No abstract

Mind wandering is a mental phenomenon we humans experience on a daily basis. Yet, we still lack a complete understanding of this pervasive mental state. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in publications regarding mind wandering and non-invasive brain stimulation using transcranial direct current stimulation, a versatile tool that can modulate neuronal excitability and potentially lead to changes in cognition. Results from this line of research are painting a picture of disagreement within the scientific community. While some researchers claim to successfully modulate mind wandering using tDCS, others report problems replicating these findings. Currently, a satisfactory conclusion is lacking, a situation which calls for more accurate and focal stimulation techniques as well as high-powered, registered reports within the topic. Recently, a study reported successfully reducing mind wandering using a more focal stimulation technique, high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in adult humans (Boayue et al., 2020). However, this study was not pre-registered and only provides preliminary evidence on the efficacy of HD-tDCS in interfering with mind wandering. The current study aims to replicate the effect found by Boayue et al. (2020), with a high-powered, pre-registered study protocol. Furthermore, we aim at extending the study by investigating whether the effects of HD-tDCS on mind wandering are prolonged, accompanied by changes in tonic and phasic pupillary responses, and neurophysiological responses associated with sensory prediction errors (the mismatch negativity), executive control (frontal midline theta oscillations) and attention (posterior alpha activity).

While the involvement of executive processes in mind wandering is largely undebated, their exact relationship is subject to an ongoing debate and rarely studied dynamically within-subject. Several brain-stimulation studies using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have attempted to modulate mind-wandering propensity by stimulating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) which is an important hub in the prefrontal control network. In a series of three studies testing a total of N=100 participants, we develop a novel task that allows to study the dynamic interplay of mind wandering, behavioural varibility and the flexible recruitment of executive resources as indexed by the randomness (entropy) of movement sequences generated by our participants. We consistently find that behavioural variability is increased and randomness is decreased during periods of mind wandering. Interestingly, we also find that behavioural variability interacts with the entropy-MW effect, opening up the possibility to detect distinct states of off-focus cognition. When applying a HD-tDCS brain stimulation montage to the left DLPFC, we find that propensity to mind wander is reduced relative to a group receiving sham stimulation.

This study investigated the potential of self-reported wellness data from a player monitoring system and its predictive power of individual match performance among a female professional soccer player cohort. Using longitudinal data collected from the Pm Reporter Pro mobile application and corresponding individual performance scores (InStat Index), the study investigated if pre-match perceived wellness could predict individual match performance. The results show no significant evidence for a correlation between the two. This may suggest that other factors might have a larger impact on performance, that the data quality captured by the current version of the player monitoring system is not sufficient, or that the impact of personally perceived wellness on performance is minimal. The limitations of bias in self-reported data and relatively small sample size might have affected the results. Despite these findings, the study provides valuable insights into the use of data-driven analytics with a concrete and widely used player monitoring system and suggests recommendations for future research.

This study investigated the potential of self-reported wellness data from a player monitoring system and its predictive power of individual match performance among a female professional football player cohort. Using longitudinal data collected from the Pm Reporter Pro mobile application and corresponding individual performance scores (InStat Index), the study investigated if pre-match perceived wellness could predict individual match performance. The results show no significant evidence for a correlation between the two. This result may suggest that other factors might have a larger impact on performance, that the data quality captured by the current version of the player monitoring system is not sufficient, or that the impact of personally perceived wellness on performance is minimal. The limitations of bias in self-reported data and relatively small sample size might have affected the results. Despite these findings, the study provides valuable insights into the use of data-driven analytics with a concrete and widely used player monitoring system and suggests recommendations for future research.