Human Development

Absent-mindedness

Description:
The individual is preoccupied with his own thoughts so that he closes out much of the available external information. He may be very attentive to thinking and to external stimuli related to that thinking, but his attentiveness to other stimuli is very low as he considers it distracting. Behaviour related to routine does not respond to feedback with respect to changes in such routine and may therefore appear bizarre. The state does not continue if external stimuli reach a particular level, as when the individual suddenly becomes aware that an approaching car will run him over if he does not respond by getting out of its way.
This condition of deep inner concentration on a specific subject blots out all awareness of external stimuli. There is said to be a predominance of alpha brain waves, but the state is not the same as meditation; rather than a calm response when external stimuli do intrude, the individual is startled and incoherent, possibly due to the creative (right hemisphere) of the brain remaining predominant and not switching to mundane, left hemisphere, activity.
Broader:
Tuning-in