Intrasubject functional connectivity related to self‐generated thoughts

Abstract

Introduction In psychiatric research, functional connectivity (FC) derived from resting‐state functional MRI (rsfMRI) is often used to investigate brain abnormalities in psychiatric disorders. This approach assumes implicitly that FC can recover reliable maps of the functional architecture of the brain and that these profiles of connectivity reflect trait differences underlying pathology. However, evidence of FC related to self‐generated thoughts (mind‐wandering) stands in contrast with these assumptions, as FC may reflect thought patterns rather than functional architecture. Methods Multi‐factor analysis (MFA) was used to investigate the reported content of self‐generated thoughts during high‐field (7T) rsfMRI in a repeated sample of 22 healthy individuals. To investigate the relationship between these experiences and FC, individual scores for each of these dimensions were compared with whole‐brain connectivity using the network‐based statistic (NBS) method. Results This analysis revealed three dimensions of thought content: self‐referential thought, negative thoughts about one's surroundings, and thoughts in the form of imagery. A network of connections within the sensorimotor cortices negatively correlated with self‐generated thoughts concerning the self was observed (p = .0081, .0486 FDR). Conclusion These results suggest a potentially confounding relationship between self‐generated thoughts and FC, and contribute to the body of research concerning the functional representation of mind‐wandering.

Cluster-based characterization of consistencies in individuals' thought profiles at rest in a cohort of 1779 French university students

“…RSTP-3 appears very close to the positive, spontaneous thought about others (Vatansever, 2020) and the "episodic social cognition" dimension described in several studies (Engert et al, 2014;Konu et al, 2020Konu et al, , 2021Linz et al, 2021;Smallwood et al, 2016;Turnbull et al, 2021). Finally, RSTP-5 (exclusively involving images) and RSTP-6 (exclusively involving inner speech) match the extremes of the "modality" dimension that contrasts images and words (Brennan et al, 2021;Martinon et al, 2019;Poerio et al, 2017;Sormaz et al, 2018;Turnbull et al, 2021;Vatansever, 2020;Wang et al, 2018aWang et al, , 2018b. Thus, our method appears as effective as the gold standard experience sampling in characterizing the interindividual variability of ongoing conscious thought and will help compare independent samples.…”

“…Indeed, RSTP-1 is similar to the frequently described pattern, either in healthy or depressed individuals, combining self-focused, past-oriented, and negatively valenced thoughts (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2013;Hoffmann et al, 2016;Raffaelli et al, 2021;Vatansever, 2020) and sometimes other-oriented thoughts (Ruby et al, 2013a(Ruby et al, , 2013b. RSTP-4 resembles patterns that connect negative thoughts with one's surroundings (Brennan et al, 2021;Konu et al, 2021), internal allocation of attention (Gruberger et al, 2013), fewer off-task thoughts, greater future focus, and higher daily life subjective stress (Linz et al, 2021). RSTP-3 appears very close to the positive, spontaneous thought about others (Vatansever, 2020) and the "episodic social cognition" dimension described in several studies (Engert et al, 2014;Konu et al, 2020Konu et al, , 2021Linz et al, 2021;Smallwood et al, 2016;Turnbull et al, 2021).…”

“…Here, frequencies of future-oriented and self-focused thoughts were strictly identical across all profiles except one (RSTP-3). A positive correlation between self-relevant and future-oriented thoughts has been consistently observed (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2013;Brennan et al, 2021;Diaz et al, 2014;Engert et al, 2014;Kanske et al, 2017;Linz et al, 2021;Ruby et al, 2013aRuby et al, , 2013bSmallwood et al, 2016;Sormaz et al, 2018;Stawarczyk et al, 2013;Turnbull et al, 2021), and it has been explained that future-oriented thinking means the anticipation and planning of personally relevant future goals (Baird et al, 2011;Stawarczyk et al, 2011). Moreover, we observed that greater self-focused/future-oriented thoughts were consistently associated with negative emotions (in RSTP-1 and RSTP-4), an observation consistent with results obtained in individuals scoring low in narcissism (Kanske et al, 2017) but opposite to previous observations that thoughts about the future are on average more positive (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2013;Beaty et al, 2019;Spronken et al, 2016).…”

“…To capture the complex and multifaceted nature of ongoing conscious thought, research of the last decade has increasingly used multidimensional techniques aimed at characterizing thought patterns (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2013;Brennan et al, 2021;Engert et al, 2014;Konu et al, 2020Konu et al, , 2021Linz et al, 2021;Martinon et al, 2019;Poerio et al, 2017;Ruby et al, 2013aRuby et al, , 2013bRuby et al, 2013aRuby et al, , 2013bSmallwood et al, 2016;Sormaz et al, 2018;Stawarczyk et al, 2013;Turnbull et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020Wang et al, , 2018aWang et al, , 2018bWang et al, , 2018aWang et al, , 2018b. Evidence linking thought patterns to dispositional traits was mainly obtained outside of the scanner (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2013;Engert et al, 2014;Konu et al, 2021;Linz et al, 2021;Poerio et al, 2017;Ruby et al, 2013aRuby et al, , 2013bRuby et al, 2013aRuby et al, , 2013bWang et al, 2020Wang et al, , 2018aWang et al, , 2018b.…”