Dimensions of content underlying stimulus-independent thought and relationships with resting-state connectivity.

J.R. Andrews-Hanna1, A. Reineberg1, A.E.J. Turner1, D. Godinez1, D. Howett1 & M.T. Banich1,2 1University of Colorado Boulder; 2University of Colorado Denver
INTRODUCTION
Though humans spend a remarkable amount of time engaged in thoughts unrelated to what they are currently doing (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Klinger & Cox, 1987), the dimensions of content characterizing such self-generated thoughts have been relatively unexplored. The brains default network is thought to play a key role in selfgenerated thought (Buckner et al., 2008). Distinct default network components may support mentalizing, self-referential, and mnemonic simulation dimensions of selfgenerated thought (Andrews-Hanna, 2012).
dMPFC subsystem mentalizing aMPFC-PCC hubs Personal Significance
Distant Future Earlier/later today
1.0 .9 .8 14 7 12 6

NORMATIVE ESTIMATES OF THOUGHT CONTENT

1 Day Min/hrs

TEMPORAL NATURE OF THOUGHTS

Strongly Positive

Strongly Agree

Strongly Agree

9 8 7 6 5

9 8 7 6 5 4

9 8 7 6 5 4

Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree

Perfectly clear

DURATION

10

PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE

10

VALENCE

10

SOCIAL

IMAGERY/SPECIFICITY
10 9 8 7 6

Percentage of Thoughts

.7 .6

10

Days

MEAN

Present

8 4 6

.5 .4 .3 .2 .1 .0

1 Month

5 4 3 2 1 0

>3 years ago/ahead

Strongly Disagree

3 2 1 0

3 2 1 0

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Negative

3 2 2 1 0

Distant past

Months

STUDY OBJECTIVES: 1) Obtain normative estimates of the dimensions characterizing self-generated thought. 2) Examine whether individual differences in thought content is reflected in the brains resting state functional-anatomic architecture.

Years

Past

Future

Present/ Non-temporal

Time (chronological)

None

Temporal Distance

Duration of Topic/Event

Freq Emotional Self Central Value Goal of Intensity Orient- Rel- to Selfoccurence ation evancy identity

Valence

Prosocial Orientation

Imagery/ Vividness

Detail/ Specificity

Certainty

MTL subsystem Constructive episodic simulation

Modified from Yeo et al., 2011

MULTI-LEVEL HIERARCHICAL CLUSTERING OF THOUGHTS

Cluster Dendrogram

RELATIONSHIPS WITH RESTING-STATE CONNECTIVITY

Time Personal Significance Valence

2.5

PARADIGM
Autobiographical Thought Sampling Paradigm: 77 healthy adults (21.6 yr; 18-35 yr; 50.7% Male); No self-reported current or past diagnosis of a mental health disorder. Participants generated 36 thoughts that had entered their mind over the past few weeks and created a 3 word cue for each thought. Each thought was rated on several variables characterizing the content of the thought.
RATINGS Specificity Time (past future) Duration (min years) Self-Relevancy Importance/Value Centrality Goal-Oriented Frequency Valence (neg pos) Intensity Imagery Certainty Prosocial Orientation HIGHER RATINGS CORRESPOND TO Highly detailed and specific event Far-future oriented Reversed so that higher = topic/event characterizing thought is shorter Highly self-relevant Highly important Highly central to ones self-identity Highly goal-oriented Frequently occurring thought Highly positive Highly intense High imagery/valence Highly certain for the event pertaining to thought to occur Highly socially-oriented MY COLLEGE GPA 1 n/a Many years 10 10 10 10 10 3 8 1 n/a 0 FRIENDS BIRTHDAY PRESENT
Height

2.5

2.0

2.0

Height

1.5

1.5

z = -14

1.0

1.0

R x = -14

z=6 R z = -16

11

13

10

14

Next 30 days 1 day 10 10 2 10 10 9 9 8 10 10

Dist Relev Central Freq Intensity Value Time Valence Dur Personal Significance Time Valence Short/ dist(dataTime) Immediate
hclust (*, "complete")

