Age-related changes in the temporal focus and self-referential content of spontaneous cognition during periods of low cognitive demand

Irish, Muireann; Goldberg, Zoë-Lee; Alaeddin, Sara; O’Callaghan, Claire; Andrews‐Hanna, Jessica R.

doi:10.1007/s00426-018-1102-8

Cited by 41 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…By relating the amount of time an individual spent in specific neural states to the pattern of thoughts reported at the end of the scan, we highlighted many of the themes of self-generated thought that are common within the literature. For example, patterns of future problem solving identified in our study are consistent with a prospective bias to ongoing thought that develops in young adulthood (McCormack et al, 2019;Irish et al, 2019) and is common in multiple cultures (Australia, Irish et al, 2019;Belgium, Stawarczyk et al, 2013;China, Song and Wang, 2012;Germany, Ruby et al, 2013;Japan, Iijima and Tanno, 2012;U.K. Smallwood et al, 2009;USA, Baird et al, 2011;Seli et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

The psychological correlates of distinct neural states occurring during wakeful rest

Karapanagiotidis

Vidaurre

Quinn

et al. 2019

Preprint

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When unoccupied by an explicit external task, humans engage in a wide range of different types of self-generated thinking. These are often unrelated to the immediate environment and have unique psychological features. Although contemporary perspectives on ongoing thought recognise the heterogeneity of these self-generated states, we lack both a clear understanding of how to classify the specific states, and how they can be mapped empirically. In the current study, we capitalise on advances in machine learning that allow continuous neural data to be divided into a set of distinct temporally re-occurring patterns, or states. We applied this technique to a large set of resting state data in which we also acquired retrospective descriptions of the participants' experiences during the scan. We found that two of the identified states were predictive of patterns of thinking at rest. One state highlighted a pattern of neural activity commonly seen during demanding tasks, and the time individuals spent in this state was associated with descriptions of experience focused on problem solving in the future. A second state was associated with patterns of activity that are commonly seen under less demanding conditions, and the time spent in it was linked to reports of negative rumination. Finally, we found that these two neural states tended to fall at either end of a neural hierarchy that is thought to reflect the brain's response to cognitive demands. Together, these results demonstrate that approaches which take advantage of time-varying changes in neural function can play an important role in understanding the repertoire of self-generated states. Moreover, they establish that important features of self-generated ongoing experience are related to variation along a similar vein to those seen when the brain responds to cognitive task demands.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

The psychological correlates of distinct neural states occurring during wakeful rest

Karapanagiotidis

Vidaurre

Quinn

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…A range of cognitive tasks have been utilised, including vigilance tasks (e.g., signal detection tasks, Antrobus et al, 1966; line detection tasks, Plimpton et al, 2015, see also Giambra, 1995), reading tasks (Schooler, Reichle, & Halpern, 2005), go/no-go tasks (e.g., the Sustained Attention to Response Task, or SART, Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997;McVay & Kane, 2009), or choice reaction time tasks (Baird et al, 2011). In addition, O'Callaghan and colleagues have recently developed a novel shape expectations task, which may be particularly useful in studying spontaneous thoughts in ageing and clinical populations (O'Callaghan, Shine, Lewis, Andrews-Hanna, & Irish, 2015; O'Callaghan, Shine, Hodges, Andrews-Hanna, & Irish, 2019) (see also Irish, Goldberg, Alaeddin, O'Callaghan, & Andrews-Hanna, 2019). Generally, tasks that require rapid perceptual processing (e.g., fast presentation rate, see Antrobus et al, 1966) and tax cognitive resources (see McVay & Kane, 2009) reduce frequencies of spontaneous thought, although how this relates to spontaneous future thought is an open question (but is addressed in Mazzoni, 2019, andBarzykowski, Radel, Niedźwieńska, &; see also Smallwood et al, 2009).…”

Section: Laboratory Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All three types of methods described above, have been used in the studies included in this issue, and several new variations of existing methods have also been reported to enable researchers to study spontaneous future thinking in very young children (Caza & Atance, 2018), older children and adolescents (McCormack et al, 2019) and older adults inside the laboratory (Jordão et al, 2019) and in everyday life (Warden et al, 2019). The development of new methods and techniques will inevitably stimulate further research on spontaneous future thinking (see e.g., O'Callaghan et al, 2015;Irish et al, 2019).…”

