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Study Reveals That Blank Mind Is Not A Thinking Failure, But A Specific Brain State With Implications For Mental Health And Consciousness.
On a typical day, thoughts jump from one topic to another — shopping lists, deadlines, repetitive songs. But at certain moments, they completely cease, leaving the mind blank.
These pauses are known as “blank mind“. Although recognized in daily life, they have often been seen as memory lapses.
A new study conducted by Thomas Andrillon and colleagues suggests something different. The blank mind could be a distinct and quantifiable conscious state.
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A Void Within Consciousness
Typically, the mind is compared to a river of constantly flowing thoughts — memories, plans, reflections. It was always believed that something was circulating in that flow. However, this new study suggests that sometimes the river simply runs dry.
Researchers treated the blank mind as part of mental wandering, those moments of distraction when thoughts veer away from the current task. But Andrillon and his colleagues propose that mental blanking is something separate.
In wandering, there are present thoughts, even if disconnected. In blanking, there is no thought at all.
People report feeling sleepier and slower during blanking. They are also more prone to making mistakes. It is estimated that we spend between 5% and 20% of our waking time in this state, whether we realize it or not.
These episodes tend to appear more during repetitive tasks, after poor nights of sleep, or after intense physical exercise. The cues are subtle: lapses in attention, forgetting information, and a sudden silencing of the internal monologue.
Various Types Of Mental Blanking
According to the study, there are several types of mental blanking. Some people enter this state deliberately, as happens during meditation practices.
Others arrive there involuntarily. In some cases, the person notices the blank mind at the moment it happens. In others, only when recalling it later.
These blanks tend to be more frequent when we are tired, sleepy, or after physical exertion.
In laboratory tests, they were associated with slower behaviors and delayed reactions. Physiological changes also accompany them: heart rate decreases and pupils constrict.
Antoine Lutz, from the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, highlighted that the goal is to better understand how mental blanking relates to other similar experiences, such as meditative states.
What Happens In The Brain During The Blank
To study the phenomenon, scientists used exams such as EEG and fMRI. They observed an increase in slow waves in the brain, similar to the onset of sleep, even with participants awake and responsive. This was described as “local sleep” — a kind of partial shutdown of the brain while the rest remains awake.
Shortly before the mind goes blank, changes were recorded: heartbeats slow down, pupils constrict, and perception of the environment becomes diffuse.
When participants were instructed to empty their minds, areas related to speech, memory, and motor planning, such as Broca’s area and the hippocampus, showed deactivation.
Additionally, scientists noticed a more uniform connectivity between brain regions, unlike the common pattern, which is more specialized. This equal communication may be linked to reduced levels of vigilance.
Interestingly, not all blanks occur in the same way. In some cases, peaks of neural activity in the posterior regions of the brain preceded the blanking. This indicates that a overload of fast thinking can also lead to the blank state.
The researchers suggest that brain excitation — or the level of physiological readiness — may be key to understanding the different pathways that lead to mental blanking. When excitation is too high, there is exhaustion. When it is too low, there is sleepiness. In both cases, the mind quiets down.
Philosophical Reflections On The Void
The study also discusses mental blanking from a philosophical perspective. Can a content-free state still be a conscious experience?
Many meditative traditions say yes. Practitioners describe “pure consciousness” as the absence of thought but with a strong conscious presence.
The researchers draw parallels between mental blanking and these meditative states, although they note differences: meditation is generally deliberate, while blanking is often involuntary.
Despite these differences, the comparison is intriguing. By contrasting different forms of consciousness, scientists aim to identify the characteristics that distinguish content-free states from those laden with thoughts.
Thomas Andrillon, the lead author of the study, emphasizes that the research is important to challenge the notion that the awake mind is always thinking. He also highlights how mental blanking reveals individual differences in subjective experiences.
Study published on April 24 in the journal Trends In Cognitive Sciences.
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