内容简介：
本文探讨了人们日常发呆的科学原因，指出虽然发呆看似浪费时间，但科学家认为它可能有某种目的。文章通过青少年的发呆例子，解释了大脑在发呆时的活动情况，包括默认模式网络和执行网络的作用，以及它们如何共同促进创造性思维。
1. On a daily basis, you spend between a third and half your waking hours daydreaming. That may sound like a huge waste of time, but scientists think it must have some purpose, or humans wouldn’t have evolved to do so much of it. So to figure out what's going on here, let’s take a closer look at the mind-wanderer in chief: the bored teenager. 每天，你会花去三分之一到一半的清醒时间来发呆。这听起来像是巨大的时间浪费，但科学家认为这一定有某种目的，否则人类不会进化到如此频繁地进行这种活动。为了弄清楚这里发生了什么，让我们仔细看看主要的走神者：无聊的青少年。
2. Wouldn’t it be cool to discover something, anything. Just to be one of those explorers who sails around drawing stuff for years on end and everyone thinks they’re a genius. But does anyone even do that anymore? Is there anything left to discover? And would I be tough enough to deal with the dysentery or scurvy or piranhas or whatever? I barely have the endurance to make it through track practice... but I will. 能发现些什么，任何东西，岂不是很酷。只要成为那些航行多年，不断绘图的探险家之一，每个人都会认为他们是天才。但现在还有人这么做吗？还有什么东西剩下未被发现吗？我能足够坚强地应对痢疾、坏血病、食人鱼或其他什么吗？我几乎没有耐力坚持完田径训练……但我会有的。
3. Any day now, I’ll have the discipline to show up before sunrise and practice. I’ll win all my races. Winning will become so easy, I’ll pick up other events just for fun. And once I'm in the Olympics, they’ll have no choice but to crown me team captain, which I will graciously accept. And will I be nasty to the teammate who yelled at me? No. I’ll just calmly say, “hope you’re in a better mood.” 不久的将来，我会有纪律在日出前出现并练习。我会赢下我所有的比赛。获胜将变得如此容易，我将仅仅为了乐趣而参加其他项目。一旦我进入奥运会，他们别无选择，只能加冕我为队长，我将欣然接受。我会对那个对我大喊大叫的队友刻薄吗？不会。我只会平静地说：“希望你现在心情好点。”
4. Okay. Yours and other people's daydreams might sound or feel something like that. Let's see what was going on. To see what parts of the brain are active when you’re doing a task, or thinking, or daydreaming, scientists use brain imaging techniques that show increased blood flow and energy expenditure in those areas. These brain areas are active, working together and communicating with each other. Taken together, they're called the executive network. 好的。你和其他人的梦想可能听起来或感觉就像那样。让我们看看发生了什么。为了观察当你在执行任务、思考或发呆时哪些大脑区域是活跃的，科学家使用脑成像技术，这些技术显示了那些区域的血流量和能量消耗增加。这些大脑区域是活跃的，它们一起工作并相互沟通。总体而言，它们被称为执行网络。
5. When your mind starts to wander, a different set of brain areas becomes active. These areas make up the default mode network. The name default mode makes it sound like nothing is going on. And in fact, for many years, scientists associated this pattern of activity with rest. But a closer look reveals that these are the brain areas involved when we revisit a memory, when we think about our plans and hopes, and yes, when our minds are wandering off on a wild daydream. 当你的思绪开始游离时，另一组大脑区域变得活跃。这些区域构成了默认模式网络。默认模式这个名字听起来好像什么都没有发生。事实上，多年来，科学家们将这种活动模式与休息联系在一起。但仔细观察发现，这些是我们在重温记忆、思考我们的计划和希望时涉及的大脑区域，是的，当我们的思绪在疯狂的发呆中游离时。
6. The mind can wander to unproductive or distressing places and brood over negative past events, like an argument. It can also wander to neutral, everyday matters, like planning out the rest of one's afternoon. But where mind-wandering really gets interesting is when it crosses into the realm of free-moving associative thought that you aren’t consciously directing. This kind of mind-wandering is associated with increases in both ideas and positive emotions, and the evidence suggests that daydreaming can help people envision ways to reach their goals and navigate relationships and social situations. 思维可能会游离到不生产或令人痛苦的地方，并沉思过去的负面事件，比如一次争论。它也可能游离到中性的、日常的事情上，比如规划一个人的下午剩余时间。但当思维游离真正变得有趣的地方是当它进入你不是有意识指导的自由流动联想思维的领域时。这种思维游离与想法和积极情绪的增加有关，证据表明，发呆可以帮助人们设想达到目标的方法，以及应对人际关系和社会情境。
7. Scientists think there may be two essential parts to this process: a generative phase of free-flowing ideas and spontaneous thoughts, courtesy of the default mode network, followed by a process of selecting, developing, and pursuing the best ideas from that generative burst, driven by logical thinking thanks to the executive network. A host of imaging studies suggest that these two networks working in sync is a crucial condition for creative thinking. Taken together, the evidence clearly suggests the logical realm of the executive network and the imaginative realm of the default mode network are closely related. And as you can see, the executive network is still playing a role when the default mode network is doing its thing during daydreaming. In teenagers, the prefrontal cortex and other areas involved in executive function are still developing, but teens are perfectly capable of thinking through their problems and goals, especially when given space to do so on their own. 科学家认为这个过程可能有两个基本部分：一个由默认模式网络带来的自由流动的想法和自发思考的生成阶段，紧接着是由执行网络带来的逻辑思考驱动的，从那次生成爆发中选择、发展和追求最佳想法的过程。大量的成像研究表明，这两个网络同步工作是创造性思维的一个关键条件。综合来看，证据清楚地表明，执行网络的逻辑领域和默认模式网络的想象领域密切相关。正如你所看到的，当默认模式网络在发呆时发挥作用时，执行网络仍然在发挥作用。在青少年中，前额皮质和参与执行功能的其他区域仍在发展，但青少年完全有能力独立思考他们的问题和目标，尤其是当给予他们自己的空间时。