Abstract
A unique human characteristic is our ability to mind wander – a state in which we are free to engage in thoughts that are not directly tied to sensations and perceptions from our immediate physical environment. From a neurocognitive perspective, it has been proposed that during mind wandering, our executive resources are decoupled from the external environment and directed to these internal thoughts. In this review, we examine an underappreciated aspect of this phenomenon – attenuation of sensory-motor processing – from two perspectives. First, we describe the range of widespread sensory, cognitive and motor processes attenuated during mind wandering states, and how this impacts our neurocognitive processing of external events. We then consider sensory-motor attenuation in a class of clinical neurocognitive disorders that have ties to pathological patterns of decoupling, reviews suggesting that mind wandering and these clinical states may share a common mechanism of sensory-motor attenuation. Taken together, these observations suggest the sensory-motor consequences of decoupled thinking are integral to normal and pathological neurocognitive states.
Highlights
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK AND MIND WANDERING The DMN is a resting state network of regions that includes the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral temporoparietal junction, and has been shown to be more active at rest than during task performance (e.g., Gusnard and Raichle, 2001; Greicius et al, 2003)
Franklin et al (2013) question the extent to which perceptual decoupling needs to be actively engaged to insulate these inner thoughts. While this debate is beyond the scope of this review, the literature we presented here appears to support the notion that an attenuation of external processing is necessary for the facilitation and maintenance of our internal trains of thoughts
CAN WE PREDICT AN INDIVIDUAL’S ATTENTIONAL STATE ONLINE? Our research has shown that mind wandering is associated with changes in our neural responses to external events
Summary
Neurocognitive consequences of mind wandering and Schooler, 2006; Schooler et al, 2011; Smallwood, 2013). To ascertain whether this effect occurred independent of disruptions earlier or later in the processing stream, we examined performance monitoring as indexed by the feedback error related negativity (fERN) component (Miltner et al, 1997; Holroyd and Krigolson, 2007) as a function of the reported attention state. The nature of the ongoing task, the methodology of experience sampling and the amount of data considered to be reflective of the reported attentional state, are only a few differences between these two studies that may have led to the disparate results, all of which are detailed in the study by Kam et al (2013a) These sets of findings suggest that the magnitude of sensoryevoked cortical activity during mind wandering episodes may be dependent upon the nature and importance of the external stimulus. We turn to several points of consideration and future directions
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