You’re at work, it’s after lunch, and you realize you’re sitting at your desk, staring into space, and not thinking about anything in particular. Your brain is, relatively speaking, at rest. Your mind is wandering. What would your brain activity show at this moment?
The default network engages when you’re not doing anything in particular. You could say that it’s your brain activity when your brain is at rest, but the truth is that there’s a lot of brain activity when the default network is operating.
Randy Buckner, a neuroscientist at Harvard, first wrote about the default network in a 2008 journal article. The default network was discovered accidentally. Researchers were studying the brain activity of people who were given certain tasks to do. Some participants in the study were told just to sit and think about nothing in particular as part of a control condition in the experiments. Initially this data was not even analyzed, but some researchers began to notice that there was quite a lot of brain activity in certain areas when people were supposedly not thinking about anything in particular.
The Brain Isn’t Really At Rest
Even though the default network was initially considered brain activity during a resting state, the brain is actually just as active—or more active—in this state than when it’s working on a specific task. Researchers now think of this not as a resting state, but as more of an internally focused state.
Continued research on the default network shows that it’s active when people are exploring mental simulations—when they’re preparing for events that they think may happen, before they happen. When people run through simulations based on their past experiences, when they think about the future, when they imagine alternative scenarios, and when they think about the perspectives of others in their situation—it’s this default network that is active.
Note
The default network includes inner parts of the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe, as well as some regions of the parietal cortex.
The Default Network’s Role In Creativity
As noted earlier in this chapter, the creative process starts when you focus on an idea or a problem with the executive attention network. The default network is involved in the next step in the creative process. The default network runs through alternatives for the idea or problem you’re trying to solve.
The default network does simulations, goes through your memory to look for things that you’ve experienced in the past that might be relevant, and imagines possible alternatives ideas and solutions.
The default network is critical for the creative process.
It’s important to set the idea or problem in the executive attention network first, but then you have to stop using the executive attention network. The two networks can’t operate at the same time. You need the default network to look for ideas and connections, and run through possible alternatives. If you keep concentrating on the problem or idea, then you’re using the executive attention network and not your default network. You have to step away if you want to be creative.
Why stepping away makes you more creative
How do you stop the executive attention network from working?
Go do something else. Take a break, especially one that doesn’t involve concentrated thinking. Go for a walk, weed the garden, take a shower, or clean up the house, and then your default network can activate.
Note: Take breaks while writing
I get a lot of exercise and a clean house when I’m writing a book. I’ll start working on a new chapter and then have to go do something else. I take a walk, do some yoga, wash the dishes, or do laundry. This book is no exception!
Takeaways
- Once you set the intention or ask the right question of the executive attention network, the next step in the creative process is to stop thinking about the problem or idea so the default network can engage.
- When you have a problem to solve or need a creative idea, take a break and do something that requires little or no concentrated thought.
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