RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Scaffolding imagination: A role for medial frontal cortex in the expression of off-task thought
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 153973
DO 10.1101/153973
A1 Mladen Sormaz
A1 Hao-ting Wang
A1 Theodoros Karapanagiotidis
A1 Charlotte Murphy
A1 Mark Hymers
A1 Daniel Margulies
A1 Elizabeth Jefferies
A1 Jonathan Smallwood
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/22/153973.abstract
AB We often think about people, places and events that are outside of our immediate environment. Although prior studies have explored how we can reduce the occurrence of these experiences, the neurocognitive process through which they are produced are less understood. The current study builds on developmental and evolutionary evidence that language helps organise and express our thoughts. Behaviorally, we found the occurrence of task unrelated thought (TUT) in easy situations was associated with thinking in words. Using experience sampling data, in combination with online measures of neural function, we established that activity in a region of anterior cingulate cortex / medial-prefrontal cortex (mPFC) tracked with changes in the expression of TUT. This region is at the intersection of two mPFC clusters identified through their association with variation in aspects of spontaneous thought: thinking in words (dorsal) and mental time travel (ventral). Finally, using meta-analytic decoding we confirmed the dorsal/ventral distinction within mPFC corresponding to a functional difference between domains linked to language and meaning and those linked to memory and scene construction. This evidence suggests a role for mPFC in the expression of TUT that may emerge from interactions with distributed neural signals reflecting processes such as language and memory.