Static State Stimulate

What does an animal think about? What stimulates the mind's next thought, when it’s in a static state? 

The answer to this question, may be very different depending on the mind’s function capability at the time. If the mind is conscious (such as an aware person), it can often continue actively thinking, but if subconscious (such as most animals or a low-active-minded person), it will likely stay mostly unchanging until it receives stimulation. 

A brain in a subconscious state functions mainly on reacting to anything which triggers it from its sensory perception. This includes sensing anything in its exterior surroundings, or sensing changes within the body. As a basic function, the subconscious will react to any sensory stimulus based on whatever resembling factor (thing/concept etc) is recognised in memory. Once something is sensed, the brain accesses neurons of something similar, and triggers a reaction to avoid or pursue (if nothing in subconscious memory is similar, it will likely be triggered by instincts). With this function of few factors saved and accessed in memory during perception (more detail in a recent post; Terms of Short-Term Memory), there is no mechanism to continue accessing memories, once in a static state.

For eg, when my dog is laying on the bed in the evening, such as now, he does seem to often lay there while awake, in a nearly mind-blank state, until a sight or sound triggers his subconscious, or until he easily drifts off to sleep. As long as he is fed, exercised etc. his instincts won't trigger him to pursue anything, and his environment won't trigger his subconscious. You can likely achieve a similar experience, when tired and basically not thinking of anything, or perhaps trying to force yourself to think of nothing and go “mind-blank” for a few seconds. On the other hand, in normal conditions, if I sit for a short period with no stimulus, my mind will start to “wonder” as I think of something recently on my mind, or start to actively think of something to keep my mind busy, out of boredom.

A mind with conscious capability can be stimulated by previously saved memories, to continue accessing memories (ie conscious thought). In a recent post; Conscious Memorability, I explored how conscious thought processes cause connections between factors saved in memory, which allows someone to remember recent past experiences much more effectively. This same concept of neural pathway connections between factors, is likely what causes or allows people to continue thinking, despite a lack of sensory stimulus. 

The connections between factors saved in memory, is made from large neural combinations of smaller neural combinations (each representing a factor), as I further explained here; Conscious Neural Combo. These connections between memories of factors allows an exponential increase in capability for thoughts. If a subconscious mind allows the mind to save and access any variable which that brain is capable of recording via sensory input, a conscious mind allows that same number of variables, but in combination. If there is X number of variables, and that same number of variables can be in combination with each other, the total combinations would be X squared. For example, if a subconscious brain could save 1 trillion variables in memory, a conscious brain could save 1 trillion times 1 trillion combinations of those variables. If the subconscious is like a galaxy, conscious thought is like the observable universe, with as many combinations of galaxies as there are stars in each galaxy. 

When the mind is in a state of low stimulation, its function seems to be significantly affected by whether it is capable of conscious thought or not. A subconscious mind basically only works from stimulus, with minimum activity when the environment is in a static state. A conscious capable mind has the potential for exponentially more neural combinations, by way of continuing access to connections between factors saved in memory, as a potential; Static State Stimulate.