TY - JOUR
T1 - How do we decide what to do? Resting-state connectivity patterns and components of self-generated thought linked to the development of more concrete personal goals
AU - Medea, Barbara
AU - Karapanagiotidis, Theodoros
AU - Konishi, Mahiko
AU - Ottaviani, Cristina
AU - Margulies, Daniel
AU - Bernasconi, Andrea
AU - Bernasconi, Neda
AU - Bernhardt, Boris C.
AU - Jefferies, Elizabeth
AU - Smallwood, Jonathan
PY - 2016/7/21
Y1 - 2016/7/21
N2 - Human cognition is not limited to the available environmental input but can consider realities that are different to the here and now. We describe the cognitive states and neural processes linked to the refinement of descriptions of personal goals. When personal goals became concrete, participants reported greater thoughts about the self and the future during mind-wandering. This pattern was not observed for descriptions of TV programmes. Connectivity analysis of participants who underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed neural traits associated with this pattern. Strong hippocampal connectivity with ventromedial pre-frontal cortex was common to better-specified descriptions of goals and TV programmes, while connectivity between hippocampus and the pre-supplementary motor area was associated with individuals whose goals were initially abstract but became more concrete over the course of the experiment. We conclude that self-generated cognition that arises during the mind-wandering state can allow goals to be refined, and this depends on neural systems anchored in the hippocampus.
AB - Human cognition is not limited to the available environmental input but can consider realities that are different to the here and now. We describe the cognitive states and neural processes linked to the refinement of descriptions of personal goals. When personal goals became concrete, participants reported greater thoughts about the self and the future during mind-wandering. This pattern was not observed for descriptions of TV programmes. Connectivity analysis of participants who underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed neural traits associated with this pattern. Strong hippocampal connectivity with ventromedial pre-frontal cortex was common to better-specified descriptions of goals and TV programmes, while connectivity between hippocampus and the pre-supplementary motor area was associated with individuals whose goals were initially abstract but became more concrete over the course of the experiment. We conclude that self-generated cognition that arises during the mind-wandering state can allow goals to be refined, and this depends on neural systems anchored in the hippocampus.
KW - Future thought
KW - Goals
KW - Hippocampus
KW - Mind-wandering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84979255150&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84979255150&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00221-016-4729-y
DO - 10.1007/s00221-016-4729-y
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84979255150
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - Experimental Brain Research
JF - Experimental Brain Research
SN - 0014-4819
ER -