Idling Mind is Important

Brain scientists are beginning to suspect that daydreaming is crucial to solving problems in our personal lives. For years, it was believed that daydreaming is a lapse in cognition, but recent studies show that temporal lobes - associated with long-term memories - are functioning (data-storage work). The wandering mind also utilizes the prefrontal cortex, part of the brain that involved in problem solving.

Reference: Wired

Fostering Creativity in Problem Solving

Discoveries and insights on the frontiers of science do not come from thin air but emerges from incremental processes of weaving together analogies, images and simulations. Scientists built real-world models and make predictions from them. They study the cognitive process by observing scientists at work in the lab. The study can help foster improved creativity in labs and allow students to model-based reasoning approaches to problem solving.

Reference: Science Daily

Learning for Individuals in Vegetative States

Scientists, for the first time, tested that patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states can learn. After training, patients would start to blink when the tone played but before the air puff to the eye. The classical conditioning in the vegetative and minimally conscious state will be published in the Advanced Online Publication of Nature Neuroscience.

Reference: Science Daily

Forgotten Memories Still in Your Brain

A recent study indicates that brain imaging detected patterns of activation that corresponded to memories people thought they’d lost. When a person recalls a memory, it triggers neurological patterns encoded when the memory was formed. However, the in-depth details of memories are still unknown.

Reference: Wired