Transcranial direct current stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex dampens mind-wandering in men.

摘要: Mind-wandering, the mind’s capacity to stray from external events and generate task-unrelated thought, has been associated with activity in brain default network. To date, little is understood about contribution of individual nodes this network mind-wandering. Here, we investigated role medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) mind-wandering, by perturbing region transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Young healthy participants performed a choice reaction time task both before after receiving cathodal tDCS over mPFC, had their thoughts periodically sampled. We found that mPFC - but not occipital or sham decreased propensity mind-wander. The tDCS-induced reduction mind-wandering occurred men, women, was accompanied change content though, which became more related other people (as opposed self) following tDCS. These findings indicate crucial for possibly helping construction self-relevant scenarios capable divert attention inward, away perceptual reality. Gender-related differences changes suggest controls differently men may depend on structural functional organization distributed networks governing including mPFC.