TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mortaheb, Sepehr
AU  - Van Calster, Laurens
AU  - Raimondo, Federico
AU  - Klados, Manousos A.
AU  - Boulakis, Paradeisios Alexandros
AU  - Georgoula, Kleio
AU  - Majerus, Steve
AU  - Van De Ville, Dimitri
AU  - Demertzi, Athena
TI  - Mind blanking is a distinct mental state linked to a recurrent brain profile of globally positive connectivity during ongoing mentation
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
VL  - 119
IS  - 41
SN  - 0027-8424
CY  - Washington, DC
PB  - National Acad. of Sciences
M1  - FZJ-2022-05882
SP  - e2200511119
PY  - 2022
AB  - Mind blanking (MB) is a waking state during which we do not report any mental content. The phenomenology of MB challenges the view of a constantly thinking mind. Here, we comprehensively characterize the MB’s neurobehavioral profile with the aim to delineate its role during ongoing mentation. Using functional MRI experience sampling, we show that the reportability of MB is less frequent, faster, and with lower transitional dynamics than other mental states, pointing to its role as a transient mental relay. Regarding its neural underpinnings, we observed higher global signal amplitude during MB reports, indicating a distinct physiological state. Using the time-varying functional connectome, we show that MB reports can be classified with high accuracy, suggesting that MB has a unique neural composition. Indeed, a pattern of global positive-phase coherence shows the highest similarity to the connectivity patterns associated with MB reports. We interpret this pattern’s rigid signal architecture as hindering content reportability due to the brain’s inability to differentiate signals in an informative way. Collectively, we show that MB has a unique neurobehavioral profile, indicating that nonreportable mental events can happen during wakefulness. Our results add to the characterization of spontaneous mentation and pave the way for more mechanistic investigations of MB’s phenomenology.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - 36194631
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000966789000006
DO  - DOI:10.1073/pnas.2200511119
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/916036
ER  -