Image: Jean-Francois Podevin
In Brief
- Neuroscientists have long thought that the brain’s circuits are turned off when a person is at rest.
- Imaging experiments, however, have shown that there is a persistent level of background activity.
- This default mode, as it is called, may be critical in planning future actions.
- Miswiring of brain regions involved in the default mode may lead to disorders ranging from Alzheimer’s to schizophrenia.
Imagine you are almost dozing in a lounge chair outside, with a magazine on your lap. Suddenly, a fly lands on your arm. You grab the magazine and swat at the insect. What was going on in your brain after the fly landed? And what was going on just before? Many neuroscientists have long assumed that much of the neural activity inside your head when at rest matches your subdued, somnolent mood. In this view, the activity in the resting brain represents nothing more than random noise, akin to the snowy pattern on the television screen when a station is not broadcasting. Then, when the fly alights on your forearm, the brain focuses on the conscious task of squashing the bug. But recent analysis produced by neuroimaging technologies has revealed something quite remarkable: a great deal of meaningful activity is occurring in the brain when a person is sitting back and doing nothing at all.
It turns out that when your mind is at rest—when you are daydreaming quietly in a chair, say, asleep in a bed or anesthetized for surgery—dispersed brain areas are chattering away to one another. And the energy consumed by this ever active messaging, known as the brain’s default mode, is about 20 times that used by the brain when it responds consciously to a pesky fly or another outside stimulus. Indeed, most things we do consciously, be it sitting down to eat dinner or making a speech, mark a departure from the baseline activity of the brain default mode.
This article was originally published with the title The Brain's Dark Energy.
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23 Comments
Add Commenthm...usually i get the issue in the mail before these preview things start showing up. maybe it is late, or hiding.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswas woundering if it is possible to buy only one article or get them some how instead of getting the whole thing???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisis it possible to only buy the article itself instead of purchasing the whole issue?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe concept of default mode of Brain is still complex. As per the article, our brain continue working even person rest and not doing any work. The article pointed out the person quick action during rest when a fly sit on their arm. The people may not respose on the sitting of fly on its arm, so can we say that his barin is not working in ideal condition.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisresposing in positive and negative by a subject on simmilar action on different occassion are pointed out.
i have a dream/question,how can we overclock this states?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would like to know the rationale behind following text:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"10 billion bits per second arrives on the retina... six billion bits per second ca leave the retina... 10,000 bits per second make it to the visual cortex"
How are these numbers calculated?
I would like to know the rationale behind following text:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"10 billion bits per second arrives on the retina... six billion bits per second ca leave the retina... 10,000 bits per second make it to the visual cortex"
How are these numbers calculated?
Neural Substrates of Consciousness
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStuart Hameroff at Singularity Summit 2009
(this video is fascinating!)
http://vimeo.com/7320518
This is VERY interesting to me. However, I wish Marcus Raichle would have commented on the apparent connection of his research to some others reported already, such as the PET scans of Tibetan monks in meditation and similar studies on REM and Slow Wave Activity pattern sleep. Further, the studies by the professor in Utah, so widely reported, show that the same part of the brain is needed for driving and for texting or talking on a cell phone; so that competing activities cause traffic accidents.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA couple of practical applications I imagine for Raichle's research are that reading before trying to go to sleep and listening to the radio while driving may both tend to quiet down my Default Mode Network enough to allow me better to accomplish my mission.
I would be curious as to his reactions.
Also, how about if SciAm.com puts together a symposium for all these brain researchers to get together and comment on one another's research? I'ld pay to listen to that!
This is VERY interesting to me. However, I wish Marcus Raichle would have commented on the apparent connection of his research to some others reported already, such as the PET scans of Tibetan monks in meditation and similar studies on REM and Slow Wave Activity pattern sleep. Further, the studies by the professor in Utah, so widely reported, show that the same part of the brain is needed for driving and for texting or talking on a cell phone; so that competing activities cause traffic accidents.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA couple of practical applications I imagine for Raichle's research are that reading before trying to go to sleep and listening to the radio while driving may both tend to quiet down my Default Mode Network enough to allow me better to accomplish my mission.
I would be curious as to his reactions.
