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Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering

Mind wandering (MW) refers to a state when attention shifts from the task at hand or current situation toward thoughts, feelings, and imaginations. This state is often accompanied by a decline in mood, and patients suffering from major depression exhibit more perseverative MW. Hence, although the di...

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Autores principales: Chaieb, Leila, Krakau, Sofie, Reber, Thomas P., Fell, Juergen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9234443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35769725
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815442
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author Chaieb, Leila
Krakau, Sofie
Reber, Thomas P.
Fell, Juergen
author_facet Chaieb, Leila
Krakau, Sofie
Reber, Thomas P.
Fell, Juergen
author_sort Chaieb, Leila
collection PubMed
description Mind wandering (MW) refers to a state when attention shifts from the task at hand or current situation toward thoughts, feelings, and imaginations. This state is often accompanied by a decline in mood, and patients suffering from major depression exhibit more perseverative MW. Hence, although the directionality of the relationship between mood and MW is still under investigation, it may be useful to explore possible avenues to reduce MW. In an earlier pilot study, we investigated MW during auditory beat stimulation in healthy subjects using thought-probes during a sustained attention to response task (SART). We found evidence for reduced MW during monaural 5 Hz beats compared to silence, sine tones, and binaural 5 Hz beats. Moreover, the data tentatively suggested that this reduction was particularly pronounced in subjects with high levels of MW during silence. In the current study, we therefore asked whether MW can be reduced by monaural theta beats in subjects with high trait-levels of MW, as indicated by an online MW questionnaire. Preselected subjects performed a SART task with thought-probes assessing the propensity to mind wander, meta-awareness, and the temporal orientation of MW. Stimulation conditions comprised monaural theta beats, as well as silence (headphones on), and sine tones as control conditions. Our main hypothesis stating that the propensity to mind wander during monaural theta beats is reduced compared to both control conditions was only partly confirmed. Indeed, MW was significantly diminished during exposure to the theta beats compared to sine tones. However, reduced MW during theta beats versus silence was only observed in a subgroup using stricter inclusion criteria. Considering possible reasons for this outcome, our data suggest that the preselection procedure was suboptimal and that beat effects are modulated by the individual responses to auditory stimulation in general.
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spelling pubmed-92344432022-06-28 Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering Chaieb, Leila Krakau, Sofie Reber, Thomas P. Fell, Juergen Front Psychol Psychology Mind wandering (MW) refers to a state when attention shifts from the task at hand or current situation toward thoughts, feelings, and imaginations. This state is often accompanied by a decline in mood, and patients suffering from major depression exhibit more perseverative MW. Hence, although the directionality of the relationship between mood and MW is still under investigation, it may be useful to explore possible avenues to reduce MW. In an earlier pilot study, we investigated MW during auditory beat stimulation in healthy subjects using thought-probes during a sustained attention to response task (SART). We found evidence for reduced MW during monaural 5 Hz beats compared to silence, sine tones, and binaural 5 Hz beats. Moreover, the data tentatively suggested that this reduction was particularly pronounced in subjects with high levels of MW during silence. In the current study, we therefore asked whether MW can be reduced by monaural theta beats in subjects with high trait-levels of MW, as indicated by an online MW questionnaire. Preselected subjects performed a SART task with thought-probes assessing the propensity to mind wander, meta-awareness, and the temporal orientation of MW. Stimulation conditions comprised monaural theta beats, as well as silence (headphones on), and sine tones as control conditions. Our main hypothesis stating that the propensity to mind wander during monaural theta beats is reduced compared to both control conditions was only partly confirmed. Indeed, MW was significantly diminished during exposure to the theta beats compared to sine tones. However, reduced MW during theta beats versus silence was only observed in a subgroup using stricter inclusion criteria. Considering possible reasons for this outcome, our data suggest that the preselection procedure was suboptimal and that beat effects are modulated by the individual responses to auditory stimulation in general. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9234443/ /pubmed/35769725 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815442 Text en Copyright © 2022 Chaieb, Krakau, Reber and Fell. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Chaieb, Leila
Krakau, Sofie
Reber, Thomas P.
Fell, Juergen
Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering
title Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering
title_full Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering
title_fullStr Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering
title_full_unstemmed Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering
title_short Modulation of Mind Wandering Using Monaural Beat Stimulation in Subjects With High Trait-Level Mind Wandering
title_sort modulation of mind wandering using monaural beat stimulation in subjects with high trait-level mind wandering
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9234443/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35769725
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815442
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