A wandering mind is not an idle mind. New research shows that breakthrough insights often arrive when we're daydreaming or have seemingly lost track of our thoughts. In fact, the new brain-scanning study indicates that a "wandering" brain may be even more actively engaged than one that is focused on methodical reasoning.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reports that by recording brain-wave patterns and mapping "the anatomy of the brain's breakthrough moments," researchers have found that unexpected insights – an innovative solution to a difficult problem, suddenly recognizing a face, a "burst of mental clarity" – actually result from different patterns of brain waves than a more analytical approach, and the complex series of brain states involved require more neural resources than methodical reasoning.

While the researchers have been unable to pinpoint what makes us more inclined to have an "aha" moment at certain times over others, they did note that insightful thinking is more likely to occur when the individual has a prepared mind: how you think before you are faced with the problem affects how you are able to address it.

Read the Wall Street Journal article: A Wandering Mind Heads Straight Toward Insight: Researchers Map the Anatomy of the Brain's Breakthrough Moments and Reveal the Payoff of Daydreaming