Idlers, loafers and layabouts,
listen up. A new study suggests that the times when we sit around
twiddling our thumbs could in fact be vital for learning.

The
idea stems from experiments in which neuroscientists eavesdropped on
the brains of rats as they explored their environments. They found that
the rats’ brains ‘replay’ their experiences in reverse when the animals
pause briefly to rest.

The
scientists, David Foster and Matthew Wilson working at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, inserted a
pincushion of fine wires into the animals’ skulls. These allowed the
team to simultaneously monitor the electrical activity of around 100
individual brain cells in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in
learning and memory.

More here.