bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
May 12, 2026
Tiara Bounyarith, David Braun, Aaron Kucyi
Much of a typical individual's mental life is characterized by spontaneous thoughts that occur independently of external stimuli. In prior studies, ongoing mental experiences and their neural correlates have been captured using thought probes presented at random intervals during functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). However, this approach results in temporally imprecise estimates of...
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
February 1, 2026
Devayani Joshi, Alexa Tompary, Aaron Kucyi
The default mode network (DMN) is a distributed set of brain regions engaged during wakeful rest. Spontaneous thoughts - internally directed mental experiences that arise with relative freedom and few constraints on their content or transitions - are ubiquitous during wakeful rest. Spontaneous memory reactivation - neural events in which recently learned information is reinstated - also occurs...
Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
2026
Tiara Bounyarith, David Braun, Aaron Kucyi
Much of a typical individual's mental life is characterized by spontaneous thoughts that occur independently of external stimuli. In prior studies, ongoing mental experiences and their neural correlates have been captured using thought probes presented at random intervals during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, this approach results in temporally imprecise estimates of...
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
February 5, 2025
Isaac N Treves, Aaron Kucyi, Anna O Tierney et al.
1 citation
Breathing meditation typically consists of directing attention toward breathing and redirecting attention when the mind wanders. As yet, we do not have a full understanding of the neural mechanisms of breath attention, in particular, how large-scale network interactions may be different between breath attention and rest and how these interactions may be modulated during periods of on-task and...
Human Brain Mapping
2025
Isaac N Treves, Aaron Kucyi, Madelynn Park et al.
8 citations
Trait mindfulness refers to one's disposition or tendency to pay attention to their experiences in the present moment, in a non-judgmental and accepting way. Trait mindfulness has been robustly associated with positive mental health outcomes, but its neural underpinnings are poorly understood. Prior resting-state fMRI studies have associated trait mindfulness with within- and between-network...
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
November 1, 2024
Isaac N Treves, Hilary A Marusak, Alexandra Decker et al.
7 citations
Trait mindfulness-the tendency to attend to present-moment experiences without judgment-is negatively correlated with adolescent anxiety and depression. Understanding the neural mechanisms that underlie trait mindfulness may inform the neural basis of psychiatric disorders. However, few studies have identified brain connectivity states that are correlated with trait mindfulness in adolescence,...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
July 14, 2024
Isaac N Treves, Aaron Kucyi, Madelynn Park et al.
1 citation
preprint
Abstract Introduction Trait mindfulness refers to one’s disposition or tendency to pay attention to their experiences in the present moment, in a non-judgmental and accepting way. Trait mindfulness has been robustly associated with positive mental health outcomes, but its neural underpinnings are poorly understood. Prior resting-state fMRI studies have associated trait mindfulness with within-...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
January 20, 2024
Aaron Kucyi, Nathan Anderson, Tiara Bounyarith et al.
2 citations
preprint
Mind-wandering is a frequent, daily mental activity, experienced in unique ways in each person. Yet neuroimaging evidence relating mind-wandering to brain activity, for example in the default mode network (DMN), has relied on population-rather than individual-based inferences due to limited within-individual sampling. Here, three densely-sampled individuals each reported hundreds of...
Brain Stimulation
November 18, 2023
Anna Duong, Julian Quabs, Aaron Kucyi et al.
Functions of the human insula have been explored extensively with neuroimaging methods and intracranial electrical stimulation studies that have highlighted a functional segregation across its subregions. A recently developed cytoarchitectonic map of the human insula has also segregated this brain region into various areas. Our knowledge of the functional organization of this brain region at...
Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
2022
Athena Demertzi, Aaron Kucyi, Adrián Ponce-Alvarez et al.
Spontaneous brain activity changes across states of consciousness. A particular consciousness-mediated configuration is the anticorrelations between the default mode network and other brain regions. What this antagonistic organization implies about consciousness to date remains inconclusive. In this Perspective Article, we propose that anticorrelations are the physiological expression of the...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
July 16, 2021
Josef Parvizi, Rodrigo M. Braga, Aaron Kucyi et al.
59 citations
Significance In this manuscript, we report a rare case of a patient with localized seizures originating from the right anterior and dorsal posteromedial cortex (PMC). We mapped the electrophysiological and neuroimaging connectivity of the ictal onset site and replicated seizure auras by stimulating the homotopical PMC site in the left hemisphere. Our findings provide a causal link between PMC...
Neuroimage
June 25, 2014
Aaron Kucyi, Karen D. Davis
381 citations
Humans spend much of their time engaged in stimulus-independent thoughts, colloquially known as "daydreaming" or "mind-wandering." A fundamental question concerns how awake, spontaneous brain activity represents the ongoing cognition of daydreaming versus unconscious processes characterized as "intrinsic." Since daydreaming involves brief cognitive events that spontaneously fluctuate, we tested...
Journal of Neuroscience
March 12, 2014
Aaron Kucyi, Massieh Moayedi, Irit Weissman‐fogel et al.
390 citations
Rumination is a form of thought characterized by repetitive focus on discomforting emotions or stimuli. In chronic pain disorders, rumination can impede treatment efficacy. The brain mechanisms underlying rumination about chronic pain are not understood. Interestingly, a link between rumination and functional connectivity (FC) of the brain's default mode network (DMN) has been identified within...
Journal of Neuroscience
September 7, 2011
Tim V. Salomons, Aaron Kucyi
25 citations
The neuroscience of meditative practice has attracted considerable attention, in part because it represents a unique juxtaposition of Western scientific practice and Eastern mystical tradition. Beyond cultural interest, however, lies the question of whether such study has clinical/therapeutic