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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 24, 2026

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Reduced task-switching flexibility in parietal-cingulate and frontal circuits associated with brooding.

Selena Singh¹, Saurabh Bhaskar Shaw², Suzanna Becker¹

¹Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON Canada.

Cognitive Neurodynamics

|February 23, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ruminative brooding may be a neural attractor state. Brain activity during brooding shows convergence and resistance to change, suggesting a stable, self-perpetuating mental state.

Keywords:

Attractor states Brooding Electroencephalography Rumination Tri-network perspective

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Computational Psychiatry

Background:

Ruminative brooding is characterized by persistent, repetitive thought patterns.
Current theories link brooding to cognitive control deficits and altered brain network activity, particularly the default mode network (DMN) and prefrontal cortex.
Understanding the neural mechanisms of brooding's perseverative nature is crucial for developing effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

To conceptualize ruminative brooding as a neural attractor state within the DMN.
To investigate whether brain dynamics during brooding exhibit properties of attractors: convergence and resistance to perturbation.
To explore the relationship between trait rumination and these neural dynamics.

Main Methods:

Utilized electroencephalography (EEG) in healthy volunteers performing a task-switching protocol.
Interleaved tasks included cued rumination, working memory, and autobiographical memory to perturb the neural system.
Analyzed beta power in the posterior cingulate cortex and posterior parietal/cingulate cortices, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) recruitment.

Main Results:

Cued rumination was associated with increased beta power in the posterior cingulate cortex.
Disengagement from rumination showed reduced beta power in posterior parietal and cingulate cortices.
High trait rumination correlated with impaired disengagement (resistance to perturbation) and reduced dlPFC recruitment.
Trait brooding positively associated with reduced variance in posterior parietal/cingulate time series (convergence).

Conclusions:

Findings support the conceptualization of brooding-related neural dynamics as pathological attractor states.
This attractor framework provides a mechanistic explanation for the perseverative quality of rumination.
The study offers novel insights into the neural basis of repetitive negative thinking.