Section: Laboratory Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While we share Berntsen's concerns, there is ample evidence that the field of mind-wandering has entered into a new phase by introducing the distinctions between intentional vs. unintentional (e.g., Seli, Risko, Smilek, & Schacter, 2016) and stimulus-dependent vs. stimulus-independent mind-wandering (e.g., Maillet, Seli, & Schacter, 2017). With these distinctions and improved methodologies tapping into the precise content of thoughts (e.g., Irish et al, 2019;Warden et al, 2019), we believe that research on future-oriented mind-wandering and spontaneous episodic future thinking will have much in common in terms of conceptual understanding and experimental findings. This is nicely reflected in the papers included in this special issue coming from different traditions of research on mind-wandering (e.g., Irish et al 2019;McCormack et al 2019;Ji et al, 2019) and spontaneous mental time travel or future thinking (e.g., Mazzonni; Vannuci et al; Jordão et al).…”

Section: The Present: Major Themes and Content Of The Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

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Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Cole

Kvavilashvili

2019

Psychological Research

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In this Editorial, we discuss the past, present and future of an emerging and fast-developing field-spontaneous future cognition. In tracking the past of this research, the trajectories of research on mind-wandering, episodic future thinking and prospective memory are briefly examined, and their relation with spontaneous future cognition demarcated. Three broad methodological approaches (questionnaire, naturalistic and laboratory) used to study spontaneous future thoughts are described, providing an overview of the field. The present state of this research is represented by a themed analysis of the articles included in this Special Issue. The breadth of studies (covering cognitive mechanisms, developmental stages and psychopathology) have already led to important insights, especially concerning the conditions in which spontaneous future thoughts most commonly arise and who may be predisposed to experiencing them. In the future, greater effort should focus on developing a theoretical account of spontaneous future cognition-this may increase our understanding of how and why spontaneous future thoughts occur. If future research in this area reflects the diversity and depth within this Special Issue, a flourishing of research on spontaneous future cognition will be on the horizon in years or perhaps decades to come.

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“…≥90 s). The scoring procedure for this task has been described previously (32,63 bvFTD, 23 AD, and 32 controls. To identify regions where grey matter intensity covaried with mind wandering performance, a GLM was conducted in the patient groups combined (i.e., excluding controls), using the mind wandering index score as a covariate in the design matrix.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hippocampal atrophy and intrinsic brain network dysfunction relate to alterations in mind wandering in neurodegeneration

O’Callaghan

Shine

Hodges

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Mind wandering represents the human capacity for internally focussed thought, and relies upon the brain’s default network and its interactions with attentional networks. Studies have characterised mind wandering in healthy people, yet there is limited understanding of how this capacity is affected in clinical populations. This study used a validated thought-sampling task to probe mind wandering capacity in two neurodegenerative disorders: behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n=35) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD; n=24), compared to older controls (n=37). These patient groups were selected due to canonical structural and functional changes across sites of the default and frontoparietal networks, and well-defined impairments in cognitive processes that support mind wandering. Relative to controls, bvFTD patients displayed significantly reduced mind wandering capacity, offset by a significant increase in stimulus-bound thought. In contrast, AD patients demonstrated comparable levels of mind wandering to controls, in the context of a relatively subtle shift towards stimulus-/task-related forms of thought. In the patient groups, mind wandering was associated with grey matter integrity in the hippocampus/parahippocampus, striatum, insula and orbitofrontal cortex. Resting state functional connectivity revealed associations between mind wandering capacity and connectivity within and between regions of the frontoparietal and default networks, with distinct patterns evident in patients vs. controls. These findings support a relationship between altered mind wandering capacity in neurodegenerative disorders, and structural and functional integrity of the default and frontoparietal networks. This study highlights a dimension of cognitive dysfunction not well documented in neurodegenerative disorders, and validates current models of mind wandering in a clinical population.Significance statementHumans spend much of their waking life engaged in mind wandering. Underlying brain systems supporting this complex ability have been established in healthy individuals, yet it remains unclear how mind wandering is altered in neuropsychiatric populations. We reveal changes in the thought profiles elicited during periods of low cognitive demand in dementia, resulting in reduced mind wandering and an increased propensity towards stimulus-bound thought. These altered thought profiles were associated with structural and functional brain changes in the hippocampus, default and frontoparietal networks; key regions implicated in internal mentation in healthy individuals. Our findings provide a unique clinical validation of current theoretical models of mind wandering, and reveal a dimension of cognitive dysfunction that has received scant attention in dementia.

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Age-related changes in the temporal focus and self-referential content of spontaneous cognition during periods of low cognitive demand

Cited by 41 publications

References 62 publications

The psychological correlates of distinct neural states occurring during wakeful rest

The psychological correlates of distinct neural states occurring during wakeful rest

Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Hippocampal atrophy and intrinsic brain network dysfunction relate to alterations in mind wandering in neurodegeneration

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