Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
May 26, 2009
Kalina Christoff, Alan M Gordon, Jonathan Smallwood et al.
1,832 citations
Mind wandering, which occupies a large portion of waking life, involves parallel recruitment of both default and executive brain networks, two systems previously thought to work in opposition. Using fMRI with experience sampling during a task, activation in default network regions, particularly medial prefrontal cortex, was linked to subjective reports of mind wandering and to performance errors. Executive network recruitment also occurred, especially when participants lacked meta-awareness of their mind wandering. The findings suggest that mind wandering represents a unique mental state where these networks cooperate rather than oppose each other.
Psychological Science
March 28, 2013
Michael D. Mrazek, Michael S. Franklin, Dawa T. Phillips et al.
1,067 citations
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.
Emotion
February 6, 2012
Michael D. Mrazek, Jonathan Smallwood, Jonathan W. Schooler
604 citations
Mindfulness and mind-wandering are opposing constructs. In a first study, higher dispositional mindfulness, measured by the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale, correlated negatively with four measures of mind-wandering, confirming their inverse relationship. In a second study, eight minutes of mindful breathing reduced behavioral indicators of mind-wandering during a Sustained Attention to Response Task, compared with passive relaxation or reading. These findings clarify the opposition between the two constructs and help integrate separate lines of research.
Brain Research
April 15, 2011
Jonathan Smallwood, Kevin Brown, Ben Baird et al.
394 citations
The ability to generate and sustain an internal train of thought independent of external reality frees an agent from acting only on immediate environmental events. This paper proposes that such thought arises from cooperation between autobiographical information from the default mode network and a frontal-parietal control network that sustains and buffers internal trains of thought against disruption. This hypothesis explains two features: first, access to the top-down control system is a prerequisite of conscious experience, explaining why its activation and default mode activity are often observed together during internally guided thought.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
April 17, 2014
Benjamin Baird, Jonathan Smallwood, Antoine Lutz et al.
169 citations
When the mind wanders, the brain's response to sensory input becomes less consistent from one moment to the next, particularly in theta-band oscillations over parietal regions. Using an experience sampling method with continuous EEG, the authors found that task-unrelated thought reduced the P1 event-related potential, replicating prior work. Time-frequency analysis showed decreased theta-band phase-locking, indicating lower temporal fidelity in the brain's response to stimuli. Additionally, mind-wandering required more cortical processing to re-engage with a task. These results suggest that attentional states shape neural processing of sensory input by affecting the consistency of oscillatory responses.
Psychological Science
April 28, 2009
Michael A. Sayette, Erik D. Reichle, Jonathan W. Schooler
135 citations
Alcohol increases mind wandering while reducing the likelihood of noticing it. In a study of 54 male social drinkers, those who consumed alcohol (0.82 g/kg) were significantly more likely to report zoning out when probed during a reading task, compared with those who drank a placebo. After accounting for this increase in mind wandering, alcohol also lowered the probability of catching oneself zoning out. The findings suggest alcohol alters both experiential consciousness and metaconsciousness, making drinkers more prone to lapses in attention without awareness.
iScience
February 2, 2021
Jonathan Smallwood, Adam Turnbull, Hao-ting Wang et al.
130 citations
The landscape of ongoing thought is heterogeneous and shaped by both personal traits and environmental context. Recent work shows that attention and control systems organize experience in response to changing demands, while the default mode network contributes not only to task-negative or episodic content but also to the vividness of experience in both task contexts and spontaneous self-generated states. Multiple neural systems reflect the landscape of ongoing thought, and it is important to distinguish processes that shape how experience unfolds from those that regulate it.
Frontiers in Psychology
June 17, 2015
Claire M. Zedelius, Jonathan W. Schooler
124 citations
The relationship between mindfulness and creativity depends on the strategy used to solve problems. Across two studies, people higher in trait mindfulness performed worse overall on creative problem-solving tasks. However, when problems were approached analytically, more mindful individuals performed better. In contrast, when problems were approached through sudden insight, mindfulness impaired performance. The findings suggest that mindfulness may hinder insight-based creativity but can benefit analytical problem-solving.
Journal of Aggression Maltreatment & Trauma
June 12, 2001
Jonathan W. Schooler
98 citations
Discovered (recovered) memories of childhood abuse are often met with skepticism because of limited corroborated evidence and a lack of explanatory theory. This article reviews seven corroborated cases of discovered memories and explains them through a theory of meta-awareness, which distinguishes between experiential consciousness (the raw experience) and meta-awareness (conscious awareness of that experience). Discovered memories can involve gaining a new meta-awareness of an experience's meaning, regaining a previously avoided meta-awareness, or acquiring a meta-awareness that never existed. Factors such as age, stress, lack of discussion, dissociation, and nocturnal cognitive processing may prevent abuse from being encoded with meta-awareness. Such non-reflected memories may remain inaccessible until a specific retrieval cue triggers recall, fundamentally altering the individual's view of their personal history.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
October 25, 2016
Benjamin W. Mooneyham, Michael D. Mrazek, Alissa J. Mrazek et al.
