ATTENTION AND MIND WANDERING ARE NOT BINARY: EXPLORING THE EEG MARKERS OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE BETWEEN ATTENTION AND MIND WANDERING

Attention and mind-wandering are not binary opposites but a continuum. This study characterizes an intermediate state– ­­­­attention with mind wandering (ATTMW) where task engagement and mind-wandering co-occur. Describing this state is essential for resolving discrepancies in mind wandering literature and understanding how thought coexists with attention. Sustained attention to response task (SART) with simultaneous EEG recordings (64 HD channels) was used to collect subjective reports of attention, mind-wandering and ATTMW states. This task combines both self and probe-caught methods of Experience sampling. The number of subjective reports from healthy participants (n=20, aged:18-35years) were- Attention(n=266), ATTMW (n=178) and Mind-wandering (MW; n=22). To account for subject level variability, Linear mixed model (LMM) is employed for oscillatory and aperiodic features (intercept, Slope) and ACW (auto-correlation window) for 15s epoch (sampling every 2s with 75% overlap window) prior to the subjective reports. EEG during subjective report of Mind wandering showed prolonged and highly variable ACW, low intercept and flatter slope, indicating extended information integration, reduced inhibition, low neuronal arousal, and variable high-frequency oscillatory activity. Attention reports showed shortest and stable ACW, moderate intercept, slope and beta power reflecting balanced and controlled neural processing for sustained task engagement. The attention with mind-wandering state exhibits moderate but highly variable ACW, steepest slope, highest intercept and delta power indicating high inhibition. Together these finding suggests that intermediate state is an implicit transition state that is flexible, subjectively effortless observed in healthy population that balances external attention with internal thoughts during low demand tasks.

EEG features/cognitive states	Attention (ATT) (Estimated Marginal Mean)	Attention with Mind-wandering (ATTMW) (Estimated Marginal Mean)	Mind wandering(MW) (Estimated Marginal Mean)	ATT vs ATTMW (estimate; p-value)	ATT vs MW (estimate; p-value)	ATTMW vs MW (estimate; p-value)
ACW	0.0170	0.0206	0.0211	-0.00360; <.0001	-0.00404; <.0001	-0.00044; 0.0011
IRASA_intercept	2.38	2.50	2.18	-0.119; <.0001	0.208; <.0001	0.327; <.0001
IRASA_slope	-1.36	-1.40	-1.30	0.0394; <.0001	-0.0640; <.0001	-0.1034; <.0001
IRASA_Delta (0.5-4Hz)	0.220	0.233	0.219	-0.013770; <.0001	0.000444; 0.8947	0.014213; <.0001
IRASA_theta (4-8Hz)	0.173	0.169	0.172	0.00402; <.0001	0.00143; 0.2467	-0.00259; 0.0117
IRASA_ ThetaAlpha (6-10 Hz)	0.186	0.180	0.170	0.00597; <.0001	0.01612; <.0001	0.01015; <.0001
IRASA_ Alpha (8-13Hz)	0.259	0.258	0.240	0.00123; 0.0395	0.01906; <.0001	0.01782; <.0001
IRASA_ Beta1 (13-20Hz)	0.120	0.123	0.116	-0.00316; <.0001	0.00376; <.0001	0.00692; <.0001
IRASA_ Beta2 (20-30Hz)	0.174	0.166	0.189	0.00838; <.0001	-0.01492; <.0001	-0.02331; <.0001