Pleasantness of mind wandering is positively associated with focus back effort in daily life: Evidence from resting state fMRI.
Hong He, Luming Hu, Xuemin Zhang, Jiang Qiu
Brain and Cognition April 15, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105731 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 69 |
| Population | Adults reporting on their everyday mind wandering (participants in a resting-state fMRI study) |
| Key findings | Participants who experienced more pleasant daily mind wandering reported greater effort in trying to focus back, and pleasantness of mind wandering and focus-back effort were each linked to functional connectivity between executive-network regions. The authors argue these findings support a content regulation hypothesis in which people use executive control to keep their minds wandering away from unpleasant topics. |
Abstract
Despite the dynamic property of consciousness, little research has explored the characteristic of the effort in trying to focus back, in which attention is shifted from mind wandering to ongoing activities. In the current study, we assessed the frequency of daily mind wandering, the pleasantness of daily mind wandering content, and the daily focus back effort of 69 participants, and then collected their resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) scans. Our results revealed that (1) participants who experienced more daily pleasant mind wandering tended to have higher effort in trying to focus back than individuals with less pleasant mind wandering whereas there were no significant relations between pleasantness of mind wandering and mind wandering frequency or between focus back effort and mind wandering frequency in everyday life; (2) the pleasantness of mind wandering and focus back effort were associated with two functional connectivity that related to focus back episodes (right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-right middle frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal - right middle frontal gyrus). The nodes forming these functional connections belonged to the executive network. Taken together, these findings support the content regulation hypothesis that humans maintain their minds wandering away from unpleasant topics by engaging in executive control processes.
Citations in the library
Cites 8
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- Dynamics of neural recruitment surrounding the spontaneous arising of thoughts in experienced mindfulness practitioners Neuroimage April 30, 2016
and 3 more in the library