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High-Level and Low-Level Awareness01:19

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Controlled processes in human consciousness represent high-alert mental states where individuals deliberately focus their attention on achieving specific goals. Controlled processes can be seen in situations like mastering new technology, where a person might become so absorbed that they ignore surrounding distractions. Such processes involve selective attention, requiring one to concentrate on particular elements of experience while disregarding others. These are governed by executive...
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Related Experiment Video

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Measuring the Switch Cost of Smartphone Use While Walking
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Inter-trial alpha power indicates mind wandering.

Stefan Arnau1, Christoph Löffler2, Jan Rummel2

  • 1Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors Dortmund (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany.

Psychophysiology
|April 12, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Mind wandering, or a lapse in attention, impairs task performance. Increased alpha power in electroencephalography (EEG) signals can detect these attention lapses during tasks.

Keywords:
EEGalphamind wanderingresource allocationtime-frequency analysis

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Mind wandering negatively impacts task performance and increases failure risk in various settings.
  • Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a non-invasive method to study mind wandering, but electrophysiological correlates remain inconsistent.
  • Clarifying the neural dynamics of mind wandering is crucial for understanding attention regulation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the temporal dynamics of mind wandering using electroencephalography (EEG).
  • To identify reliable electrophysiological markers of mind wandering during task performance.
  • To explore the relationship between alpha power and internally oriented attention states.

Main Methods:

  • Participants performed a switching task while EEG was recorded.
  • Mind wandering was assessed using random thought probes after trial completion.
  • A cluster-based permutation approach was used to analyze EEG data, focusing on alpha power during inter-trial intervals.

Main Results:

  • Response accuracy was significantly reduced during periods of mind wandering.
  • Increased alpha power during the inter-trial interval was a significant electrophysiological correlate of reported mind wandering.
  • The observed increase in alpha power was spatially widespread, suggesting a broad neural effect.

Conclusions:

  • Increased alpha power during inter-trial intervals is a reliable indicator of mind wandering.
  • EEG measurements, particularly alpha power, can potentially detect mind wandering in real-time.
  • This finding has implications for preventing failures in critical tasks within traffic and industry by monitoring attention states.