Abstract :
[en] Medical imaging indicates that, in typical conditions, brain function is dynamic and rich of variant patterns of activity, leading to an ongoing stream of thinking. When this brain dynamism is compromised, people also report changes in their thought content. Here, I will show how departures from balanced brain states are linked to altered conscious states as seen in the lab and clinical context. Inversely, I will introduce how atypical thinking, such that of mind blanking, can provide a measurable expression of an underlying neurobiological mechanism linked to arousal fluctuations, as already shown in some neuropsychiatric cases. Furthermore, I will argue that such contentless thoughts during wakefulness could reflect an adaptive biological response linked to the clearance of metabolic waste that is being accumulated during ongoing thinking. This perspective challenges the notion that the mind is a constant thought-full operator and leads to new knowledge about our current biomechanistic understanding of mental state reportability during waking life.