95 citations
During tasks requiring continuous engagement, the mind alternates between focused attention and mind-wandering. Using a dynamic functional connectivity approach with a sliding window, distinct brain states involving the executive control, salience, and default networks were identified during a sustained attention task focused on breathing sensations. The frequency of these states correlated oppositely with dispositional mindfulness, suggesting they correspond to focused attention and mind-wandering. A mindfulness intervention increased the frequency of the state associated with focused attention, especially in those who improved most in dispositional mindfulness. These findings support that mind-wandering involves corecruitment of executive and default network regions.
PLoS One
April 6, 2012
Jonathan Smallwood, Kevin Brown, Benjamin Baird et al.
92 citations
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.
Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice
March 1, 2016
Anthony P Zanesco, Brandon G King, Katherine A Maclean et al.
61 citations
Intensive meditation training in focused attention and monitoring is associated with reduced mind wandering and less mindless reading during a complex cognitive task. In two longitudinal studies, participants completed a reading task that required ongoing error monitoring to detect semantic inconsistencies. In the first study, training participants were assessed before and after a 3-month shamatha meditation retreat and again 7 years later. In the second study, training and matched control participants were assessed before and after a 1-month insight meditation retreat. Across both studies, meditation training reduced lapses of attention while reading, suggesting that intensive meditation may help maintain attention over time.
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
July 1, 2022
Tam Hunt, Marissa Ericson, Jonathan W. Schooler
52 citations
As tools for measuring consciousness emerge, there is no settled theory of what they measure. This article categorizes tests that infer the presence and complexity of phenomenal or subjective experience, proposing a taxonomy of measurable correlates of consciousness (MCC) with three subcategories: neural, behavioral, and creative correlates. It also suggests ways different theories of consciousness might be empirically distinguished and reflects on how broader philosophical views, such as materialism and panpsychism, could be informed by scientific evidence.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
February 1, 2022
Isabel Wießner, Marcelo Falchi-Carvalho, Lucas Oliveira Maia et al.
43 citations
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study gave 24 healthy volunteers 50 micrograms of LSD or an inactive placebo and tested creativity near the drug's peak using multiple tasks. LSD changed creativity in three ways: it increased novelty, surprise, originality, and semantic distances (pattern break); decreased utility, convergent thinking, and marginally elaboration (disorganization); and increased symbolic thinking and ambiguity (meaning). The findings suggest LSD shifts cognitive resources away from normal patterns toward new ones, and that LSD-induced symbolic thinking might aid psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
December 13, 2020
Madeleine E. Gross, Anna Smith, Yvette M. Graveline et al.
37 citations
People spend much of their lives engaged in stimulus-independent thoughts (SITs), such as dreaming and waking thoughts not tied to immediate surroundings, which can feel similar to stimulus-dependent thoughts (SDTs) driven by external input. Using a 7-day smartphone-based experience-sampling procedure where participants reported whether their current thoughts were stimulus dependent or independent and rated qualitative aspects like topic jumping, the results show substantial distinctiveness among dreaming, waking SITs, and SDTs, with significant differences between at least two of the three mental states across every measured variable.
Frontiers in Psychology
August 22, 2014
Michael S. Franklin, Stephen Baumgart, Jonathan W. Schooler
18 citations
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.
Education Sciences
August 31, 2019
Alissa J. Mrazek, Michael D. Mrazek, Jordan V. Reese et al.
17 citations
A digital mindfulness course delivered over 22 days in a public high school was feasible: students completed 80% of lessons and 77% of daily exercises. Although the one-group design limits causal conclusions, emotional regulation and stress management improved from pretest to post-test, even as life demands increased. Students also developed a stronger growth mindset about their ability to focus and felt more motivated to train that ability. Among the 81.6% of students who reported paying attention less than they should at baseline, focus during class significantly increased. The findings support the feasibility of digital mindfulness training for high schools and suggest strategies for improving implementation fidelity.
Consciousness and Cognition
February 1, 2025
Anusha Garg, Shivang Shelat, Madeleine E. Gross et al.
13 citations
Thinking aloud while letting the mind wander does not substantially alter the stream of consciousness compared to thinking silently. In two studies with 111 and 102 participants, people who verbalized their ongoing thoughts showed no significant differences in meta-awareness or how often their topics shifted. Of 21 thought qualities and 18 content topics examined, only three qualities (private thoughts, mind blanking, and session difficulty) and one topic (partner, intimacy, love, and sexual matters) differed between conditions. Cognitive load also did not differ. The findings indicate that the Think Aloud method is a reliable and minimally reactive tool for studying the natural flow of thoughts in task-absent settings.