Spec Certain Imagery

At least 4 main dimensions of content were classified: personal significance, positive & futureoriented, short & immediate, and prosocial & imageable. Thoughts pertaining to a particular goal were rated as more personally-significant and future oriented. Future-oriented thoughts were rated as more positive, less imageable, and less certain than pastoriented thoughts. Thoughts pertaining to the immediate past or future tend to pertain to shorter duration events/ topics. Prosocial thoughts are rated as more specific and imageable

12

10

0.5

0.5

Short/Immediate

SEEDS: Default Network Hubs

Prosocial

Goal

Social Imag Prosocial

R R

z = 36

x = -24

Imagery

z = -6 z = 30 x=4

p < 0.005, k > 10

CONCLUSIONS
Hierarchical clustering analyses across specific thought content variables revealed at least four distinct dimensions of content: 1) personal significance, 2) temporal/valence, 3) immediacy/specificity, and 4) prosocial imagery. On average, participants reported SGTs that were highly personally significant, future oriented, positively valenced, somewhat socially-oriented, and moderately specific and imageable. Importantly, individual differences in thought content predicted resting state functional connectivity within and between the default network and other large-scale brain networks. For example, individuals who rated their thoughts as more personally-significant exhibited greater rs-fcMRI between the hubs of the default network and the aMPFC/vMPFC, a region important for self-related processing. In contrast, individuals who exhibited more prosocial thought exhibited greater rs-fcMRI between the hubs and the dMPFC, a region implicated in mentalizing. In contrast, a greater propensity towards more immediate, specific, and vivid thoughts was associated with greater coupling between the hubs and parietal aspects of the medial temporal lobe subsystem and the dorsal attention network. These results implicate self-generated thought as an active internal mode of cognition comprised of multiple content dimensions that relate to patterns of rs-fcMRI.

Individual differences in thought content relate to resting state functional connectivity between the default network hubs and other regions within and outside of the default network.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) 50 of 77 participants resting state run within 1 year of thought sampling paradigm TR = 2.0s, TE = 30ms, whole-brain coverage, 6 min (awake, eyes closed) Standard + rs-fcMRI-specific preprocessing (FSL, SPM8, Conn; Whitfield-Gabrieli & NietoCastanon, 2012); temporal filtering (0.008Hz 0.09Hz); spatial smoothing; regression of signals in ventricles and the top 5 components of white matter; scrubbing (Power et al., 2012) A priori default network seeds (bilateral aMPFC and PCC Hubs) defined from AndrewsHanna et al., 2010

REFERENCES
1. Andrews-Hanna JR (2012) The brains default network and its adaptive role in internal mentation. The Neuroscientist. 18:251-270. 2. Andrews-Hanna JR, Reidler JS, Sepulcre J, Poulin R, Buckner RL (2010) Functional-anatomic fractionation of the brain's default network. Neuron 65:550-562. 3. Buckner RL, Andrews-Hanna JR, Schacter DL (2008) The brain's default network: anatomy, function, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1124:1-38. 4. Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT (2010) A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science 330:932. 5. Klinger E, Cox W (1987) Dimensions of thought flow in everyday life. Imagination, Cognition & Personality 7:105-128. 6. Power JD, Barnes K a, Snyder AZ, Schlaggar BL, Petersen SE (2012) Spurious but systematic correlations in functional connectivity MRI networks arise from subject motion. NeuroImage 59:2142-2154. 7. Yeo BTT, Krienen FM, Sepulcre J, Sabuncu MR, Lashkari D, Hollinshead M, Roffman JL, Smoller JW, Zollei L, Polimeni JR, Fischl B, Liu H, Buckner RL (2011) The Organization of the Human Cerebral Cortex Estimated By Functional Connectivity. Journal of neurophysiology 106:1125-1165. 8. Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Nieto-Castanon A. Conn: a functional connectivity toolbox for correlated and anticorrelated brain networks. Brain Connectivity 12: 125-141.

This work was supported by an NIMH-funded Interdisciplinary Behavioral Science Center grant (P50 MH079485) and a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32AG035525-01). Contact: Jessica.Andrews-Hanna@colorado.edu