Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41880559›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2026

Uncovering the embodied dimension of the wandering mind.

Leah Banellis, Niia Nikolova, Malthe Brændholdt, Melina Vejlø, Ignacio Rebollo, Nicolas Legrand, Francesca Fardo, Jonathan Smallwood, Micah G Allen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Leah BanellisDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.ORCID 0000-0002-1911-1830
Niia NikolovaDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.
Malthe BrændholdtDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.ORCID 0000-0001-7829-2734
Melina VejløDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.
Ignacio RebolloDepartment of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Nuthetal 14558, Germany.
Nicolas LegrandCenter for Humanities Computing, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.
Francesca FardoDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.
Jonathan SmallwoodDepartment of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-7298-2459
Micah G AllenDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8000, Denmark.ORCID 0000-0001-9399-4179

Funding

EC | European Research Council (ERC) ERC-2020-StG-948788EC | European Research Council (ERC) ERC-2020-StG-948838EC | Horizon Europe | Excellent Science | HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) 101028203Lundbeck Foundation (Lundbeckfonden) R272-2017-4345Lundbeck Foundation (Lundbeckfonden) R436-2023-991
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

When at rest, the mind becomes preoccupied with self-generated thoughts, commonly known as mind-wandering. While the social, autobiographical, and temporal features of these thoughts have been extensively studied, little is known about how frequently the wandering mind turns toward the interoceptive and somatic body. To map this underexplored component of "body-wandering," we conducted a large-scale neuroimaging study in 536 healthy participants, expanding a retrospective multidimensional experience sampling approach to include probes targeting visceral and somatomotor thoughts. Our findings reveal a robust interindividual dimension of body-wandering characterized by negative affect, high autonomic arousal, and a reduction in socially oriented thoughts. Despite this negative tone, individual differences in the propensity for body-wandering thoughts were associated with lower self-reported symptoms of ADHD and depression. Multivariate functional connectivity analyses further revealed that affective, body-oriented thoughts are related to a pattern of thalamocortical connectivity interlinking somatomotor and interoceptive-allostatic cortical networks. Collectively, these results demonstrate that self-generated thoughts exhibit core embodied features which are linked to the ongoing physical and emotional milieu of the visceral body.

Indexed as

AttentionThinkingAdultFemaleHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleYoung Adultbrain connectivityemotioninteroceptionmental healthmind-wandering

Identifiers

PMID41880559
PMCPMC13037934

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.