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Poster (Scientific congresses and symposiums)
Contentless thinking is associated with overall positive inter-areal connectivity configurations
Mortaheb, Sepehr; Van Calster, Laurens; Boulakis, Paradeisios Alexandros et al.
2021Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting (CNS 2021)
 

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Abstract :
[en] During spontaneous mentation, our minds are occupied with different contents, including periods of contentless thinking (mind blanking). As the frequency of mind blanking events is non-negligible, an emerging question is whether this mental state constitutes an accidental blip or rather a default function of our ongoing mental flow. Using fMRI experience-sampling in 36 typical subjects during which mind blanking could be chosen among various mental states, we show that mind blanking (MB) is less frequent (6%) compared to sensory-oriented (Sens, 19%), stimulus-dependent (SDep, 31%), and stimulus-independent thoughts (SInd, 43%), distributed equally across time (Chi-square uniformity test, χ2(9)=6.18, p=0.72). The probability of reporting mind blanking is low but equal when departing from the other states (Markov chain transition probability=0.06), suggesting that this state is not driven by specific mental content; also, the low probability (0.04) to re-enter mind-blanking indicates that contentless reports may be less anchoring as compared to content-oriented thinking. FMRI phase-based coherence showed that a recurrent brain pattern of overall positive functional connectivity was closer to mind blanking reports (in the sense of Euclidean distance) compared to other mental states (p=0.035 for MB vs. Sens and p<0.001 for MB vs. SDep and MB vs. SInd, linear mixed effect model and posthoc Tukey's test). This indicates that mind blanking is a default mental state supported by an over-connected brain configuration. Such overall positive connectivity can reflect a distributed fight of multiple local units to enter into the supervisory attentional system, which may hinder reportable mental content formation.
Disciplines :
Human health sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Mortaheb, Sepehr  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Physiology of Cognition
Van Calster, Laurens ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Département de Psychologie
Boulakis, Paradeisios Alexandros;  Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA-Consciousness > Physiology of Cognition
Georgoula, Kleio;  Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA-Consciousness > Physiology of Cognition
Majerus, Steve  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Département de Psychologie
Demertzi, Athina  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Physiology of Cognition
Language :
English
Title :
Contentless thinking is associated with overall positive inter-areal connectivity configurations
Publication date :
March 2021
Event name :
Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting (CNS 2021)
Event date :
from 13-03-2021 to 16-03-2021
Available on ORBi :
since 08 February 2021

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