Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Antonella Pratto | Email: prattoanto@gmail.com
Antonella Pratto1°, Nicolás Bruno1°2°3°, Nicolás Rozenberg1°, Jeremías Inchauspe4°, Tomás D’Amelio1°2°, Juan Ignacio Piccinini1°2°, Federico Cavanna1°2°, Carla Pallavicini1°2°, Jacobo Sitt3°, Enzo Tagliazucchi1°2°4°
1° COCUCO Lab, Instituto de Fisica Interdisciplinaria y Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires
2° Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
3° Paris Brain Institute – Institut du Cervau (ICM)
4° Centro de Neurociencias Cognitivas, Universidad de San Andrés
Mind-wandering is characterized by the mind’s tendency to shift from a primary task to unrelated thoughts, often accompanied by perceptual decoupling, where attention detaches from external stimuli to focus inward. This phenomenon affects cognitive performance, altering reaction times, task accuracy, and event-related potentials (ERP). In contrast, immersion reflects the depth of engagement in a task or thought. It remains unclear whether episodes of mind-wandering with low immersion exhibit similar patterns of perceptual decoupling as those with high immersion. Such insights could clarify whether mind-wandering and task-focused states represent different cognitive states or share a common attentional dimension. This study investigates the impact of mind-wandering and immersion on perceptual decoupling during a sustained attention to response task. Our initial analysis of the reaction time coefficient of variability (RTCV) indicated higher rates for high immersion than for low immersion mind-wandering episodes, supporting the dimensionality theory. However, no significant differences were observed in omission and commission errors across immersion levels. To further test this hypothesis, we propose to explore the influence of immersion on the P1 and P3 ERP components, anticipating reduced ERP amplitude under higher immersion conditions.