- The connectome that lights up when you’re engaged in a task is called the task-positive network, or TPN. Aptly named, the TPN gets you down to work.
- When in the task-positive network, you don’t consciously know whether you’re happy or not, which is just as good as being happy, if not better, because you’re not wasting any energy on self-assessment.
- When you’re thinking with the TPN, you’re in the Angel mindset.
- You can also get trapped in the TPN, doing a task from which you cannot disengage. This is the hyperfocussed state that people with ADHD can fall into.
- The reason that so many people are starting to look and act distracted as if they all have ADHD or VAST, is that fewer and fewer people are spending time in the task-positive network.
- Unfortunately, the TPN is akin to a muscle that atrophies when not used. So as we mentally flit around, the TPN weakens and our attention span shortens.
- When you allow your mind to wander from a task, or when you finish the task, or if you pause too long in anger or dismay while doing the task, the TPN in your brain defaults to a different connectome.