Beyond mind wandering: Performance variability and neural activity during off-task thought and other attention lapses.

To study the characteristics of attention lapses, a metronome response task and experience sampling were employed while recording fMRI data. Thought prompts queried several attention states (on-task, task-related interference, off-task, inattention). Off-task thoughts were probed on whether they arose in a spontaneous or constrained (i.

Functional connectivity within and between intrinsic brain networks correlates with trait mind wandering.

Individual differences across a variety of cognitive processes are functionally associated with individual differences in intrinsic networks such as the default mode network (DMN). The extent to which these networks correlate or anticorrelate has been associated with performance in a variety of circumstances. Despite the established role of the DMN in mind wandering processes, little research has investigated how large-scale brain networks at rest relate to mind wandering tendencies outside the laboratory.

Passive frame theory: A new synthesis.

Passive frame theory attempts to illuminate what consciousness is, in mechanistic and functional terms; it does not address the "implementation" level of analysis (how neurons instantiate conscious states), an enigma for various disciplines. However, in response to the commentaries, we discuss how our framework provides clues regarding this enigma. In the framework, consciousness is passive albeit essential.

Homing in on consciousness in the nervous system: An action-based synthesis.

What is the primary function of consciousness in the nervous system? The answer to this question remains enigmatic, not so much because of a lack of relevant data, but because of the lack of a conceptual framework with which to interpret the data. To this end, we have developed Passive Frame Theory, an internally coherent framework that, from an action-based perspective, synthesizes empirically supported hypotheses from diverse fields of investigation. The theory proposes that the primary function of consciousness is well-circumscribed, serving the somatic nervous system.

Internally generated conscious contents: interactions between sustained mental imagery and involuntary subvocalizations.

The conscious field includes not only representations about external stimuli (e.g., percepts), but also conscious contents associated with internal states, such as action-related intentions (e.

The olfactory system as the gateway to the neural correlates of consciousness.

How consciousness is generated by the nervous system remains one of the greatest mysteries in science. Investigators from diverse fields have begun to unravel this puzzle by contrasting conscious and unconscious processes. In this way, it has been revealed that the two kinds of processes differ in terms of the underlying neural events and associated cognitive mechanisms.

Representations in working memory yield interference effects found with externally-triggered representations.

An act as simple as flicking a switch involves various stages of processing. Each stage is susceptible to interference from competing representations/processes. Interference at different stages of processing (e.