Also, how about if SciAm.com puts together a symposium for all these brain researchers to get together and comment on one another's research? I'ld pay to listen to that!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn some recent work I did with Walter Freeman at his lab in Berkeley, citing the seminal work of Raichle, we established that during the sychronized gamma typical of meditation and consciousness, the analytic power of the brain may momentarily approach zero;
Freeman, W., S. O'Nuallain and J Rodriguez(2008) "Simulating cortical background electrocortigram at rest with filtered noise" Journal of integrated neuroscience,7 (3 )Page: 337 - 344 Sept 2008
I've just published what I believe is a breakthrough paper on meditation and consciousness (formal abstract and link below). It is the first to interrelate the work on synchronized gamma in consciousness with the well-attested work on gamma in meditation in an experimental context.. It adduces experimental and simulated data to show that what both have in common is the ability to put the brain into a state in which it is maximally sensitive and consumes zero power, briefly. It is argued that this may correspond to a selfless state and the more typical non-zero state, in which gamma is not so prominent, corresponds to a state of empirical self. Thus, the zero power in the title refers not only to the power spectrum of the brain as measured by the Hilbert transform, but also to a psychological state of personal renunciation.
While the general perspective is compatible with panpsychism, a more practical consequence is that the beneficial health effects of meditation may partly be due to the fact that the brain's dark energy consumption normally absorbs about 18% of the body's metabolic production. During these moments of zero power this energy is freed up for repair and healing. In fact, it may also lead to differential gene expression.
The paper is;
O Nuallain,Sean (2009) Zero Power and Selflessness: What Meditation and Conscious Perception Have in Common Cognitive Sciences 4(2)
https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=10068
Secondly, the sychronized gamma may well, through neural resonance, cause synchronous firing of individual neurons in a manner facilitated by subthreshold oscillations;
O Nuall�in, Se�n and T. Doris (2010) What is neural resonance for? Chaos and complexity letters 4(2)
Sean O'Nuallain PhD (Nous research, Ireland)
Abstract
This paper attempts to reconstrue the art and science of meditation in the context of an overall theory of cognition, and with reference to evidence from simulated and real data analysed in a neurodynamical framework. First, we discuss the phenomenology of meditation and its relation to the known evidence. It is argued that meditation is on a continuum with the types of conscious mental activity characterized by synchronized gamma. Specifically, it is suggested that gamma synchrony in meditation allows the normally prominent background noise of the brain momentarily to subside. Secondly, a set of experiments using both simulated and real data and interpreted in a neurodynamical context that bear on the issue of meditation is described. Thirdly, the theoretical and experimental frameworks are brought together into an overall perspective that impacts on cognition as on applied experientialism. Most of the material alludes to books and other refereed published material by the author.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn some recent work I did with Walter Freeman at his lab in Berkeley, citing the seminal work of Raichle, we established that during the sychronized gamma typical of meditation and consciousness, the analytic power of the brain may momentarily approach zero;
Freeman, W., S. O'Nuallain and J Rodriguez(2008) "Simulating cortical background electrocortigram at rest with filtered noise" Journal of integrated neuroscience,7 (3 )Page: 337 - 344 Sept 2008
I've just published what I believe is a breakthrough paper on meditation and consciousness (formal abstract and link below). It is the first to interrelate the work on synchronized gamma in consciousness with the well-attested work on gamma in meditation in an experimental context.. It adduces experimental and simulated data to show that what both have in common is the ability to put the brain into a state in which it is maximally sensitive and consumes zero power, briefly. It is argued that this may correspond to a “selfless” state and the more typical non-zero state, in which gamma is not so prominent, corresponds to a state of empirical self. Thus, the “zero power” in the title refers not only to the power spectrum of the brain as measured by the Hilbert transform, but also to a psychological state of personal renunciation.
While the general perspective is compatible with panpsychism, a more practical consequence is that the beneficial health effects of meditation may partly be due to the fact that the brain's “dark energy” consumption normally absorbs about 18% of the body's metabolic production. During these moments of “zero power” this energy is freed up for repair and healing. In fact, it may also lead to differential gene expression.
