How does the brain “zone out” and we ignore everything around us and think about absolutely nothing?
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In short from how I understand it.
Your brain has a filter. Its taking in data all the time but you’re only aware of the important stuff.
Mundane tasks like driving to work everyday, ever get to work and not remember how you did? Well, your brain filtered it out because it’s not new or important.
So zoning out is more like filtering out the unnecessary
The same way it manages to ignores the feeling of wearing your clothes.
Your brain does its best to not be unnecessarily stimulated as it would tiring and would keep you from learning anything.
I feel most answers aren’t really satisfying because they all talk about sensory adaptation. Sure that is a thing and it’s interesting but i feel op wanted to know about the ‘further step’ where there is nothing going on in your brain at all it seems, like way more than your typical ”i don’t feel my clothes anymore-sensory adaptation” but more I’m not registering my vision, i’m not hearing when people talk to me, i’m not even thinking about a lot.
I think it is related to your experiences. Your brain collects data and experience and learns how to navigate in life according to it. If you are talking about unaware zoning out. It might be your coping mechanism.
I do also believe that ADHD can be triggered that way, especially with coping experiences in childhood. It is the way your brain is conditioned to work. And it is being conditioned most effectively in your childhood. So some of people just zone out to feel comfortable and safe. That is how they cope.
Talking about aware zoning out. Like doing it on purpose. It is kinda intriguing how that works. Well, there are a form of meditation when you can think absolutely nothing. There is this thing, haven’t researched it much, but there are certain waves your brain operates upon. Like alpha, theta, beta and so on. And those waves determines your brain activity, what parts of the brain works and how they communicate with each other or smth like that. While doing meditation it is scientifically proved to change those waves in your brain. If I remember correctly Beta waves induces a state when you feel the most awake and tend to prioritize efficiency, that way your mind is racing and you might be unaware of that. While something like alpha brain waves induces relaxation and specifically helps with not thinking. So that is very interesting
There is also a different perspective. Like our brain activity is basically electric impulses and your thoughts are basically an energy. That might suggest that our awareness is able to control how much energy and where it flows. Also if our thoughts is energy, that means, if we direct that energy in to something we have experienced, something that might have been traumatic – your brain recognizes some kind of pattern that energy caused and turns on coping mechanism.
We are really complex beings. But what actually makes it complex is our thoughts and the need to express and question everything.
Your brain is like a computer, now I must admit I know more about brains than I do computers (and neither knowledge is professional level) but your focus is somewhere between sensory processing and your memory. The stuff in your focus is the stuff thats being processed in your short term memory and your short term memory can get input from the outside world or from your long term memory. Your short term memory is kind of like your working memory and your long term memory is neatly filed away information, your brain doesnt see the difference between ‘past’ information or current information, it just recieves information to process and it starts working.
Now, what happens if you just opened your music and then start spamming the ‘new tab’ button on your computer or its running a really heavy game? It starts lagging, the game freezes. Same happens to your brain. Your brain doesnt really measure in scales, it judges things on many many micro decisions of good or bad, thats why really hot and really cold stuff can feel the opposite, its bad if its outside of the safe parameter. Zoning out or dissociation happens when your brain gets too much information it cant process: too much information it doesnt need to do anything with because something like that is already deeply ingrained? Your processing computer enters rest mode. Too much information to process? Your brain starts buffering, it cant make a decision on whats most important and does a little clearing of the working memory, dumping it on a ‘to be processed’ pile and picking up work again after wiping the table. That to be processed pile is often what causes our weird dreams and/or post-traumatic stress disorder, and why people often dont have much memory from really stressfull periods in their life
There’s a concept of system 1 and system 2, system 1 is your intuition, instincts your unconscious thinking. System 2 is your rational thoughts, you’re higher thinking.
Zoning out is basically turning system 2 off.
There is a fantastic book ” Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman that does a great job explaining this. Highly recommended for anybody, probably the second most life-changing book Ive read
The real ELI5 is just a simple explanation of a negative feedback loop. If A causes B + C, you can write that as A –> B + C. If C inhibits the production of A, inhibits the process of creating B + C, or the perception of B, then the more that process happens, the harder it will be to get the same result. This applies to countless bodily processes.
You will likely find the answer you’re looking for in [the default mode network](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network).
It’s what allows our brains to do things like drive home on a familiar road without actively thinking about it. Fascinating stuff, gotta love neuroscience.
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