Citation

Smallwood J, Brown KS, Baird B, Mrazek MD, Franklin MS, Schooler JW. PLoS One 2012; 7(4): e33706.

Affiliation

Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0033706

PMID

22493672

PMCID

PMC3320890

Abstract

Although consciousness can be brought to bear on both perceptual and internally generated information, little is known about how these different cognitive modes are coordinated. Here we show that between-participant variance in thoughts unrelated to the task being performed (known as task unrelated thought, TUT) is associated with longer response times (RT) when target presentation occurs during periods when baseline Pupil Diameter (PD) is increased. As behavioral interference due to high baseline PD can reflect increased tonic activity in the norepinephrine system (NE), these results might implicate high tonic NE activity in the facilitation of TUTs. Based on these findings, it is hypothesised that high tonic mode NE leads to a generalised de-amplification of task relevant information that prioritses internally generated thought and insulates it from the potentially disruptive events taking place in the external environment.

Language: en