Do you ever catch yourself daydreaming while performing a challenging mental task and scold yourself for allowing your mind to wander? Perhaps this is not such a bad thing, suggests a study that found employing brain areas linked to “off-task” mental states – including daydreaming or reminiscing – enhances performance on certain complicated mental tasks.

Share on Pinterest Daydreaming while working on complex mental tasks may not be such a crime; a new study suggests it can actually enhance mental performance.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, was conducted by researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

They explain it was previously thought that in order to solve a mental puzzle, the brain’s executive control network for external, goal-focused thinking needed to activate, while the network for internal thinking (including daydreaming) had to be decreased to avoid background noise.

“The prevailing view is that activating brain regions referred to as the default network impairs performance on attention-demanding tasks because this network is associated with behaviors such as mind wandering,” says lead author and neuroscientist Nathan Spreng.

“Our study is the first to demonstrate the opposite – that engaging the default network can also improve performance,” he adds.

Spreng explains that previous neuroimaging studies have shown that activation of the default network obstructs complex mental tasks, however, in most of these studies, the mental actions involved with the default network conflict with task goals.

He uses the example of thinking about last weekend’s activities while taking notes in class; in this situation, the ability to keep up and take effective notes would be diminished.