Mind wandering during five minutes of rest: Autistic traits, visual thought, and thinking about others

Neurotypicals mind wander between 20% and 50% of their waking hours, during which they engage in mental tasks such as problem-solving, planning, mulling current concerns, and self-reflection. Despite extensive literature dedicated to mind wandering (MW) in neurotypicals, very little is known about what Autistic individuals or those high in autistic traits might think about while MW. Also unclear is whether they are predisposed to thinking in visual rather than verbal form. To investigate the effects of autistic traits on MW, we asked 92 participants to sit in a quiet room for five minutes with their eyes closed. Following the resting period, participants completed the 10-item Autism quotient (AQ-10) and the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire (ARSQ), which measures 10 factors of MW. The ARSQ factor Theory of Mind (ToM-A) was modestly and negatively correlated with AQ-10 score, driven by fewer reports of thinking about others. Notably, neither correlational nor group-level analyses provided evidence that autistic traits were linked with placing oneself in others' shoes or Visual Thought. For both high and low AQ-10 scorers, Bayesian analyses indicated extreme evidence for a positive correlation between thinking about others and Visual Thought, and moderate evidence for a positive correlation between thinking about others and thinking about the self. These exploratory findings contribute to the limited literature on MW content in individuals high in autistic traits and provide directions for future research with larger, more diverse samples.