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47 Mind-Wandering in Older Adults: Implications for Fluid Cognition and Perceived Psychological Quality of Life
- Michael R. McKenna, Madhura Phansikar, James Teng, Megan Fisher, Ruchika Shaurya Prakash
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 355-356
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Objective:
Mind-wandering is defined as a spontaneous shift of attention away from the external environment to inner thoughts. With mind-wandering being a ubiquitous phenomenon, there has been increasing interest in examining the role these spontaneous, and often unintentional, thought processes may have for metrics of cognitive and psychological health. However, much of this literature is mired with inconsistencies, potentially stemming from the use of variegated experimental methods and quantification of mind-wandering through different metrics. For example, mind-wandering has been investigated through endorsement of self-report probes embedded in tasks of sustained attention, with participants asking to endorse whether they were engaging in task-unrelated thoughts or task-related, but evaluative thoughts about the task (task-related interference). Other studies have instead focused on behavioral metrics of task performance, like omission and commission errors, the variability in response time (RTCV), and speeding or slowing prior to errors to quantify mind-wandering. In this study, employing a large sample of older adults, and implementing the novel technique of partial least squares regression, we examined the combined and simultaneous effect of different mind-wandering metrics in explaining variance in fluid cognition and psychological health in older adults.
Participants and Methods:One hundred and fifty older adults with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment were administered a Go/No-Go Task (GNG) with embedded mind-wandering probes, the Conners CPT-3, the NIH Toolbox-Cognition Battery, and the WHO Quality of Life Assessment Brief Version at baseline in a clinical trial examining the impact of two mind-body interventions on aging. Based on previous research, the following variables were considered behavioral measures of mind-wandering: quantity of omission and commission errors, RTCV, pre-error speeding, and post-error slowing. Percentage of self-reported task-related interference (i.e. evaluating current performance) and task-unrelated thoughts were included as self-report measures of mind-wandering. These mind-wandering measures, along with demographic variables (age, sex, and education), were regressed using Partial Least Squares Regression to determine the impact of mind-wandering measures on fluid cognition (NIHT-CB) and perceived psychological well-being (WHOQOL-BBREF). Validation tests were completed to assess model fit.
Results:A single latent factor explained 26% of the variance in fluid cognition (p=0.0001). Higher levels of age, errors of omission on both tasks, and task-related interference were all associated with worse fluid cognition, whereas task-unrelated thoughts were associated with better fluid cognition.
A two-factor latent model explained 12% of the variance in perceived psychological well-being (p=0.0004). Age and task-unrelated thoughts were positively associated with psychological well-being. In contrast, errors of omission on both tasks, response time variability on the CPT, and task-related interference were negatively associated with perceived psychological well-being.
Conclusions:Mind-wandering is associated with fluid cognition and perceived psychological well-being in older adults. Select behavioral measures were better than self-report measures at linking mind-wandering to fluid cognition and perceived psychological well-being. Interestingly task-unrelated thoughts, but not task-related interference, was positively associated with fluid cognition, supporting the cognitive resource-based account of mind-wandering. The result of our study provides novel insights into differential relationships between various metrics of mind-wandering and cognitive and psychological health.
Symposium 03: Neural Correlates of Spontaneous Cognition and Implications for Adaptive and Maladaptive Cognition
- Ruchika Prakash
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 200-201
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The empirical study of spontaneous cognitions— unprompted and unintentional explicit mental representations that come to mind spontaneously—has been gaining increasing traction in recent years. Humans spend half their waking time engaging in these spontaneous cognitions or mind-wandering with studies providing support for mind-wandering to be linked with adaptive and maladaptive functional outcomes. However, despite this being a ubiquitous phenomenon, there is considerable debate in the literature on the definition of mind-wandering, associated neural correlates, and implications for cognitive and brain health. In this symposium, we bring together four presenters, who employ variegated experimental methods and definitions to understand the neural correlates of this elusive construct of mind-wandering. Through carefully designed methods, the four presenters also investigate the implications of engaging in task-unrelated thoughts for creativity, rumination, psychological health, and cognitive functioning in healthy and pathological aging.
Orwig et al. examine neural correlates of intentional vs. unintentional mind wandering. Their results support a differential involvement of posterior cortices in intentional mind wandering whereas unintentional mind wandering involved the top-down regulatory nodes of the prefrontal cortices. Interestingly, both intentional and unintentional mind wandering was associated with creative thinking thus providing support for mind wandering as an adaptive process. Andrews-Hanna et al. have developed a novel think aloud technique where participants are asked to voice aloud their thoughts in real time across rest periods in the lab, the MRI scanner, and in participants own homes. Across several contexts, they found participants to show a high degree of similarity in resting thought. They also report significant individual differences content and dynamic characteristics of resting thought. Importantly, trait levels of rumination were associated with resting state thought patterns characteristic of brooding—negative, self-focused, and past-oriented thoughts. Individual differences in creativity, in contrast, were associated with loosely associative thoughts that exhibited a pattern of exploration. Prakash & Teng demonstrate the first empirical test of a direct relationship between mind-wandering and fluid-based biomarkers of amyloid and tau pathology in 289 older adults from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. The neuromarker of mind-wandering— representing edges associated with a high degree of off-task thinking—was positively associated with a high CSF p-tau/Aß42 ratio (indicative of higher levels of pathology). Moreover, network strength in the high mind-wandering model was also associated with lower global cognition, lower executive functioning, and episodic memory.
O'Callaghan et al. examine dysfunctional mind-wandering in neuropsychiatric diseases of aging: frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Employing a thought-sample task to probe mind-wandering, they show evidence of reduced mind-wandering in individuals with fronto-temporal dementia and Parkinson's disease. They also provide evidence that the hippocampal sharp wave-ripple is a compelling candidate for a brain state that can trigger mind-wandering episodes.
