Transcranial stimulation of the frontal lobes increases propensity of mind-wandering without changing meta-awareness
Transcranial stimulation of the frontal lobes increases propensity of mind-wandering without changing meta-awareness
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-018-34098-z
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发表时间：
2018-10-29
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Qiu, Jiang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Axelrod, Vadim;Zhu, Xingxing;Qiu, Jiang
走神在我们的生活中无处不在。走神的好处尚不清楚，但考虑到我们花在走神上的时间，这种心理功能可能很重要。因此，理解走神的神经和认知机制是至关重要的。在本论文的主要作者最近的一项研究中，证明了通过对额叶施加经颅直流电刺激（tDCS），而不是假刺激或枕叶皮层刺激，可以增加走神的倾向。本研究的目的是复制这些以前的研究结果，并通过检查是否作为刺激的结果，在走神的变化与注意力集中的元意识的变化相关联，以扩展它们。通过使用更大的样本量，并在不同的国家和语言中进行实验，我们完全复制了关键的原始发现，即前额叶皮层的刺激增加了走神的水平。我们还表明，刺激对注意力集中的元意识水平没有重大影响。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，走神--可能是最内在和最自我相关的心理功能--可以被外部调节，至少在某些情况下，走神可能不受元意识的调节，额叶可能在走神中起着因果作用。
Mind-wandering is omnipresent in our lives. The benefits of mind-wandering are not yet clear, but given how much time we spend mind-wandering, this mental function is likely to be important. Accordingly, it is essential to understand the neural and cognitive mechanisms of mind-wandering. In a recent study by the leading author of the present paper it was demonstrated that by applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the frontal lobes, but not sham or occipital cortex stimulation, it was possible to increase propensity of mind-wandering. The goal of the present study has been to replicate these previous findings and to extend them by examining whether changes in mind-wandering as a result of stimulation are associated with a change of meta-awareness of the attentional focus. By using a larger sample size and by conducting the experiment in a different country and language, we fully replicated the key original findings by showing that stimulation of the prefrontal cortex increased the level of mind-wandering. We also show that stimulation had no major effect on the level of meta-awareness of the attentional focus. Taken together, our results indicate that mind-wandering - probably the most internal and self-related mental function - can be modulated externally, that at least in some cases mind-wandering might not be regulated by meta-awareness, and that the frontal lobes might play a causal role in mind-wandering.