Brain Research
April 15, 2011
Jonathan Smallwood, Kevin Brown, Ben Baird et al.
394 citations
The ability to generate and sustain an internal train of thought independent of external reality frees an agent from acting only on immediate environmental events. This paper proposes that such thought arises from cooperation between autobiographical information from the default mode network and a frontal-parietal control network that sustains and buffers internal trains of thought against disruption. This hypothesis explains two features: first, access to the top-down control system is a prerequisite of conscious experience, explaining why its activation and default mode activity are often observed together during internally guided thought.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
April 17, 2014
Benjamin Baird, Jonathan Smallwood, Antoine Lutz et al.
169 citations
When the mind wanders, the brain's response to sensory input becomes less consistent from one moment to the next, particularly in theta-band oscillations over parietal regions. Using an experience sampling method with continuous EEG, the authors found that task-unrelated thought reduced the P1 event-related potential, replicating prior work. Time-frequency analysis showed decreased theta-band phase-locking, indicating lower temporal fidelity in the brain's response to stimuli. Additionally, mind-wandering required more cortical processing to re-engage with a task. These results suggest that attentional states shape neural processing of sensory input by affecting the consistency of oscillatory responses.
iScience
February 2, 2021
Jonathan Smallwood, Adam Turnbull, Hao-ting Wang et al.
130 citations
The landscape of ongoing thought is heterogeneous and shaped by both personal traits and environmental context. Recent work shows that attention and control systems organize experience in response to changing demands, while the default mode network contributes not only to task-negative or episodic content but also to the vividness of experience in both task contexts and spontaneous self-generated states. Multiple neural systems reflect the landscape of ongoing thought, and it is important to distinguish processes that shape how experience unfolds from those that regulate it.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
February 1, 2022
Isabel Wießner, Marcelo Falchi-Carvalho, Lucas Oliveira Maia et al.
43 citations
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study gave 24 healthy volunteers 50 micrograms of LSD or an inactive placebo and tested creativity near the drug's peak using multiple tasks. LSD changed creativity in three ways: it increased novelty, surprise, originality, and semantic distances (pattern break); decreased utility, convergent thinking, and marginally elaboration (disorganization); and increased symbolic thinking and ambiguity (meaning). The findings suggest LSD shifts cognitive resources away from normal patterns toward new ones, and that LSD-induced symbolic thinking might aid psychedelic-assisted therapy.