Tracking resting-state functional connectivity changes and mind wandering: A longitudinal neuroimaging study

Mind wandering (MW) refers to a drift of attention away from the ongoing events to internal concerns and activates brain regions in the default mode network (DMN) and the frontoparietal control network (FPCN). Although a number of studies using rest-fMRI data have shown that static and dynamic functional connectivity within the DMN were related to individual variations in self-reported MW, whether the brain functional connectivity could predict MW remained unclear. Here, we carried out longitudinal data collection from 122 participants that underwent three times of MRI scans and simultaneously completed self-reported MW scales over the course of two years to clarify whether a direct relationship existed between brain functional connectivity and MW. We identified 16 functional connectivity involving the DMN and FPCN that were consistently and stably associated with MW across the three time points. However, there were only significant cross-lagged effects between DMN-involved connections and MW frequency rather than FPCN-involved connections. In addition, the results indicated that the mean value of functional connectivity involving the DMN (FC-DMN) in the low stable (LS) group was the weakest, followed by mean connectivity in the moderate increasing (MI) group and mean connectivity in the high stable (HS) group. These results support previous research linking MW with connections between partial areas involving the DMN and FPCN. Importantly, our findings indicated that brain functional connectivity involving DMN predicted the subsequent MW and provided further support for the trait-based nature of MW.