Investigating Conflicts in Mind Wandering and Neural Oscillation Studies

Abstract

When presented with a repetitive or an undemanding task, our mind tends to disengage from the external environment to focus on the inner trains of thought. This phenomenon, commonly known as "zoning out" is termed as Mind Wandering. Across various literature', this effect has been mainly studied under two states: while performing a low-demand task, or under a meditative state. Neural oscillations such as alpha, beta, delta and theta waves were studied to observe varying effects of mind wandering and to distinguish how and when a human mind goes into this state. It was hypothesized that one wave would prove to be a distinguishable factor in identifying the mind wandering state. Surprisingly, the literature did not meet at one solid convergence.