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... the solution to an insight problem there is neural recruitment of the prefrontal and executive memory networks, as well as the so-called ‘default network’ associated with spontaneous mind wandering (=-=Christoff, Gordon, Smallwood, Smith, & Schooler, 2009-=-; Christoff, Gordon, & Smith, 2008; Kounios et al., 2006, 2008). This suggests that mind wandering has a utilitarian function, and provides neurological support for the notion of expanded receptivity ...

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....sRecent fMRI evidence also shows that both default network and executive regions are coactive and coupled during memory retrieval (Fornito et al., 2012; St. Jacques et al., 2011) andsmind-wandering (=-=Christoff, et al., 2009-=-; Christoff, 2012). Further, people typically focus on thesfuture and engage in extensive autobiographical planning during mind-wandering episodess(Baird et al., 2011; Stawarczyk, et al., 2011), and t...

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...ruminate. In fact, recent research indicates that people mind-wander 10–15% of their wakeful hours 1 (Sayette et al., 2009). Neurally, mind-wandering appears to engage regions of a ‘default network’ (=-=Christoff et al., 2009-=-, Mason et al., 2007)—a set of neural regions that activate in unison during off-task or ‘rest’ periods, which include the Received 3 May 2010; Accepted 6 August 2010 This work was supported in part b...

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... Waterloo, Ont., Canada N2L 3G1 E-mail address: dsmilek@uwaterloo.ca (D. Smilek). Introduction Mind wandering, in which cognitive processing of the external environment decreases in favor of internal processing (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006), has been consistently associated with errors on tasks requiring sustained attention and continuous stimulus monitoring (e.g., Cheyne, Carriere, & Smilek, 2006; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997; Smallwood et al., 2004). Consistent with this finding, recent neuroimaging studies suggest that mind wandering engages the default neural network (Christoff, Gordon, Smallwood, Smith, & Schooler, 2009; Mason et al., 2007; Smallwood, Beach, Schooler, & Handy, 2008; Weissman, Roberts, Visscher, & Woldorff, 2006) and is associated with decreased neural analysis of incoming information (Christoff et al., 2009; Smallwood, Beach et al., 2008; Weissman et al., 2006). Here we propose that mind wandering also involves overt embodied components whereby external input is blocked at the sensory endings. We demonstrate that during an extended period of reading, episodes of mind wandering, compared with on-task periods, contain more eye closures (blinks) and fewer fixations on the text?even as subjects ...

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...ind a good job”(Spreng et al., 2010), and co-activation during personal simulations that are goal oriented (Gerlach et al., 2011), creative idea generation (Ellamil et al., 2012), and mind-wandering (=-=Christoff et al., 2009-=-; Christoff, 2012). These studies may link to SWM in a variety of ways. On the one hand, each of these studies involve generating internal, subjective content, and it makes sense to think that SWMdoes...

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...a thought, a visual memory, or attentional fatigue. Such differences may not have been detectable by reaction times alone, or via a pre-specified subjective scale of ‘readiness’ and ‘awareness’ (e.g. =-=Christoff et al., 2010-=-). In constrained experimental situations, even relatively untrained introspection obtains useful phenomenological reports, and where reporting biases do exist these are systematic and can be replicat...

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... memories and thoughts. This procedure was devised to mimic a mind-wandering ‘default mode’ with the ecological validity of cognitive engagement in normal everyday life (Smallwood and Schooler, 2006; =-=Christoff et al., 2009-=-). All participants engaged in Vipassana meditation, a traditional Buddhist practice that involves focusing on present-moment sensory awareness with an equanimous and non-reactive mental set (Hart, 19...

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...reduced responses to a placebo analgesic (Wager et al., 2011), the top–down generation of negative emotion via cognitive appraisals (Ochsner et al., 2004, 2009b) and with the tendency to mind wander (=-=Christoff et al., 2009-=-; Mason et al., 2007), which has been shown to lead to general feelings of unhappiness (Killingsworth and Gilbert, 2010). These medial regions, along with other midline and Received 28 August 2012; Ac...