The balanced mind: the variability of task-unrelated thoughts predicts error monitoring.
Frontiers in human neuroscience January 1, 2013 Micah Allen, Jonathan Smallwood, Joanna Christensen et al. 100 citations
Mind-wandering, or task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs), is common and often impairs performance on demanding tasks, but new findings show it can also enhance metacognitive abilities. Using the Error Awareness Task (EAT), researchers found that individual differences in average TUTs strongly predicted stop accuracy, while variability in TUTs specifically predicted error awareness. Brain imaging revealed that both response inhibition and TUT ratings activated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of the default mode network (DMN), but in distinct dorsal areas, suggesting functional segregation. Co-activation of salience and default mode regions during error awareness linked monitoring to TUTs. The results suggest that fluctuations between internal and external thought, rather than constant focus, characterize individuals with greater metacognitive monitoring, and balancing these modes may optimize task performance.