Thought Control Ability Moderates the Effect of Mind Wandering on Positive Affect via the Frontoparietal Control Network

Abstract

Mind wandering is a phenomenon that involves thoughts shifting away from a primary task to the process of dealing with other personal goals. A large number of studies have found that mind wandering can predict negative emotions, but researchers have seldom focused on the positive role of mind wandering. The current study aimed to explore the relationships among mind wandering, emotions and thought control ability, which is the ability to inhibit one's own unpleasant or unwanted intrusive thoughts. Here, we collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data from 368 participants who completed a set of questionnaires involving mind wandering, thought control ability and positive or negative emotions. The results revealed that (1) rsfMRI connectivity features related to thought control ability and mind wandering could divide individuals into two groups: HMW (high mind-wandering) group and LMW (low mind-wandering) group. The HMW group scored lower in thought control ability (TCA), higher in negative emotion (NE) and lower in positive emotion (PE) than the LMW group. (2) TCA moderated the association between MW and positive affect (PA). (3) Two groups exhibited different segregation within key nodes (SWKN) of the frontoparietal control network (FPCN), and the subsequent analysis showed that the SWKN of the FPCN was negatively correlated with PA. These findings indicate that TCA moderates the effect of mind wandering on affect via the FPCN, which may have important implications for our understanding of the positive role of mind wandering.

Keywords: frontoparietal control network; mind wandering; moderating effect; positive affect; thought control ability.

FIGURE 1

Comparison of behavior differences between two groups. (A) The different groups of participants divided with 0.001 significance threshold CF of each component (as indexed by the CFA solution) that were considered higher vs. lower in MW. (B) Scatterplot for two clusters of participants along dimensions of mind wandering- and thought control ability-related functional connectivity. MW = mind wandering, TCA = thought control ability, PE = positive emotion, NE = negative emotion, CF = connectivity feature, HMW = high mind-wandering, LMW = low mind-wandering, PC = principle component. ^∗∗∗p ≤ 0.001.

FIGURE 2

The different connectivity patterns between the two groups. (A) 95 × 95 t-test matrix of the two groups with positive functional connectivity under the 0.001 threshold (FDR corrected). Each colored square represents the significant t value of one functional connectivity between two groups. The X-axis and Y-axis represents 95 nodes, respectively, warm colors in the matrix represent increased functional connectivity and cool colors decreased functional connectivity in HMW group as compared to LMW group. (B,C) Chordal graphs of the connectivity in specific edges of the six networks of interest. The community membership of nodes and the loadings of functional connectivity was indicated by inner arcs and thickness of the chords, respectively. Network affiliation abbreviations: HMW = high mind wandering, LMW = low mind wandering, Auditory = Auditory network, Cerebellar = cerebellar network, COTC = cingulo-opercular task control network, DAN = dorsal attention network, DMN = default mode network, FPCN = frontoparietal control network, MR = memory retrieval network, SN = salience network, SH = somatomotor hand network, SM = somatomotor mouth network, VAN = ventral attention network. Subcortical = subcortical network, Uncertain = uncertain network, and Visual = visual network.

FIGURE 3

TCA moderates the effect of MW on PA (one dimension of the PANAS). (A) The moderating effect in all subjects. (B) There did not exist moderating effect in the HMW group. (C) The moderating effect in the LMW group. TCA = thought control ability, MW = mind wandering, PA = positive affect, PANAS = Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, HMW = high mind-wandering, LMW = low mind-wandering.

FIGURE 4

The relationship between SWKN of the FPCN and PA (subscale of the PANAS). SWKN = segregation within key nodes, FPCN = frontoparietal control network, PA = positive affect, PANAS = Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale.