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.
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.
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.