The paper is;
O Nuallain,Sean (2009) Zero Power and Selflessness: What Meditation and Conscious Perception Have in Common Cognitive Sciences 4(2)
https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=10068
Secondly, the sychronized gamma may well, through neural resonance, cause synchronous firing of individual neurons in a manner facilitated by subthreshold oscillations;
O Nualláin, Seán and T. Doris (2010) “What is neural resonance for?” Chaos and complexity letters 4(2)
Sean O'Nuallain PhD (Nous research, Ireland)
Abstract
This paper attempts to reconstrue the art and science of meditation in the context of an overall theory of cognition, and with reference to evidence from simulated and real data analysed in a neurodynamical framework. First, we discuss the phenomenology of meditation and its relation to the known evidence. It is argued that meditation is on a continuum with the types of conscious mental activity characterized by synchronized gamma. Specifically, it is suggested that gamma synchrony in meditation allows the normally prominent background noise of the brain momentarily to subside. Secondly, a set of experiments using both simulated and real data and interpreted in a neurodynamical context that bear on the issue of meditation is described. Thirdly, the theoretical and experimental frameworks are brought together into an overall perspective that impacts on cognition as on applied experientialism. Most of the material alludes to books and other refereed published material by the author.
Through meditative practices, you can reach higher usage
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease visit web page below for the excellent research material based on latest neurological research on theta wave activity of the brain and its status in a non-coercive, deep relaxation meditation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://rewiringthebrain.net/
Nilu
The Brains Dark Energy, PLEEZZ . . . And the cover! Is this a magazine about physics or metaphysics? And which, Neuroscientists have long thought that the brains circuits are turned off when a person is at rest? Years ago (or was it centuries?) EEG studies showed that the entire brain is similarly active at rest, asleep, or at work. Has old knowledge been lost since the invention of imaging machines?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd since when did neuronal activity constitute energy? Energy is a word used to describe physical forces in nature that are independent of structure. We pervert the term when we say things like, I dont have enough energy to finish this letter, but not nearly so badly as it is misused in this article. Was Deepak Chopra a ghost-writer?
Recently I took a few glider lessons but parted from the instructor on philosophical grounds, though I greatly enjoyed talking with him. He wanted to teach landing first and I thought landing was the last thing we should do; after I became comfortable with the flying machine. He said he once took Scientific American but quit years ago because it became less scientific and over sensationalized. When he read it he had liked the feeling that he was in on the real scientific work. I gave him the current issue which happened to contain material related to our discussions. He said he and his whole family enjoyed it and read it cover to cover, and I still find enough real science in it that I dont plan to drop my subscription.
I have long told patients, when relevant, that when we go to sleep the parts of our brains that do conscious work switch to unconscious work, thus increasing our unconscious capacity. And that the transition is on a sliding scale, so we dont have our full conscious ability until we are fully awake and alert. It would be of great value to know the transitional steps specifically, and what tasks various structures accomplish, but the energy involved operates at the molecular level and its study belongs to the discipline of chemistry, not neurology.
"respose" dosen't seem to be in the dictionary. why?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCharlieWP - I agree with your response to the cover: I foolishly searched of another article on the reported mysterious (and suspicious) acceleration of the universe.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile not contest your objection to the loose cross application of meanings, I suppose it could be defended, as electron exchanges in neuron firings can be construed as energy conversions. But I'm out of my league here.
I'm hoping that SciAm will return to their more refined editorial policies, but there is still value here. Thanks.
We are still a humna battery. The energy still flows within us even at rest. Maybe the energy moves to the dark receptors to not make the prominent ones burn so hotly and waste out. That seems to be the problem with most neuro receptor malfunctions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat am I to think? that rest induces more activity, or that meditation results in none?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisper the mag, it is dios en maquina.
In the method of formation of sketch of the universe there have been the uses of quite some formula or rules which are only possible to be adjusted from the very location of the last border of the depth of past by dint of our thoughts of our brain or sharpness of imaginative power. Because of the curbed location and having their locations at their respective present, all having their locations at their past, it would be next to impossible to find out the structure of sketch or the universe on their part from their present locations or there shall not be any adjustment of the sketch of one place with that of another place. As per less of natural selection, the existence of the present of another place shall not be visible from any location of space. Our place is present before us at this moment, likewise just at this time it is again submerged into the depth or the past from another place of space . There has been no incidence of present and future at all at any site of space, all are submerged into their respective depths of the past. In this way; there shall be figure of sketch of the universe at its difference from different locations, the exact sketch of which shall not be visible or shall not be possible to be adjusted. We are looking everything has creation yet same event or very moment, from the nature is nothing creation in the universe theough that early or imagination. That is to say- at this event whatever shall be received through imagination for any borders on the spiritual of the universe shall be vanished at this very moment i.e. nothing creation in reality viz. the realism is that really early Universe. Just at this time, we are looking remote of dark energy or black body is near about 15 billion light years from our location yet from the black body- it is again our location is in the dark energy i.e. just at this time- we are in her belly. Therefore, we can take the decision- both places are same and one site universe i.e. life-time universe, lifeless position is dark energy. That is to say- yours very brain is centre of the universe i.e. dark energy between the brains i.e. huge universe between minimal. Hence, again we can take the decision: The Brains dark energy and Reflected power of brains is the result of visible universe.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee things out- http://www.esnips.com/web/H5477 a Multimedia-DEMO, through that encouraging the spirit of discovery, sharing of fundamental knowledge about the Universe and our place in its midst.
