Student or educator? Sign up with your school email and get 6 months of Pro free.
CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 169

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 15 of the 15 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Decoupled Mind: Mind-wandering Disrupts Cortical Phase-locking to Perceptual Events

Open access
Baird, Benjamin, Smallwood, Jonathan, Lutz, Antoine, Schooler, Jonathan W.·2014·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
DOI 10.1162/jocn_a_00656
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The mind flows in a “stream of consciousness,” which often neglects immediate sensory input in favor of focusing on intrinsic, self-generated thoughts or images. Although considerable research has documented the disruptive influences of task-unrelated thought for perceptual processing and task performance, the brain dynamics associated with these phenomena are not well understood. Here we investigate the possibility, suggested by several convergent lines of research, that task-unrelated thought is associated with a reduction in the trial-to-trial phase consistency of the oscillatory neural signal in response to perceptual input. Using an experience sampling paradigm coupled with continuous high-density electroencephalography, we observed that task-unrelated thought was associated with a reduction of the P1 ERP, replicating prior observations that mind-wandering is accompanied by a reduction of the brain-evoked response to sensory input. Time–frequency analysis of the oscillatory neural response revealed a decrease in theta-band cortical phase-locking, which peaked over parietal scalp regions. Furthermore, we observed that task-unrelated thought impacted the oscillatory mode of the brain during the initiation of a task-relevant action, such that more cortical processing was required to meet task demands. Together, these findings document that the attenuation of perceptual processing that occurs during task-unrelated thought is associated with a reduction in the temporal fidelity with which the brain responds to a stimulus and suggest that increased neural processing may be required to recouple attention to a task. More generally, these data provide novel confirmatory evidence for the mechanisms through which attentional states facilitate the neural processing of sensory input.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1162/jocn_a_00656

