"A neighbor once told me that he often dresses, ties his shoelaces, drags his toothbrush around, starts the car, drives down the parkway, and arrives at his office without much mental effort; this sometimes alarms him. Yet we all do it. We all have days where we go through the motions like an automaton. How many mornings have I walked to the train station without noticing who I passed along the way?"
"For this zombie-like state, we can thank the " default mode network," which is located in the brain's prefrontal, parietal, and temporal lobes. The theory of the default mode was first studied in the early 2000s by researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine. They found that these brain regions activate when we are not engaged in a specific cognitive task to avoid mental overload and allow our minds to wander."
People commonly perform routine activities—dressing, commuting, chores—without conscious attention, moving through tasks on autopilot. The default mode network, located in prefrontal, parietal, and temporal lobes, activates when no specific cognitive task demands focus, preventing mental overload and permitting mind‑wandering. Autopilot supports mundane chores by conserving cognitive resources. Heuristics act as mental shortcuts that speed decision‑making and problem‑solving, useful in contexts like financial analysis. The default mode network also associates with anxiety, worry, and pessimism, and can result in superficial social engagement where verbal content fails to register despite affirmative nonverbal cues.
Read at Psychology Today
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