The results of an MRI scan can be used to help diagnose conditions, plan treatments and assess how effective previous treatment has been.
An MRI scanner is a large tube that contains powerful magnets. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a type of scan that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body. The steady stream of signals between brain cells, with no one signal amplified much more than any other, is similar to what is seen when people are deeply asleep. When this happened, the researchers saw a pattern of universal brain activity across around 100 separate brain regions. Most often, people were thinking about their own environment, such as the sound of the MRI machine, the experiment, like how long it would take, or something else, like what they planned to have for dinner.īut people also sometimes chose the option to show their mind had gone blank, meaning they could not remember what they had thought about, or their brain felt empty of thoughts. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked at people given regular prompts to report their thoughts while in an MRI machine.Įvery minute or so, after hearing a beep, they chose from four options on a screen to describe their thoughts. 'Having many thoughts can leave brain cells exhausted, so this may be a way to conserve energy.' 'People who blank out are often judged for not listening properly or being lazy, but people can't actually help it, and we now think it is a good thing. Dr Athena Demertzi, senior author of the study from the University of Liège in Belgium, said: 'Ours is the first study to find people's minds naturally go blank, and that this is caused by specific activity in the brain.
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