Cites

15 of 15 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 15 references

Research works printed but not linked: 46

  1. Baird, 2012, Inspired by distraction mind wandering facilitates creative incubation., Psychological Science, 23, 1117, 10.1177/0956797612446024 · DOI · Paper page
  2. Baird, 2011, Back to the future: Autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering., Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1604, 10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.007 · DOI · Paper page
  3. Barron, 2011, Absorbed in thought the effect of mind wandering on the processing of relevant and irrelevant events., Psychological Science, 22, 596, 10.1177/0956797611404083 · DOI · Paper page
  4. Barry, 2003, Preferred EEG brain states at stimulus onset in a fixed interstimulus interval auditory oddball task, and their effects on ERP components., International Journal of Psychophysiology, 47, 187, 10.1016/S0167-8760(02)00151-4 · DOI
  5. Bertrand, 1985, A theoretical justification of the average reference in topographic evoked potential studies., Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology/Evoked Potentials Section, 62, 462, 10.1016/0168-5597(85)90058-9 · DOI · Paper page
  6. Bonnefond, 2013, The role of gamma and alpha oscillations for blocking out distraction., Communicative & Integrative Biology, 6, e22702, 10.4161/cib.22702 · DOI
  7. Brainard, 1997, The Psychophysics Toolbox., Spatial Vision, 10, 433, 10.1163/156856897X00357 · DOI · Paper page
  8. Busch, 2009, The phase of ongoing EEG oscillations predicts visual perception., Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 7869, 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0113-09.2009 · DOI · Paper page
  9. Cahn, 2013, Event-related delta, theta, alpha and gamma correlates to auditory oddball processing during Vipassana meditation., Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8, 100, 10.1093/scan/nss060 · DOI
  10. Cheyne, 2009, Anatomy of an error: A bidirectional state model of task engagement/disengagement and attention-related errors., Cognition, 111, 98, 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.12.009 · DOI · Paper page
  11. Christoff, 2009, Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 106, 8719, 10.1073/pnas.0900234106 · DOI · Paper page
  12. Franklin, 2013, Window to the wandering mind: Pupillometry of spontaneous thought while reading., The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 2289, 10.1080/17470218.2013.858170 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Franklin, 2011, Catching the mind in flight: Using behavioral indices to detect mindless reading in real time., Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 992, 10.3758/s13423-011-0109-6 · DOI · Paper page
  14. Freunberger, 2007, Visual P2 component is related to theta phase-locking., Neuroscience Letters, 426, 181, 10.1016/j.neulet.2007.08.062 · DOI · Paper page
  15. Goupillaud, 1984, Cycle-octave and related transforms in seismic signal analysis., Geoexploration, 23, 85, 10.1016/0016-7142(84)90025-5 · DOI · Paper page
  16. Gruber, 2005, Alpha phase synchronization predicts P1 and N1 latency and amplitude size., Cerebral Cortex, 15, 371, 10.1093/cercor/bhh139 · DOI · Paper page
  17. Handy, 2005, Attention and sensory gain control: A peripheral visual process?, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 1936, 10.1162/089892905775008715 · DOI
  18. Handy, 2001, Perceptual load and visuocortical processing: Event-related potentials reveal sensory-level selection., Psychological Science, 12, 213, 10.1111/1467-9280.00338 · DOI
  19. Hillyard, 1973, Electrical signs of selective attention in the human brain., Science, 182, 177, 10.1126/science.182.4108.177 · DOI · Paper page
  20. Jansen, 1991, The effect of the phase of prestimulus alpha activity on the averaged visual evoked response., Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology/Evoked Potentials Section, 80, 241, 10.1016/0168-5597(91)90107-9 · DOI
  21. Kam, 2012, Mind wandering and motor control: Off-task thinking disrupts the online adjustment of behavior., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00329 · DOI
  22. Kam, 2011, Slow fluctuations in attentional control of sensory cortex., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 460, 10.1162/jocn.2010.21443 · DOI · Paper page
  23. Kleiner, 2007, What's new in Psychtoolbox-3., Perception, 36, 1.1
  24. Klimesch, 2012, Alpha-band oscillations, attention, and controlled access to stored information., Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 606, 10.1016/j.tics.2012.10.007 · DOI · Paper page
  25. Klimesch, 2007, P1 and traveling alpha waves: Evidence for evoked oscillations., Journal of Neurophysiology, 97, 1311, 10.1152/jn.00876.2006 · DOI
  26. Lutz, 2003, Neurophenomenology integrating subjective experience and brain dynamics in the neuroscience of consciousness., Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, 9
  27. Makeig, 2004, Mining event-related brain dynamics., Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 204, 10.1016/j.tics.2004.03.008 · DOI · Paper page
  28. Mathewson, 2009, To see or not to see: Prestimulus α phase predicts visual awareness., Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 2725, 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3963-08.2009 · DOI · Paper page
  29. McVay, 2009, Conducting the train of thought: Working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 196
  30. Mrazek, 2012, The role of mind-wandering in measurements of general aptitude., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 788, 10.1037/a0027968 · DOI · Paper page
  31. Palva, 2005, Phase synchrony among neuronal oscillations in the human cortex., Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 3962, 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4250-04.2005 · DOI · Paper page
  32. Percio, 2010, Movement-related desynchronization of alpha rhythms is lower in athletes than non-athletes: A high-resolution EEG study., Clinical Neurophysiology, 121, 482, 10.1016/j.clinph.2009.12.004 · DOI
  33. Pfurtscheller, 1999, Event-related EEG/MEG synchronization and desynchronization: Basic principles., Clinical Neurophysiology, 110, 1842, 10.1016/S1388-2457(99)00141-8 · DOI · Paper page
  34. Ponjavic-Conte, 2012, Neural correlates of auditory distraction revealed in theta-band EEG., NeuroReport, 23, 240, 10.1097/WNR.0b013e3283505ac6 · DOI
  35. Reichle, 2010, Eye movements during mindless reading., Psychological Science, 21, 1300, 10.1177/0956797610378686 · DOI · Paper page
  36. Seli, 2012, Wandering minds and wavering rhythms: Linking mind wandering and behavioral variability., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39, 1
  37. Singer, 1999, Neuronal synchrony: A versatile code for the definition of relations?, Neuron, 24, 49, 10.1016/S0896-6273(00)80821-1 · DOI · Paper page
  38. Slagter, 2009, Theta phase synchrony and conscious target perception: Impact of intensive mental training., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 1536, 10.1162/jocn.2009.21125 · DOI · Paper page
  39. Smallwood, 2003, Task unrelated thought whilst encoding information., Consciousness and Cognition, 12, 452, 10.1016/S1053-8100(03)00018-7 · DOI · Paper page
  40. Smallwood, 2008, Going AWOL in the brain: Mind wandering reduces cortical analysis of external events., Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 458, 10.1162/jocn.2008.20037 · DOI · Paper page
  41. Smallwood, 2012, Insulation for daydreams: A role for tonic norepinephrine in the facilitation of internally guided thought., PloS One, 7, e33706, 10.1371/journal.pone.0033706 · DOI
  42. Smallwood, 2011, Pupillometric evidence for the decoupling of attention from perceptual input during offline thought., PloS One, 6, e18298, 10.1371/journal.pone.0018298 · DOI · Paper page
  43. Smallwood, 2008, Segmenting the stream of consciousness: The psychological correlates of temporal structures in the time series data of a continuous performance task., Brain and Cognition, 66, 50, 10.1016/j.bandc.2007.05.004 · DOI
  44. Tallon-Baudry, 1997, Oscillatory gamma-band (30-70 Hz) activity induced by a visual search task in humans., Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 722, 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-02-00722.1997 · DOI · Paper page
  45. Tallon-Baudry, 1996, Stimulus specificity of phase-locked and non-phase-locked 40 Hz visual responses in human., Journal of Neuroscience, 16, 4240, 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.16-13-04240.1996 · DOI · Paper page
  46. Yeung, 2004, Detection of synchronized oscillations in the electroencephalogram: An evaluation of methods., Psychophysiology, 41, 822, 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2004.00239.x · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

See all 169

Metadata

Authors
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Lutz, A., & Schooler, J. W.
Venue
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
MIT Press - Journals
Published
2014-11-01
Volume
26
Issue
11
Pages
2596-2607
ISSN
  • 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
  • 1530-8898
DOI
10.1162/jocn_a_00656
OpenAlex
W1978889750
Cited by
169
References
15
FWCI
6.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Decoupled Mind: Mind-wandering Disrupts Cortical Phase-locking to Perceptual Events. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1162/jocn_a_00656
The paper
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Lutz, A., & Schooler, J. W. (2014). The Decoupled Mind: Mind-wandering Disrupts Cortical Phase-locking to Perceptual Events. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00656

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.