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A brain fart (jocularly derived from "brainstorm")<1> is slang for a special kind of abnormal brain activity which results in human error while performing a repetitive task,<2><3> or more generally denoting a degree of mental laxity or any task-related forgetfulness, such as forgetting how to hold a fork. Tom Eichele, a neuroscientist at the University of Bergen in Norway, was part of an international team of researchers who identified evidence that the brain fart is detectable in brain scans up to 30 seconds before the mistake is actually made. The researchers suspect the abnormal behavior is the result of the brain attempting to save effort on a task by entering a more restful state. The scientists detailed their findings on 21 April 2008 online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The scientific term they gave the phenomenon is "maladaptive brain activity change."<4>
The term is typically employed in the United States<5> to indicate a regrettable and poorly thought out choice of action. According to vaunted Philadelphia Flyers defenceman and amateur linguist Denis Gauthier—whose seminal association with the phenomenon has earned him the honorific sobriquet "Mr. Brainfart"—a brainfart occurs when one "momentarily loses his sense of logic…and does something 'dumb'."<6>
A further clarification comes from investigative journalist Louie Pierson, who proffers that while accidents are preventable, "brain farts are unpredictable, unpreventable and universal", and advances the theory that Mother Nature had "added the unfathomable minor irritant of the brain fart as a failsafe backup."<7>
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