A 2-week mindfulness-training course reduced distracting thoughts and improved performance on cognitive tasks. In a randomized controlled investigation, participants who completed mindfulness training showed higher GRE reading-comprehension scores and greater working memory capacity compared to controls, while also reporting fewer distracting thoughts during these tasks. The improvements were driven by reduced mind wandering, particularly among those initially prone to distraction. The findings indicate that cultivating mindfulness can enhance cognitive function broadly.
People vary in how often they have thoughts unrelated to the task at hand, and this variation is linked to longer reaction times when a target appears while baseline pupil diameter is elevated. Because increased baseline pupil diameter can indicate higher tonic activity in the norepinephrine system, the findings suggest that high tonic norepinephrine activity may facilitate task-unrelated thoughts. The authors hypothesize that a high tonic mode of norepinephrine broadly reduces the amplification of task-relevant information, thereby prioritizing internally generated thoughts and shielding them from potentially disruptive external events.
The article argues that the concept of the 'neural correlate of consciousness' (NCC) is fundamentally flawed because it conflates correlation with causation and relies on an outdated, Cartesian view of the mind. It proposes that consciousness is not a product of specific brain regions but an emergent property of dynamic, whole-brain interactions. The authors contend that searching for a single NCC misdirects research and that a more holistic, systems-level approach is needed to understand consciousness. They advocate for a paradigm shift away from localizationist assumptions toward studying the complex, self-organizing dynamics of neural networks.
During lucid dreaming, the dreamer is aware they are dreaming. To identify brain network activity linked to this conscious experience, 39 sleep recordings (lucid vs. non-lucid REM sleep) from 8 lucid dreamers were analyzed using EEG microstate analysis. Microstates A and G dominated during lucid REM, while microstates B, C, and D dominated during non-lucid REM. These microstates were associated with emotional processing (A), visual processing (B), salience network activity (C), executive functions (D), and the default mode network (G). Results suggest lucidity involves increased self-visualization, metacognition, and executive processing, with decreased emotional processing and default mode network activity, indicating distinct network dynamics in lucid REM sleep.