ArticlePloS one2019
Aging and the wandering brain: Age-related differences in the neural correlates of stimulus-independent thoughts.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Relative Accuracy of Different Methods for Measuring Mind Wandering Subtypes: A Systematic Review.Brain and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Higher VOScientific reports · 2021Trial
- Are the correlates of mind wandering consistent across younger and older adults?Psychological research · 2026Article
- Cortical representation of motion sequence processing in younger and older adults: an fMRI study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A novel scoring protocol reveals age-related differences in abstract compared to concrete thinking in cued autobiographical remembering.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Linking the neural signature of response time variability to Alzheimer's disease pathology and cognitive functioning.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Whole-Brain Deactivations Precede Uninduced Mind-Blanking Reports.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Predicting response time variability from task and resting-state functional connectivity in the aging brain.NeuroImage · 2022Article
- The impact of social isolation and changes in work patterns on ongoing thought during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Neuromodulation of the mind-wandering brain state: the interaction between neuromodulatory tone, sharp wave-ripples and spontaneous thought.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Alterations in resting-state network dynamics along the Alzheimer's disease continuum.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Changes in electrophysiological static and dynamic human brain functional architecture from childhood to late adulthood.Scientific reports · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In recent years, several studies have indicated that healthy older adults exhibit a reduction in task-unrelated thoughts compared to young adults. However, much less is known regarding age-related differences in time spent engaging in stimulus-independent thoughts or in their neural correlates in the absence of an ongoing task. In the current study, we collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while 29 young (mean age = 22y) and 22 older (mean age = 70y) adults underwent experience sampling in the absence of an ongoing task (i.e., at "rest"). Although both age groups reported spending a similar amount of time engaged in stimulus-independent thoughts, older adults rated their thoughts as more present-oriented (rather than atemporal) and more novel. Moreover, controlling for these age-related differences in content, we found that experiencing stimulus-independent thoughts was associated with increased posterior cingulate and left angular gyrus activation across age groups compared to exhibiting an external focus of attention. When experiencing stimulus-independent thoughts, younger adults engaged medial and left lateral prefrontal cortex as well as left superior temporal gyrus to a greater degree than older adults. Taken together, our results suggest that, in the absence of an ongoing task, although young and older adults spend a similar amount of time engaging in stimulus-independent thoughts, the content and neural correlates of these thoughts differ with age.
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Registered trials
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