If you understand about the fact, strikes the right note or put up to note sheet
Why Tononi is wrong
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn a recent NY Times article, Tononi chooses to propose a rather sketchily-described “Shannon informational” model to supplant a gamma synchrony model partly on these grounds;
“Dr. Tononi sees serious problems in these models. When people lose consciousness from epileptic seizures, for instance, their brain waves become more synchronized. If synchronization were the key to consciousness, you would expect the seizures to make people hyperconscious instead of unconscious, he said. “
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21consciousness.html?_r=1
Had Tononi been correct about this, this would have been the end of the "Zero power" model with its consequences for metabolism and "dark energy"
Jouny et al (2010) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19910249 surely should have suggested that this is premature closure, with an INCREASE in signal complexity – that is, decline in synchrony – associated with seizure
Ours study of ECOG data (electrodes directly attached to the cortex, not on the scalp) confirms this. Sleep signal is least complex/disordered under PCA, first component explains 97%, awake is next, with 93% explained by the first component, while seizure has just 63% explained by first component.
We will duly submit these results to a responsible peer-reviewed journal
Sean O Nuallain PhD
"Of the virtually unlimited information available in the world around us, the equivalent of 10 billion bits per second arrives on the retina at the back of the eye. Because the optic nerve attached to the retina has only a million output connections, just six million bits per second can leave the retina, and only 10,000 bits per second make it to the visual cortex.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter further processing, visual information feeds into the brain regions responsible for forming our conscious perception. Surprisingly, the amount of information constituting that conscious perception is less than 100 bits per second. Such a thin stream of data probably could not produce a perception if that were all the brain took into account; the intrinsic activity must play a role."
From where ever the figured comes, I think it misstated to say that "Surprisingly, the amount of information constituting that conscious perception is less than 100 bits per second." I consider the information constituting conscious perception to be compressed data - actually compressed very efficiently indeed, inasmuch as the compression mechanism itself continuously evolves, and that which need be absorbed is only that which is not already "on file." Thus, imaging a document compression scheme that had a common phrase index and could compress a word document beyond mere elimination of white space and other redundant data, but could actually substitute "experience" where applicable. That would indeed be remarkable. I think the brain's capacity overall is much better used in that function than is absorbing everything anew.
I read this article when it came out in February, 2010, but just now came across Scientific American on line, and the opportunity to comment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is interesting that the traditional goal of meditation is to take to individual self to the universal Self, and that the Transcendental Meditation technique increases coherence and synchrony among default mode network structures (Hebert, Lehmann, Tan, Travis, & Arenander, 2005; Travis et al., 2009). This appears to be an objective correlate of the experience during meditation of the self is expanding into a larger, more integrated entity. If we consider the self as the reference point for all levels of processing, that is, as the “I” in “I perceive”, “I think”, “I feel”, “I act”, etc., then a more coherent reference structure would be expected to improve all levels of processing, which a wide range of evidence has shown that the TM program does.
Hebert, R., Lehmann, D., Tan, G., Travis, F., & Arenander, A. (2005). Enhanced EEG alpha time-domain phase synchrony during Transcendental Meditation: Implications for cortical integration theory. Signal Processing, 85(11), 2213-2232. doi: 10.1016/j.sigpro.2005.07.009
Travis, F., Haaga, D. A. F., Hagelin, J., Tanner, M., Arenander, A., Nidich, S., . . . Schneider, R. H. (2009). A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLORETA sources during eyes-closed rest and Transcendental Meditation practice. Cognitive Processing, 11(1), 21-30. doi: 10.1007/s10339-009-0343-2