 "Photo: James Spencer and Allison Dugas")
Lately Jessica Jamison, sociology senior, has caught herself daydreaming about the Big Easy - what she'll wear to the big Mardi Gras balls and at what parades she'll be saying, "throw me something, mister!"
Neurologists and psychologists have debated for centuries about what the mind does when it does - well, nothing. But they have agreed the brain doesn't simply shut down.
A team of psychologists led by Malia Mason of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital set out to find exactly what our daydreams are made of. A BAD RAP
In the Western world, daydreaming has long been associated with laziness.
"You're not asleep, but you're not at a fully heightened state of awareness," said Emily Elliot, University assistant psychology professor.
In the 1800s, Sigmund Freud called daydreamers infantile and neurotic with grandiose fantasies, which are only self-gratifying attempts at "wish fulfillment." And in the 1900s, some psychologists warned parents against allowing their children to daydream because they could be sucked into neurosis, or worse, psychosis.
But University communication studies professor James Honeycutt, author of "Imagined Interactions: Daydreaming About Communication," said, "Daydreaming serves as a function to bring some security into our lives."
"A lot of people think it's a waste of time, but there are a lot of therapeutic benefits," Honeycutt said.
Since many different types of daydreaming exist, there is no definitive definition. But Mason's team calls it stimulus-independent thought. NO "BRAIN FREEZE"
"There is this network of regions that always seems to be active when you don't give people something to do," Mason told Reuters.
To find the stuff of daydreams, Mason's research team conducted an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the minds of 19 volunteers. This fairly new technology, which captures real-time images of the brain, scanned volunteers during and in between various activities.
Mason's team found when they gave volunteers a specific task to do, they focused on it. But between tasks, other brain regions got to work.
Certain regions of the brain devote themselves to daydreaming, Mason's researchers told Science, the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Active regions include the superior frontal gyrus on the front of the brain, the insula on the side of the brain and the temporal lobe, located at the back of the brain.
No one is sure why daydreaming occurs, but Mason and her research team outlined three possibilities.
First, the brain always does something so it remains in the active state when quick reactions are needed, the team said in the article. They told Reuters a second possibility is a person mentally travels through time to provide a coherent link between his past, present and future. A third possibility is there is no scientific explanation for daydreaming at all.
According to Reuters, researchers concluded, "The mind may wander simply because it can."
People daydream between one-third and one-half of their waking hours, though a single daydream may last only a few minutes, according to WebMD, an online health newsletter.
Daydreamers tend to mentally escape their immediate surroundings by falling deeper and deeper into their imaginations as they stare blankly into space.
Elliot said people generally only break out of their trances as a reaction to sudden stimuli.
"If there is something outside that [makes] a loud noise and you're sitting in a quiet classroom, you can't help but pay attention to it," Elliot said.
BOREDOM ON THE BRAIN
In the late 1900s, Eric Klinger, University of Minnesota Morris psychology professor, found that more than three-fourths of workers in "boring jobs" daydream. Honeycutt said boring jobs include working as a security guard, being a lifeguard or a truck driver - "jobs where there is not a lot of moving around." Klinger found less than 5 percent of workers daydream explicitly sexual or violent thoughts.
Honeycutt said 94 percent of college students daydream at least once a day, "many of them many times of day."
Jamison said she often suffers boredom during her sociological theory class, where many of her daydreams occur.
Elliot said students often have trouble focusing in class because they often get bored with lectures.
"When you're bored, it's harder to pay attention," Elliot said. "They may pay attention during the first 10 minutes of class, but people get lulled into the routine of the sound of someone's voice." ORDINARY PEOPLE, ORDINARY DAYDREAMS
The majority of daydreams are not wild, whimsical fantasies.
"People are thinking about what they have to do later today," Mason told Reuters.
Jamison said she often daydreams about things she plans to do that evening and what she is looking forward to that weekend.
Honeycutt said people also have imaginary conversations in their minds throughout the day.
"You go in for a job interview, and you plan what you're going to say," Honeycutt said.
Daydreamers also think about their relationships.
Honeycutt said people dream about telling their loved ones good news, or "you're in an argument with a boyfriend or girlfriend after it's occurred."
Honeycutt said drivers often daydream about arriving at their destination, especially if they are stuck in traffic.
Elliot said people daydream more often during easy tasks than difficult ones.
"It's like driving [during] good conditions versus if it's raining or its dark," Elliot said. "If it's the middle of a beautiful day and it's a route you often travel, you may not even be aware of where you're going, [and] you might say, 'Did I just pass my exit?'"
----- Contact Leah Square at lsquare@lsureveille.com
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