it is intriguing: the brain never rests. Even when you sleep, it works continuously.
- When you do not do or think about anything.
- It is immersed in complex activities.
- It is precisely in those moments of apparent cognitive inactivity that the so-called standard neural network is activated.
- Which scientists have called this activity.
- As well as all the processes that take place to keep the brain alert and functional.
- “black energy”.
Neuroscientist Marcus Raichle discovered this “brain energy” only in 1990, in a series of experiments using functional MRI images. He observed that it did not matter that a person was resting, doing nothing, walking or dreaming. In this sense, the brain has a “clean life,” so to speak.
“I’m a brain, Watson, is the rest of me a simple appendix?
-Arthur Conan Doyle, The Mazarin Stone-
You can compare the standard neural network with autopilot. Is it essentially the system that takes over when it is disconnected?However, this analogy is not entirely accurate, as the standard neural network is still active, so you are always ready to take control when you dream.
See an example. Let’s say you’re in a library reading notes that you want to memorize for an exam. Every moment, you start dreaming. This is where the neural network takes full control of your brain.
After a few moments, the sound of a sliding chair returns you to your notes. As soon as you stop dreaming and start focusing on your studies and the world around you, the so-called Positive Task Network (TPN) comes into action.
This area of the brain helps you focus your attention on your environment, so all the energy and electrical activity that occurs in your brain changes from one set of brain structures to another, depending on the external demands and needs of your mind.
The standard neural network consists of three very specific areas: the lower posterior parietal lobe and the medial temporal lobes. Marcus Raichle called the circuit that is activated in these standard neural network structures.
However, in 1997, when you published this data, the media wanted to give you a more interesting name, so are terms like that?Dream net? And “black brain energy. “
We now know the parts of the brain involved in this standard mode, but what activates it?Why does the brain have a system that works when we dream?This is one of the hypotheses that neuroscientists imagine:
Interestingly, the brain invests almost the same amount of energy when it is at rest as when it is fully aware of its environment. Both states are equally important.
This information is vitally important for mental health. Scientists have found that the standard neural network does not work effectively if you have depression or anxiety disorders.
In a study conducted at the University of Washington at St. Louis. Louis, USA, Dr. Yvette I Sheline, Deanna M. Barch, Joseph L. Price found that patients with depression had significant changes in standard neural network activity.
As mentioned above, these states of dreaming and self-absorption and the simple act of daydreaming are important to the brain. Hiking (occasionally) helps reduce stress, allowing you to escape reality and go somewhere safe.
Research has shown that while people with depression may wander or dream, they do not produce positive emotions in them. This is not a positive experience. Instead, it tends to increase your feelings of negativity and despair, so the standard neural network doesn’t work the same way in people with depression.
In this sense, it is important to note that scientists have found that patients with Alzheimer’s disease and people with autism spectrum disorder have the same problem, and find it very difficult to enter or leave a state of mental relaxation, that is, they have fewer opportunities to reinforce their sense of self.
We’re just beginning to understand the standard neural network, so it’s another brain mystery. However, advances in neuroscience allow us to better understand it.