The emotional cost of mind-wandering

Article here

A Harvard study came to the shocking, almost paradoxical conclusion that we spend about half of our time elsewhere.

It's been known for about ten years that a particular set of brain regions is more active when you're not paying attention to the world around you. This network, called the default mode network, consists mostly of areas along the brain's midline, and is utilized when a person is mind-wandering, ruminating about the past, or thinking about themselves.

The Harvard study, led by Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert, also found that when in this state, people tend to be less happy. This is hardly a surprise, since self-reflection has been shown to be associated with negative emotion, and default mode network activity is associated with troubled, distracted states of mind such as worrying about the future and ruminating on the past.

The flip side of mind-wandering is more likely to produce positive emotions. Buddhists call it mindfulness; we call it paying attention. When our mental faculties are directed toweards processing sensory information and interacting with the world around us, we seem to be at our cognitive best. What activity, according to this article, is most likely to recruit people's full attention while they are engaged in it? You guessed it.

I just can't believe that participants were actually willing to answer the phone.