Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage
Subjective inner experiences, such as mind-wandering, represent the fundaments of human cognition. Although the precise function of mind-wandering is still debated, it is increasingly acknowledged to have influence across cognition on processes such as future planning, creative thinking and problem-...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
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Society for Neuroscience
2018
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| _version_ | 1826260644906663936 |
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| author | McCormick, C Rosenthal, C Miller, T Maguire, E |
| author_facet | McCormick, C Rosenthal, C Miller, T Maguire, E |
| author_sort | McCormick, C |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Subjective inner experiences, such as mind-wandering, represent the fundaments of human cognition. Although the precise function of mind-wandering is still debated, it is increasingly acknowledged to have influence across cognition on processes such as future planning, creative thinking and problem-solving, and even on depressive rumination and other mental health disorders. Recently, there has been important progress in characterizing mindwandering and identifying the associated neural networks. Two prominent features of mindwandering are mental time travel and visuo-spatial imagery, which are often linked with the hippocampus. People with selective bilateral hippocampal damage cannot vividly recall events from their past, envision their future or imagine fictitious scenes. This raises the question of whether the hippocampus plays a causal role in mind-wandering and if so, in what way. Leveraging a unique opportunity to shadow people (all males) with bilateral hippocampal damage for several days, we examined, for the first time, what they thought about spontaneously, without direct task demands. We found that they engaged in as much mind-wandering as control participants. However, whereas controls thought about the past, present and future, imagining vivid visual scenes, hippocampal damage resulted in thoughts primarily about the present comprising verbally-mediated semantic knowledge. These findings expose the hippocampus as a key pillar in the neural architecture of mind-wandering and also reveal its impact beyond memory, placing it at the heart of human mental life. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:08:57Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:161ec75e-07b1-4257-a2bd-27d448a1582e |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:08:57Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Society for Neuroscience |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:161ec75e-07b1-4257-a2bd-27d448a1582e2022-03-26T10:29:25ZMind-wandering in people with hippocampal damageJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:161ec75e-07b1-4257-a2bd-27d448a1582eSymplectic Elements at OxfordSociety for Neuroscience2018McCormick, CRosenthal, CMiller, TMaguire, ESubjective inner experiences, such as mind-wandering, represent the fundaments of human cognition. Although the precise function of mind-wandering is still debated, it is increasingly acknowledged to have influence across cognition on processes such as future planning, creative thinking and problem-solving, and even on depressive rumination and other mental health disorders. Recently, there has been important progress in characterizing mindwandering and identifying the associated neural networks. Two prominent features of mindwandering are mental time travel and visuo-spatial imagery, which are often linked with the hippocampus. People with selective bilateral hippocampal damage cannot vividly recall events from their past, envision their future or imagine fictitious scenes. This raises the question of whether the hippocampus plays a causal role in mind-wandering and if so, in what way. Leveraging a unique opportunity to shadow people (all males) with bilateral hippocampal damage for several days, we examined, for the first time, what they thought about spontaneously, without direct task demands. We found that they engaged in as much mind-wandering as control participants. However, whereas controls thought about the past, present and future, imagining vivid visual scenes, hippocampal damage resulted in thoughts primarily about the present comprising verbally-mediated semantic knowledge. These findings expose the hippocampus as a key pillar in the neural architecture of mind-wandering and also reveal its impact beyond memory, placing it at the heart of human mental life. |
| spellingShingle | McCormick, C Rosenthal, C Miller, T Maguire, E Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| title | Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| title_full | Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| title_fullStr | Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| title_short | Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| title_sort | mind wandering in people with hippocampal damage |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mccormickc mindwanderinginpeoplewithhippocampaldamage AT rosenthalc mindwanderinginpeoplewithhippocampaldamage AT millert mindwanderinginpeoplewithhippocampaldamage AT maguiree mindwanderinginpeoplewithhippocampaldamage |