Authors: Kawagoe T, Onoda K, Yamaguchi S.

Title: The neural correlates of “mind blanking”: When the mind goes away.

Journal(書誌情報）: Human Brain Mapping

doi: 10.1002/hbm.24748

論文URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbm.24748

Abstract:
　Mind blanking (MB) is the state where our minds are seemingly “nowhere,” and attention calls no perceptual input into conscious awareness. It is little investigated, perhaps partly because it is difficult to detect the mysterious periods of blanking. In this study, we found that our participants could intentionally produce a state of MB whose neural correlates were deactivation of Broca’s area and parts of the default mode network (namely, the hippocampus) which would be active during mind wandering (MW), in addition to activity in another region in the default mode network (namely, anterior cingulate cortex). Because the behavioral finding replicates a previous report of ours, we suggest that the simple instructions that we used to induce MB should be effective. From the neuroimaging data, we conclude that we cannot define the content of our thoughts during MB because our inner speech system does not work at that time. Another possibility is that we actually think of nothing in the MB state. Although more sophisticated studies would be needed to uncover the mechanism of such a phenomenon, the present study provides a methodology and clues for understanding MB and related concepts such as MW, awareness, and metacognitive ability.

著者Contact先の email: toshikazukawagoe [at] gmail.com([at] を@に置き換えてください）

日本語によるコメント（オプション，200-300字で）
　本研究はマインドブランキング（MB）と呼ばれる「ぼーっとしてなにも考えていない状態」の神経相関を見出したものである。シンプルな「なるべくなにも考えないように」という教示により一定の割合でMBの状態が生じることを確認し、その状態のときにはブローカ野と海馬の活動が低下していることがfMRIデータより明らかになった。ブローカ野は言語産出における重要部位であり、海馬はマインドワンダリングが生じる神経基盤である。本研究によりMBの有力な神経基盤が示され、ヒトは内言が生じていない状態をMBであると認知する可能性が考えられた。

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