1 Neuromarker of Mind Wandering Predicts CSF-based Biomarkers of Amyloid and Tau Pathology
- Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, James Teng
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 201-202
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Objective:
Mind-wandering—the spontaneous shift in attention away from the external task to internal thoughts (including daydreaming, fantasizing, rumination, and worrying)—is negatively associated with performance across a variety of tasks including the sustained attention to response task, the Stroop task, tasks of working memory, choice reaction time, visual search, as well as more ecologically related tasks like reading comprehension and mathematics. There has also been promising evidence suggesting a potential link between mind-wandering, functional connectivity of the canonical networks of the brain, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, no study has directly examined the relationship between neural correlates of mind-wandering and AD pathogenesis. In prior work, our lab has identified a whole-brain, functional connectivity-based marker of mind-wandering—the mwCPM—which predicted response time variability in older adults. In this study, we sought to evaluate the ability of this mind wandering CPM, derived from response time variability, to predict CSF p-tau/Aß42 ratio in 289 older adults from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We hypothesized that the combined mind-wandering model including functional connections that predict high mind-wandering and functional edges that predict stability in attention, would predict AD pathology.
Participants and Methods:Resting-state functional MRI data from 289 older adults (147 healthy older adults, 111 individuals with mild cognitive impairment, and 31 older adults with AD) from the Alzheimer’s Disease NeuroImaging Initiative was analyzed for the current study. Participants were only included in the analyses if they had resting-state fMRI data, CSF measures of amyloid beta and tau pathology, and performance on cognitive composites of global cognition, episodic memory, and executive functioning. Using the well-established methodology of connectome-based predictive modeling, the mind-wandering model was applied to the resting-state fMRI data to predict CSF-based biomarker levels of p-tau and Aß42. Moreover, we also examined if this mind-wandering model predicted individual differences in composite measures of global cognition, episodic memory, and executive functioning
Results:The high mwCPM model successfully predicted measured CSF p-tau/Aß ratios (high model: p = .137, p = .0196), controlling for mean framewise displacement. However, the combined network and the low MW network were not significant (combined model: p = .0731, p = .216; low model: p = -.0027, p = .960). We next examined the association between connectivity strengths of the high mwCPM and cognitive functioning in the domains of general cognition, episodic memory, and executive functioning. Connectivity strength in the high mwCPM—functional edges that were associated with high behavioral variability—were negatively associated with all three cognitive composites (global cognition: r = -.239, p < .0001; episodic memory: r = -.208, p = < .0001; executive functioning: r = -.178, p < .0001).
Conclusions:This study provides the first empirical support for a link between a neuromarker of mind-wandering and AD pathophysiology. Moreover, mind-wandering also has downstream consequential effects for key domains of cognitive functioning in older adults. Interventions targeted at reducing mind-wandering, particularly before the onset of AD pathogenesis, may make a significant contribution to the prevention of AD-related cognitive decline.
Aging and Attentional Control: Examining the Roles of Mind-Wandering Propensity and Dispositional Mindfulness
- Stephanie Fountain-Zaragoza, Nicole A. Puccetti, Patrick Whitmoyer, Ruchika Shaurya Prakash
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 24 / Issue 8 / September 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 August 2018, pp. 876-888
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Objectives: Aging is associated with declines in performance on certain laboratory tasks of attentional control. However, older adults tend to report greater mindful, present-moment attention and less mind-wandering (MW) than young adults. For older adults, high levels of these traits may be protective for attentional performance. This study examined age-related differences in global (i.e., full-task) and local (i.e., pre-MW) attentional control and explored the variance explained by MW and mindfulness. Methods: Cross-sectional comparisons were conducted on data from a previously reported sample of 75 older adults (ages, 60–75 years) and a new sample of 50 young adults (ages, 18–30 years). All participants completed a Go/No-Go task and a Continuous Performance Task with quasi-random MW probes. Results: There were few age-related differences in attentional control. Although MW was not associated with decrements in global performance, local performance measures revealed deleterious effects of MW, which were present across age groups. Older adults reported higher trait mindfulness and less MW than young adults, and these variables helped explain the lack of observed age-related differences in attentional control. Conclusions: Individual differences in dispositional mindfulness and MW propensity explain important variance in attentional performance across age. Increasing present-moment focus and reducing lapses in attention represent important targets for cognitive rehabilitation interventions. (JINS, 2018, 24, 876–888)
Physical Activity Associated with Increased Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Multiple Sclerosis
- Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Beth Patterson, Alisha Janssen, Amir Abduljalil, Aaron Boster
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 17 / Issue 6 / November 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 October 2011, pp. 986-997
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, resulting in physical, cognitive and affective disturbances, with notable declines in the ability to learn and retain new information. In this study, we examined if higher levels of physical activity in MS individuals were associated with an increased resting-state connectivity of the hippocampus and cortex, resulting in better performance on a task of episodic memory. Forty-five individuals with a clinically definite diagnosis of MS were recruited for the study. Consistent with previous reports, hippocampus was functionally connected to the posteromedial cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and the medial frontal cortex. Higher levels of physical activity in MS patients were associated with an increased coherence between the hippocampus and the posteromedial cortex (PMC). The increased connectivity between these two regions, in turn, was predictive of better relational memory, such that MS patients who showed an increased coherence between the left (not right) hippocampus and the PMC also showed better relational memory. Results of the study are interpreted in light of the challenge of disentangling effects of physical activity from effects of disease severity and its neuropathological correlates. (JINS, 2011, 17, 986–997)