The brain at rest … is working hard!

Summer encourages us to live at a more leisurely pace, to break out of our routines and, often, to reflect on the working year that has just passed. It’s a time to settle down, check what we have in our luggage and, perhaps, decide to make some change in our life.

According to Michel Le van Quyen (2019), we are equipped with two systems, known as networks, which operate differently. When one is active, the other is at rest.

The executive network, located in the prefrontal regions, guides our thoughts, directs our attention and filters information. It is this network that is most frequently studied.

The ‘default’ network is activated when we are resting or letting our minds wander. By opening our minds to daydreaming, it reactivates certain memories. Indeed, relaxation consolidates memory because it naturally strengthens the neural circuits we use most frequently; in this state, memories stored in short-term memory are transferred to long-term memory thanks to the activity of the hippocampus.

Daydreaming allows us to project ourselves into the future through stored memories, which form the basis of a new mental image.

Thus, our default neural network draws on recent information and links it to older information, enabling our brain to form a coherent synthesis.  This process enables us to develop and renew ourselves in response to the situations we encounter.

Creativity therefore arises from the memorisation and rearrangement of memories into a new form. Consequently, we are all endowed with the power of creativity!

Before composing, Johann Sebastian Bach would withdraw into a meditative state, and it was in this way that he gave birth to his works. He had discovered how to use the default mode network…

May this summer be an opportunity for us all to make space for our default network, which creates something new through our memories. After that, it will be up to us to consciously activate it and reap the rewards.