Mind blanking is a distinct mental state linked to a recurrent brain profile of globally positive connectivity during ongoing mentation

Abstract

Mind blanking (MB) is a waking state during which we do not report any mental con-tent. The phenomenology of MB challenges the view of a constantly thinking mind.Here, we comprehensively characterize the MB’s neurobehavioral profile with the aimto delineate its role during ongoing mentation. Using functional MRI experience sam-pling, we show that the reportability of MB is less frequent, faster, and with lower tran-sitional dynamics than other mental states, pointing to its role as a transient mentalrelay. Regarding its neural underpinnings, we observed higher global signal amplitudeduring MB reports, indicating a distinct physiological state. Using the time-varyingfunctional connectome, we show that MB reports can be classified with high accuracy,suggesting that MB has a unique neural composition. Indeed, a pattern of globalpositive-phase coherence shows the highest similarity to the connectivity patterns asso-ciated with MB reports. We interpret this pattern’s rigid signal architecture as hinder-ing content reportability due to the brain’s inability to differentiate signals in aninformative way. Collectively, we show that MB has a unique neurobehavioral profile,indicating that nonreportable mental events can happen during wakefulness. Ourresults add to the characterization of spontaneous mentation and pave the way for moremechanistic investigations of MB’s phenomenology.