Revisiting consciousness: Distinguishing between states of conscious focused attention and mind wandering with EEG.
M. R. Dias da Silva, Ó. Gonçalves, D. Branco, M. Postma
Consciousness and Cognition April 19, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103332 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMind wandering, the natural shift from external focus to internal thoughts, alters brain activity in specific ways. During a visuomotor tracking task, participants showed reduced P3 brainwave responses to external targets just before reporting mind wandering, indicating less conscious processing of external stimuli. Alpha brainwave power increased globally, signaling an internal mental state, while theta power rose in centroparietal areas and beta power decreased in right frontal and centroparietal regions. Additionally, individuals prone to mind wandering had higher delta and gamma power but a lower theta-beta ratio. These findings reveal distinct neural signatures of mind wandering at both momentary and trait levels.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | visuomotor tracking task |
| Keywords | Medicine Psychology |
| Key finding | Mind wandering is characterized by attenuated P3 event-related potentials to external targets, increased global alpha power, increased centroparietal theta power, decreased right frontal and centroparietal beta power, and trait-level correlations with delta, gamma, and theta-beta ratio. |
Abstract
Fluctuating between external conscious processing and mind wandering is inherent to the human condition. Past research showed that in tasks requiring sustained attention, mind wandering episodes in which attention is directed internally constrain conscious processing of external stimuli. Conversely, conscious processing of internal stimuli is enhanced during mind wandering. To investigate this, we developed and administered a visuomotor tracking task in which participants were instructed to track the path of a stimulus on a screen with a mouse while responding to rare targets. Prior to reports of mind wandering we found the following: The P3 event-related potential component for targets, indicative of conscious stimulus processing, was attenuated at electrodes Cz and Pz. Moreover, alpha power, indicative of internal mental states, increased globally. Theta power increased along the centroparietal area, and beta decreased along right frontal and right centroparietal areas. Interestingly, trait mind wandering was positively correlated with delta power and gamma power, but negatively correlated with the theta-beta ratio. These results demonstrate that mind wandering is characterized by distinct neural signatures at both a state and trait level.