ArticleNature. Mental health2023
Recent advances in the neuroscience of spontaneous and off-task thought: implications for mental health.
Article in Nature. Mental health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed.
- Unlocking spontaneous cognition in the age of data science.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Ongoing thoughts at rest reflect functional brain organization and behaviour.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- The maintenance of attention over time influences the dynamics of EEG microstates.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- When attention falters: Brain, breathing, and behavioral signals of lapses in interoceptive attention.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Real-time fMRI-triggered experience-sampling: a proof-of-concept study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- An fMRI dataset of verbalized spontaneous thought with annotated transcripts and self-report trait measures.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Attentional lapses and mind wandering during the maintenance of visual attention over varying durations.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2026Article
- Uncovering the embodied dimension of the wandering mind.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Disorganisation and depression: a re-examination of how we think and speak when depressed.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Review
- A multi-session simultaneous EEG-fMRI dataset with repeated experience sampling.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Inattention and Hyperactivity Symptom Dimensions of ADHD Differentially Moderate the Relationship Between Concurrent Attention States and Affective Valence.Journal of attention disorders · 2026Article
- The default mode network: where spontaneous thought meets memory consolidation.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2026Article
- Social mind at rest: resting-state connectivity associated with social thought relates to friendship quality.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Phenomenology of the stream of thought: dissociable dynamic dimensions revealed through experience sampling.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Shared but distinct functional connectome profiles underlying rumination in depressed and healthy individuals.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Mapping content and dynamics in the stream of consciousness through latent brain state analysis.iScience · 2025Article
- Limited generalizability of dynamic fMRI correlates of adolescent rumination.Nature. Mental health · 2025Article
- Limited generalizability of dynamic fMRI correlates of adolescent rumination.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Gray and White Matter Networks Predict Mindfulness and Mind Wandering Traits: A Data Fusion Machine Learning Approach.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Objective markers of sustained attention fluctuate independently of mind-wandering reports.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
People spend a remarkable 30-50% of awake life thinking about something other than what they are currently doing. These experiences of being "off-task" can be described as spontaneous thought when mental dynamics are relatively flexible. Here we review recent neuroscience developments in this area and consider implications for mental wellbeing and illness. We provide updated overviews of the roles of the default mode network and large-scale network dynamics, and we discuss emerging candidate mechanisms involving hippocampal memory (sharp-wave ripples, replay) and neuromodulatory (noradrenergic and serotonergic) systems. We explore how distinct brain states can be associated with or give rise to adaptive and maladaptive forms of thought linked to distinguishable mental health outcomes. We conclude by outlining new directions in the neuroscience of spontaneous and off-task thought that may clarify mechanisms, lead to personalized biomarkers, and facilitate therapy developments toward the goals of better understanding and improving mental health.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.