Brain Fart Explained by Scientists

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Brain farts are commonly known as those dumb mistakes people make involving the most mundane or repetitive tasks, like missing the exit on your commute home or the name of your spouse. Neuroscientists refer to these episodes as "maladaptive brain activity changes" and have been identified as a unique type of cognitive mistake.

Discover reported that unlike errors caused by a lack of information or experience, brain farts are innate and have a pattern that emerges up to 30 seconds before they happen. The brain basically tries to go into auto-pilot when it can, coasting through routines so that it can focus on more inward thinking. In this mode those common goofs can occur.

"Brains love to pick up regularities, patterns, rules," Vince Calhoun, an expert in MRI analysis at the University of New Mexico, told Discover . "As you generate an expectation, you become less attentive."

Discover used the example of the commute home to demonstrate how brain farts occur. Basically after spending all day at the office you head home. On the drive home, something you do every day, part of your brain powers down. At some point during the drive the balance of activity between the collection of brain regions jointly called the default mode network, which is focused on inward-thinking, and the part of the brain focused on the task at hand, which has shifted into auto-pilot, reaches a certain threshold and you enter an error-prone state. Then the brain fart occurs and you miss the exit.

Upon realizing your goof, your brain quickly snaps to attention and a lot of activity happens, possibly including swearing and planning another way home.

Scientist have also found recently that brain training does not improve the overall mental health of older adults. Activities like puzzles or playing computer games aimed to keep the brain active have not been found to increase people's overall mental abilities, reported the Times of India .