The wandering brain: Meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of mind-wandering and related spontaneous thought processes

By Kieran C. R. Fox, R. Nathan Spreng, Melissa Ellamil, Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna, Kalina Christoff. NeuroImage, 2015

672 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The neural basis and cognitive functions of various spontaneous thought processes, particularly mind-wandering, are increasingly being investigated. Although strong links have been drawn between the occurrence of spontaneous thought processes and activation in brain regions comprising the default mode network (DMN), spontaneous thought also appears to recruit other, non-DMN regions just as consistently. Here we present the first quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of spontaneous thought and mind-wandering in order to address the question of their neural correlates. Examining 24 functional neuroimaging studies of spontaneous thought processes, we conducted a meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation (ALE). A number of key DMN areas showed consistent recruitment across studies, including medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, medial temporal lobe, and bilateral inferior parietal lobule. Numerous non-DMN regions, however, were also consistently recruited, including rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporopolar cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex, and lingual gyrus. These meta-analytic results indicate that DMN activation alone is insufficient to adequately capture the neural basis of spontaneous thought; frontoparietal control network areas, and other non-DMN regions, appear to be equally central. We conclude that further progress in the cognitive and clinical neuroscience of spontaneous thought will therefore require a re-balancing of our view of the contributions of various regions and networks throughout the brain, and beyond the DMN.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0c0044bd8e2757ddf052aba7b7c5f67cc78fe61c

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Conceptualising creativity benefits of nature experience: Attention restoration and mind wandering as complementary processes (2018, background): “Mind wandering is associated with activation of the default network (Fox et al., 2015; Schooler et al., 2011; Smallwood & Schooler, 2015).”
Capturing the spatiotemporal dynamics of self-generated, task-initiated thoughts with EEG and fMRI (2019, background): “dering mind and attribute it to specific cognitive thoughts, is yet unclear (Fox et al., 2015).”
Investigating the Phenomenological Matrix of Mindfulness-related Practices from a Neurocognitive Perspective (2015, methodology): “Next, we briefly describe three neural networks that are often reported in research on mindfulness or in studies that are directly relevant to the dimensions described in our model (Fox, Spreng, Ellamil, Andrews-Hanna, & Christoff, 2015; Tang et al., 2015).”
Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics (2015, background): “The model is discussed in the context of research that has provided evidence for related default-control network interactions in studies of mind wandering [8,9], autobiographical planning [10,11], and other modes of self-generated thought [5].”
Ten simple rules for neuroimaging meta-analysis (2017, background): “In this case, one might decide to adjust the foci so that they still fall into the template space (see Fox et al., 2015 for an example of adjustment).”
Electroencephalographic Resting-State Networks: Source Localization of Microstates (2017, positive): “A recent meta-analysis by the same group shows that besides the default mode network, other distinct networks are implicated in spontaneous thoughts (Fox et al., 2015).”
Emotion and the Prefrontal Cortex: An Integrative Review (2017, background): “…(2016) Meta-analysis aMCC, pgACC Pain, cognitive control, social Dixon et al. (2014b) Review/Model RMPFC, pgACC, mOFC Internal vs external processing Fox et al. (2015) Meta-analysis RMPFC, pgACC, lateral PFC pgACC, mOFC Mind wandering (table continues) T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th…”