A type of brain activity linked to arousal and attention\u00a0can track\u00a0mind\u00a0wandering.\u00a0But\u00a0research is conflicting on whether this\u00a0activity promotes or hinders mind\u00a0wandering.\u00a0Esther Thielking, from Barnard College, and colleagues explored whether eyes being opened or closed changes the relationship of this\u00a0brain\u00a0activity to mind\u00a0wandering.\u00a0Says Thielking, “We predicted\u00a0that eye state might explain these conflicts because closing the eyes strengthens\u00a0[this\u00a0brain activity]\u00a0and reverses\u00a0its\u00a0relationship with sleepiness, which is itself closely tied to mind wandering.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
As reported in their\u00a0JNeurosci\u00a0paper, the researchers recorded brain activity of\u00a0adults\u00a0with eyes open or closed as they performed a task involving paying attention to sounds or\u00a0letting their minds wander. Participants also reported their level of alertness or sleepiness. Those with open eyes had increased brain activity that preceded mind\u00a0wandering and sleepiness. However, those with eyes closed\u00a0experienced this kind of brain activity when they were focused on the task and alert.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Says Thielking,\u00a0“These findings emphasize the importance of considering context and brain state when developing read\u00a0outs of a person’s attention and mental experience from brain signals.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Journal reference:<\/p>\n
Opposite Effects of Alpha Oscillations on Mind-Wandering with Eyes Open and Closed.\u00a0JNeurosci. DOI:\u00a010.1523\/JNEUROSCI.0133-26.2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A type of brain activity linked to arousal and attention\u00a0can track\u00a0mind\u00a0wandering.\u00a0But\u00a0research is conflicting on whether this\u00a0activity promotes or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[159,18,8382,135,19,17,1281,172],"class_list":["post-606869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-brain","tag-eire","tag-eye","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-neuroscience","tag-research"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116993328715886724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}