Josephine Groot

Avhandlingen

The doctoral thesis

Disputasen vil bli strømmet

Opptak av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn.

The defense will be streamed

A recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.

Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne holdes kl. 10.15, Auditorium Cortex

“In non-communicative contexts (e.g. infants, disorders of consciousness, nonhuman animals), can neural mechanisms of mind wandering be studied or understood?”

Prøveforelesningen vil også bli strømmet/the trail lecture will also be streamed

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen

We find ourselves frequently lost in thought, letting our minds wander amidst the constant demands and challenges of our daily lives. This thesis is dedicated to deepening our understanding of how the brain orchestrates thinking that is not tied to the present moment. To reliably detect mind wandering, we combined measures of brain functioning with subjective reports and behavior. The results emphasize the importance of the communication between separate brain networks. These networks exchange information at specific sites in the cortex and subcortex, which may explain how spontaneous thoughts are generated and regulated. Mind wandering leads to mistakes on tasks, which is reflected in different patterns of brain activity than subjective reports, possibly revealing the presence of distinct internal experiences. Together, these findings indicate that not one isolated system, but the complex interactions between them, are important for explaining the neural mechanisms of mind wandering.

Hovedveileder

Professor Matthias Mittner, Institutt for psykologi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet

Bedømmelseskomité

Professor Robert Leech, Kings College in London, England ​– 1. Opponent

Assistant professor Aaron Kucyi, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA - 2. Opponent

Professor Tove Dahl, Institutt for psykologi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité

Disputasleder: Professor Elke Snoeren, Institutt for psykologi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet