Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently explored what happens in the brain when people zone out.
The study involved 26 volunteers who were asked to react quickly to sounds or visual cues while their brain activity was monitored. Each person was tested twice, once after a good night's sleep and once after staying awake all night.
For the study, the researchers used two types of brain scans - EEG caps, which track brain waves, and fMRI scanners, which show brain activity and fluid movement.
They found that when people lost focus or 'zoned out,' a wave of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) briefly flowed out of the brain and then returned a moment later. This pattern looked similar to what happens during deep sleep, when CSF helps wash away waste from the brain.
Interestingly, they also noticed that pupils started shrinking about 12 seconds before the brain fluid wave occurred, suggesting the body might be preparing for a brief shutdown.
"One way to think about those events is because your brain is so in need of sleep, it tries its best to enter into a sleep-like state to restore some cognitive functions," said lead author Zinong Yang.
"Your brain's fluid system is trying to restore function by pushing the brain to iterate between high-attention and high-flow states."
The researchers think these moments of inattention may be controlled by a single system that affects both the brain and body, though more research is needed to confirm that.
"These results suggest to us," commented MIT neuroscientist Laura Lewis, "that there's a unified circuit that's governing both what we think of as very high-level functions of the brain - our attention, our ability to perceive and respond to the world - and then also really basic fundamental physiological processes like fluid dynamics of the brain, brain-wide blood flow, and blood vessel constriction."
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June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.