Consciousness Requires Thought

When your mind goes 'blank,' your brain activity resembles deep sleep, scans reveal

Thinking obviously requires different parts of brain for different kinds of thoughts. This result indicates that, when your mind goes blank, your neurons are all waiting for each other to say something first. The simple truth is, your neurons can take cat naps. They organize according to proprioception, attempting to predict the next punch line, and just do nothing if nobody can connect the dots.

Note, this means it is possible to measure consciousness, but only statistically.

 

That’s a wild way to put it – neurons waiting on each other like awkward people at a party, no one wanting to speak first. I kinda love that image. When the mind “goes blank,” it feels less like nothingness and more like this quiet collective pause, right? Like the system’s still humming underneath, but every part is holding its breath. It makes sense that scans would mirror deep sleep; maybe consciousness isn’t a constant flame but something that flickers, rests, even hides behind itself.

I’ve noticed that feeling especially when I’m in sensory overload – too many inputs, too much noise, and then suddenly it’s all gone quiet inside. Maybe that’s the neurons calling a truce. I’m curious about what you said regarding measuring consciousness statistically. If we’re only tracking it by probability, does that mean we can never truly pin it down in real time? Like it’s always half a ghost, half a signal? Feels poetic in a way – the brain dreaming even while awake, waiting for itself to remember it’s alive.