Where is my Mind?: A Neurocognitive Investigation of Mind Blanking

During wakefulness our thoughts transition between different contents. Alongside, there are moments devoid of specific reportable content, known as mind blanking (MB). Currently, it remains unclear what these blanks refer to, highlighting the definitional and phenomenological ambiguities surrounding MB. We here map out MB in terms of its reportable expressions, associated neurophysiological signatures, and adjacent phenomenology to meditative practices and sleep (white dreams). By means of a mechanistic account, we propose that MB can be related to changes at physiological, neural, and cognitive levels. Overall, we hold that ongoing experience comes at degrees of richness and that allegedly contentless events are distinct mental states with their own diversity, therefore challenging the view of the mind as a content-oriented operator.