ArticleNature communications2021
Predicting lapses of attention with sleep-like slow waves.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
75 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Caffeinated Brain Part 3: The Effect of Caffeine on Electroencephalography (EEG) During Wakefulness-A Systematic and Mechanistic Review.Nutrients · 2026Pooled it
- The Relative Accuracy of Different Methods for Measuring Mind Wandering Subtypes: A Systematic Review.Brain and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Pharmacological Manipulations of Physiological Arousal and Sleep-Like Slow Waves Modulate Sustained Attention.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Trial
- Lapses of attention.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Review
- Not all benefits are equal: Incentives to seek reward and avoid penalty improve sustained attention in continuous performance tasks.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2026Article
- Spatially structured heterogeneity shapes large-scale cortical dynamics in a model of the human cortex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Predictability of sleep slow oscillation emergence and spatial extent from pre-onset neural dynamics.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sleep-like slow waves during resting-state: A promising EEG biomarker of amyloid and neurodegeneration in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- A hypothalamic-brainstem activity sequence underlies arousal fluctuations during daytime drowsiness.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Post-Learning Offline Pauses Support Consolidation Beyond the Mind-Wandering State.Clocks & sleep · 2026Article
- Sleep-Like Slow Waves during Wakefulness Mediate Attention and Vigilance Difficulties in Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Forgetting or blanking? Evaluating the role of a forgot option in a thought sampling method for mind blanking research.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Immersive NREM2 dreaming preserves subjective sleep depth against declining sleep pressure.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Temporal signatures of thought-neurodynamics distinguish on- and off-task thoughts.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Research on the influence of MW on situation awareness in shearer monitoring tasks in intelligent coal mines.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Vigilance state dissociation induced by 5-MeO-DMT in mice.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Mechanisms through which sleep influences intrusive memories: protocol for a trauma film paradigm study.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- Exploring the differences in neural oscillation mechanisms before and after sleep deprivation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Brain network dynamics in the wake-sleep transition reorganize according to task engagement.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Brain-wide properties of slow waves across vigilance states.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Attentional lapses occur commonly and are associated with mind wandering, where focus is turned to thoughts unrelated to ongoing tasks and environmental demands, or mind blanking, where the stream of consciousness itself comes to a halt. To understand the neural mechanisms underlying attentional lapses, we studied the behaviour, subjective experience and neural activity of healthy participants performing a task. Random interruptions prompted participants to indicate their mental states as task-focused, mind-wandering or mind-blanking. Using high-density electroencephalography, we report here that spatially and temporally localized slow waves, a pattern of neural activity characteristic of the transition toward sleep, accompany behavioural markers of lapses and preceded reports of mind wandering and mind blanking. The location of slow waves could distinguish between sluggish and impulsive behaviours, and between mind wandering and mind blanking. Our results suggest attentional lapses share a common physiological origin: the emergence of local sleep-like activity within the awake brain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.