A Neural Model of Mind Wandering

Mittner, Matthias; Hawkins, Guy E.; Boekel, Wouter; Forstmann, Birte U.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.06.004

Cited by 174 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 61 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

118

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Greater severity of hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattention have also been associated with decreased DMN connectivity (Elton et al, 2014;von Rhein et al, 2017). The DMN is characterized by increased activation during rest and mind wandering, and has also been associated with emotional lability (Christoff et al, 2009;Fox et al, 2005;Godwin et al, 2017;Greicius et al, 2003;Martins and Mather, 2016;Mittner et al, 2016;Raichle et al, 2001). Mind wandering has been associated with emotional lability and greater ADHD symptom severity (Helfer et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter microstructure in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic tractography study in 654 individuals

Damatac

Chauvin

Zwiers

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by age-inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity. ADHD has been related to differences in white matter microstructure, measured by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and quantified by fractional anisotropy (FA). In the largest DWI analysis of ADHD to date, we systematically investigated if FA is associated with: current and lifetime diagnosis, categorical diagnosis and continuous symptom measures, and impairment in daily life.DWI data were obtained from 654 participants (322 unaffected, 258 affected, 74 subthreshold; 7-29 years of age). For each subject, we applied automated global probabilistic tractography with TRACULA on 18 major white matter pathways and linear mixed effects regression models to examine associations with overall brain and tract-specific FA.There was no significant association of FA with current diagnosis or history of ADHD diagnosis, or impairment. Lower FA was significantly associated with higher ADHD symptom severity in the right cingulum's angular bundle (rCAB; P=0.051), and this was mainly driven by hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms (P=0.033). This is the first time global probabilistic tractography has been applied to an ADHD DWI dataset of this size. Our findings suggest that continuous symptom measures may be more sensitive to FA differences in association with ADHD than diagnostic categories. The rCAB may play an important role in hyperactivity and impulsivity in ADHD.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter microstructure in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic tractography study in 654 individuals

Damatac

Chauvin

Zwiers

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This has been linked to the idea that the visual interruption afforded by an increased blink rate facilitates internal thought generation, which is in line with the observed decrease in fixations as noted above. Recent accounts have argued that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) system controls the trade-off between on-and off-task behaviors (Mittner, Hawkins, Boekel, & Forstmann, 2016). Fluctuations in this system are measured using pupillometry (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005) and studies have shown that pupil diameter is significantly larger during periods of mind wandering in a word-by-word text reading paradigm .…”

Section: Eye Gaze Correlates Of Mind Wanderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An automated behavioral measure of mind wandering during computerized reading

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mind wandering is a ubiquitous phenomenon in which attention shifts from task-related to task-unrelated thoughts. The last decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in mind wandering, but research has been stymied by a lack of objective measures, leading to a near-exclusive reliance on self-reports. We addressed this issue by developing an eye-gaze-based, machine-learned model of mind wandering during computerized reading. Data were collected in a study in which 132 participants reported self-caught mind wandering while reading excerpts from a book on a computer screen. A remote Tobii TX300 or T60 eyetracker recorded their gaze during reading. The data were used to train supervised classification models to discriminate between mind wandering and normal reading in a manner that would generalize to new participants. We found that at the point of maximal agreement between the model-based and self-reported mind-wandering means (smallest difference between the group-level means: M model = .310, M self = .319), the participant-level mind-wandering proportional distributions were similar and were significantly correlated (r = .400). The model-based estimates were internally consistent (r = .751) and predicted text comprehension more strongly than did self-reported mind wandering (rmodel = −.374, r self = −.208). Our results also indicate that a robust strategy of probabilistically predicting mind wandering in cases with poor or missing gaze data led to improved performance on all metrics, as compared to simply discarding these data. Our findings demonstrate that an automated objective measure might be available for laboratory studies of mind wandering during reading, providing an appealing alternative or complement to self-reports.Keywords Mind wandering . Reading . Eye gaze . Machine learning It is common for one's attention to shift toward spontaneously generated, task-unrelated thoughts. This phenomenon is called mind wandering. Numerous studies have investigated mind wandering across a range of tasks and have found that it occurs anywhere between 20%-50% of the time (Kane et al.,

show abstract

“…In support of this, studies have shown that the hippocampus, a region important in episodic memory, is: (i) active early during mind-wandering (Ellamil et al , 2016) and (ii) shows a pattern of enhanced connectivity with the medial pre-frontal cortex for participants who engage in mental time travel during mind-wandering (Karapanagiotidis et al , 2017). In combination, the processes of perceptual decoupling and episodic memory retrieval are considered necessary conditions for the self-generation of a train of thought unrelated to the external environment (Smallwood and Schooler, 2015; Mittner et al , 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the default mode network in component processes underlying the wandering mind

Poerio

Sormaz

Wang

et al. 2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Experiences such as mind-wandering illustrate that cognition is not always tethered to events in the here-and-now. Although converging evidence emphasises the default mode network (DMN) in mind-wandering, its precise contribution remains unclear. The DMN comprises cortical regions that are maximally distant from primary sensory and motor cortex, a topological location that may support the stimulus-independence of mind-wandering. The DMN is functionally heterogeneous, comprising regions engaged by memory, social cognition and planning; processes relevant to mind-wandering content. Our study examined the relationships between: (i) individual differences in resting-state DMN connectivity, (ii) performance on memory, social and planning tasks and (iii) variability in spontaneous thought, to investigate whether the DMN is critical to mind-wandering because it supports stimulus-independent cognition, memory retrieval, or both. Individual variation in task performance modulated the functional organization of the DMN: poor external engagement was linked to stronger coupling between medial and dorsal subsystems, while decoupling of the core from the cerebellum predicted reports of detailed memory retrieval. Both patterns predicted off-task future thoughts. Consistent with predictions from component process accounts of mind-wandering, our study suggests a 2-fold involvement of the DMN: (i) it supports experiences that are unrelated to the environment through strong coupling between its sub-systems; (ii) it allows memory representations to form the basis of conscious experience.

show abstract

A Neural Model of Mind Wandering

Cited by 174 publications

References 61 publications

White matter microstructure in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic tractography study in 654 individuals

White matter microstructure in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic tractography study in 654 individuals

An automated behavioral measure of mind wandering during computerized reading

The role of the default mode network in component processes underlying the wandering mind

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About