Front Hum Neurosci
March 1, 2024
Tam Hunt, Mostyn Jones, Johnjoe Mcfadden et al.
11 citations
This editorial examines the potential of electromagnetic field theories to explain consciousness, highlighting both promising avenues and significant challenges. It discusses how neural electromagnetic fields might integrate information across brain regions, offering a framework for conscious experience. However, it also addresses obstacles such as the lack of direct causal evidence and difficulties in testing these theories empirically. The piece calls for interdisciplinary collaboration to refine hypotheses and develop experimental approaches that could bridge theoretical gaps.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 1, 2024
Justin Riddle, Jonathan W. Schooler
7 citations
Although we intuitively feel we have a single, unified conscious experience, we often face indecision, hold contradictory beliefs, or engage in internal debates. The Nested Observer Windows (NOW) Model proposes that consciousness is hierarchical: information processed across many spatiotemporal scales of the brain feeds into subjective experience. It likens the mind to a hierarchy of nested mosaic tiles, where each tile is itself an image made of smaller tiles. Unitary consciousness sits at the apex, where perceptual constructs become fully integrated and complex behaviors are initiated. The model defines observer windows as spatially and temporally constrained systems that integrate information.
Possibility Studies & Society
September 1, 2024
Jonathan W. Schooler, Justin Riddle
3 citations
The essay examines the mismatch between how time feels subjectively and how it is described by modern physics. Three core features of lived time are identified: the present feels uniquely real, time seems to flow, and the future appears open with real possibilities. Physics, however, treats these features as illusions produced by consciousness. The authors argue that these subjective aspects are so self-evident they should be treated as axioms, and propose a new framework with three dimensions of time: objective time (clock time), subjective time (the experience of passage), and alternative time (branching future possibilities). This framework aims to better align scientific understanding with human experience.
Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
May 5, 2025
Joshua R. Ortega, Madeleine E. Gross, Jonathan W. Schooler
1 citation
People who are highly fantasy-prone, absorptive, or hypnotizable often have waking thoughts that feel bizarre or dreamlike, suggesting a continuity between dreaming and waking thoughts that may vary by individual. The personality trait transliminality—linked to heightened awareness of subliminal material—was hypothesized to predict this continuity. In a week-long experience-sampling study of undergraduates, transliminality did not predict overall continuity of thought. Exploratory analyses indicated it predicted greater continuity in bizarreness, but this did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Transliminality was positively associated with waking thoughts that were more bizarre, interesting, and novel. The findings advance understanding of how personality relates to thought phenomenology and suggest avenues for research on well-being, creativity, and behavior.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 1, 2026
Asa Young, Marissa Ericson, Jonathan W. Schooler
Consciousness depends not only on the brain but on a continuous dialogue between brain and body. Cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms modulate brain signals to support interoception, emotion, and selfhood. Clinical and subclinical conditions involve dysrhythmia in these bodily rhythms and atypical brain-body coupling. An optimal window of brain-body synchrony exists; beyond it, adverse effects occur, while non-clinical stress-related increases in synchrony may help coordinate cognitive systems for functions like multisensory integration. Disturbing bodily rhythms or their coupling to the brain alters phenomenological experience enough to sometimes meet clinical criteria, supporting a categorical difference between an embodied agent and a brain-in-a-vat.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
October 1, 2023
Ruben Laukkonen, Margaret Webb, Carola Salvi et al.
Feelings of insight help people select ideas from the stream of consciousness by capturing attention and generating intuitive confidence, enabling fast action under uncertainty. This 'Eureka heuristic' is explained through active inference: implicit restructuring via Bayesian reduction produces a higher-order prediction error (the content of insight), while dopaminergic precision-weighting of that error accounts for the confidence, pleasure, and attentional capture (the feeling of insight). The account aligns with the phenomenology, accuracy, and neural unfolding of insight, as well as its effects on belief and decision-making. Dangers include the formation and entrenchment of false beliefs and vulnerability of insights under psychoactive substances and misinformation.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2019
Tam Hunt, Jonathan W. Schooler
Resonance—synchronization, harmonization, or vibrations in a general sense—appears to be integrally related to consciousness. In mammalian brains, a specific combination of gamma, beta, and theta electrical synchrony is a possible neural correlate of consciousness. Similar resonance patterns occur in many living and non-living structures. This paper reviews resonating structures across neuroscience, biology, and physics and proposes a solution to the 'combination problem' of consciousness: how micro-conscious entities combine into macro-consciousness.