ArticleiScience2025
Mapping content and dynamics in the stream of consciousness through latent brain state analysis.
Article in iScience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spontaneous Goal-Related Cognition Predicts Well-Being and Real-World Goal Attainment Across Adulthood in a Think-Aloud Study.Research square · 2026Article
- An fMRI dataset of verbalized spontaneous thought with annotated transcripts and self-report trait measures.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Distinct patterns of default mode network functional connectivity between adolescents with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
Human thoughts often arise unprompted, forming a stream of consciousness. Despite their ubiquity, it remains unknown how the brain supports unprompted thoughts as an integrated experience with rich content and dynamics. Applying latent state modeling to fMRI data collected while individuals spoke aloud their thoughts, we identified recurring brain states linked to moment-to-moment thought content. A brain state with activation in core default mode network (DMN) regions tracked early emergence of internally oriented thought, while a state involving executive control and dorsal attention networks (DANs) tracked externally oriented thought. Another state involving the medial temporal lobe and DAN engaged later during internal thought verbalization, suggesting roles in elaboration. The latter state was also associated with a large-language-model derived surprisal metric,
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